"Now we've gotten used to it. Maybe we've got squatters' rights. Maybe we've got something we are so used to, and you try to take anything away that has existed that long, it's like taking candy right out of a baby's mouth and they like it. So every time we have this decision, we say, 'Why? Give us a good reason — not just because, not just because you like it or because you've gotten used to it, and not because some other group is saying, take it away.' "

Noel said he wants to ensure that credit unions are not weakened to the point that "we don't have a very good, healthy, ongoing competition in the bank and financial institutions."

Rep. Scott Daniels, D-Salt Lake, said he supports the part of the resolution regarding tax policy. He said he has yet to get some justification why federally chartered credit unions, big or small, should not be taxed.

"I'm not too big on the idea of telling the federal government how they ought to regulate federally chartered institutions, but the idea that they tell us that their federally chartered institutions can't be taxed like every other business in the state, I think is a real problem," Daniels said.

"I just think we should be able to decide that, that it's only fair to every taxpayer that they pay the same taxes that everybody else does."

No one from the public spoke during Tuesday's meeting. Afterward, Scott Simpson, president of the Utah League of Credit Unions, said that would have been "a wasted effort." He said the task force composition and process "has pointed to this direction from the very beginning" when the group was appointed in 2003.

"We're vehemently opposed to this resolution," he said. "I think the process we went through to arrive at this resolution is flawed. I think we've had maybe eight meetings in two years, and credit unions have never been asked to testify before this task force. Neither have banks, for that matter. And suddenly we're prepared to go to Washington and tell them how they should approach this issue."

Simpson said he is unsure what will happen when the matter goes to the full Legislature, but he said it is "unfortunate" that lawmakers will continue to discuss it despite having "a lot of things to talk about in this state that are of substance."

"It's going to be tough — flat-out tough," he said of the upcoming general session. "The bankers are after a tool to try to export the problems they've created here nationally, and credit unions in this state are not about to allow that to happen. There is no crisis here. There's nothing here that demands this kind of attention from our government, and yet they're trying to make it so."

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