Kicker: Typo or thought-o

NICK EICHER, HOST: Alright, you know we sometimes make copy errors—typos. But our editor in chief distinguishes typos from thought-os. This story is about a thought-o.

A county tax assessor’s office in Utah overvalued a single home and the error is going to be laid at the feet of the taxpayer.

Here’s what happened: A home worth about $300,000 was mistakenly valued at almost $1 billion, and local officials were elated by the supposed tax-revenue windfall.

So officials spent it—as they do—and guess what, it blew a $6 million hole in the local budget.

All because of a typo that changed a $300,000 home into a $1 billion home. The assessor explained that a member of the staff may have dropped a phone on the keyboard, and that’s what happened.

I have a question: How does that slip through the cracks? The most expensive real estate deal in the entire state was a sprawling ranch outside Park City that went for $32.5 million last month. 

That’s a far cry from a billion!

So again, typo or thought-o? To cover the shortfall, local officials plan to, you guessed it, raise property taxes over the next three years.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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