Rusty Cannon, president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, argues that Utah’s law provides “sunlight” to the budgeting process. Cannon noted that while “decisions to increase taxes can be made, the law only requires that they be done in sunlight – that you essentially have to argue to voters and taxpayers why the increase in revenue is necessary”.
Truth in taxation enforces accountability and makes tax authorities think twice about tax increases. “You do this in a public setting, you let them know how much your liability increase will be on a package basis so everyone has this full disclosure. So there is no such thing as automatic inflation creeping in. There is no automatic increase. There is no automatic stroke of luck when real estate values rise. It keeps property taxes under control. However, if they want to raise them, they just have to do it in this public process, ”Cannon said.
Recently, Kansas and Nebraska passed laws based on Utah’s truth-in-taxation. Kansas law serves as the closest example of Utah law because of its strength. Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute, argues that the new Kansas law “closes the honesty gap in property taxes.”
“Local officials can no longer pretend to” hold the line “on property taxes while accepting large increases from valuation changes. Now they have to be honest about the whole tax hike, ”said Trabert.