How we pay for our water in Utah has long been the center of a heated debate.
It’s one of our most precious resources, but it’s not always treated that way.
“Every Utahn sees their neighbors watering in rainstorms, watering sidewalks, streets and gutters. We need to stop that practice,” said Zach Frankel with the Utah Rivers Council.
Frankel says the problem is the way water is paid for in our state.
A new study from the Utah Foundation is looking into all sides of the heated debate and comparing Utah’s structure to other states.
It finds while most providers in our state do not use property taxes, 90% of Utahns live in the jurisdiction of a provider that does.
“For every dollar that these agencies collect through property taxes is a dollar they don’t have to collect through water rates, so essentially the more they collect through property taxes, the lower they can push the rates,” said Christopher Collard with Utah Foundation.
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