Court Opinion

ID: 9619433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:27:48.740513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:40.697371
License: Public Domain

HALL, Chief Justice
(concurring and dissenting):
I join the Court in declaring the roll-back provisions of U.C.A., 1953, § 59-5-109 (Supp.1981) unconstitutional on their face. However, for the same reasons, I also view as unconstitutional on their face the provisions of U.C.A., 1953, § 59-5-4.5 (Supp. 1981), which reduce the value of taxable real property assessed by the counties by 20%.
Article XIII, sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Utah in unequivocal language require that all non-exempt tangible property, both real and personal, be assessed at a “uniform and equal rate,” and that it be assessed and taxed “according to its value in money.”
This Court has long heretofore interpreted the term “according to its value in money” as the full cash value of the property.1 Also, the term “full cash value” has been determined to be synonymous with the terms “actual cash value,” “market value,” “reasonable fair cash value” and “value in money.”2
It is thus to be seen that § 59-5-4.5 is unconstitutional on its face in that it directs the county assessor to assess and tax county-assessed property at 80% of its “reasonable fair cash value” rather than at 100% of its value. This is precisely the sort of inequality and lack of uniformity that violates the express provisions of article XIII, sections 2 and 3, supra.
The defendants recite the legislative history of the subject statute, which reflects that a disparity was found to exist in the valuation of county-assessed and state-assessed property. The disparity was apparently occasioned by the different valuation methods employed by the state and the counties. The counties generally utilized a comparable sales method that readily reflected the effect of inflation upon market value. However, the state continued to inflexibly follow its usual cost, income, stock and debt approaches to market value and failed to in any way compensate for the effects of inflation. This caused considerable consternation on the part of county assessors who were compelled to assess the property of their constituents at sharply increasing values while state assessments lagged far behind. It was to relieve this inequity in assessment that the Legislature enacted the subject statutes. However well-intentioned the legislative enactments were, they nevertheless do not meet constitutional muster.
Article XIII, section -3, supra, confers upon the Legislature the obligation and duty to “provide by law a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation” and to “prescribe by law such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of such property.” However, that authority must be read in light of the overriding concept espoused by the constitution, i.e., that all property be assessed at a “uniform and equal rate,” and that it be taxed “according to its value in money.” The case of United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. v. Haynes,3 relied upon by the defendants does not hold to the contrary. Rather, it is supportive of this basic proposition. This is to be seen in that no matter which method or yardstick the Legislature chooses to determine the valuation of property in money, the end result that must be achieved is just that, i.e., “according to its value in money.”
*199Viewed in light of what has just been said, the subject legislation causes state-assessed and county-assessed property to be assessed at unequal rates and at values other than actual market value. Furthermore, the legislation tends to compound rather than alleviate the problem of disparity in assessed valuation. This it does by leaving in place and thereby sanctioning the erroneous assessment practices of the state that fail to assess property according to its actual value. Rather than legislating so as to insure that the assessment practices of the state be revamped so as to bring them in conformity with constitutional mandate, the legislation directs the county assessor to also violate the constitution by assessing property at a rate 20% less than actual value.
I would reverse the decision of the trial court in its entirety.

. State v. Thomas, 16 Utah 86, 50 P. 615 (1897).

. Kennecott Copper Corp. v. Salt Lake County, 122 Utah 431, 250 P.2d 938 (1952).

.111 Utah 172, 176 P.2d 622 (1947).