Utah credit unions are spending more than $50,000 on TV and radio ads, organizing e-mail and letter campaigns all aimed at getting state legislators to defeat HJR1.

The controversial resolution has survived two procedural attempts to kill it and a preliminary debate that ended last week when pro-credit union lawmakers injected a major amendment into the bill, causing supporters to shelve it for now.

Then over the past weekend, TV airways were carrying a heavy dose of pro-credit union ads quoting President Bush and other congressional leaders in what anti-HJR1 backers say is a "hands off our credit unions" endorsement.

It's just deja vu all over again say supporters of efforts to tax large nonprofit credit unions. Similar advertising and letter-writing campaigns were organized by credit unions in 1999 and in 2003.

But the current efforts may be having an effect, several legislators said Monday.

"I got 24 personalized e-mails this morning," said Rep. Joe Murray, R-Ogden. "All were favoring the credit unions. I got a handwritten letter from a widow in my district last week. I pay attention to those."

Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Cottonwood Heights, said she too has gotten a large number of e-mails supporting the credit unions. "They are personalized; each telling a little story about why they like their credit union. Two years ago (the Utah League of Credit Unions) had form e-mails sent out — and we don't pay much attention to form letters."

Credit union league president and CEO Scott Simpson — a former executive director of the Utah Republican Party — said the public campaign is taking several forms; the TV and radio ads are the most visible.

On a Web site, credit union members can input their home addresses and up pops their House and Senate member with his or her legislative e-mail address. The credit union member is encouraged to send a "personal" e-mail about why their representative should vote against HJR1.

The resolution asks Congress to decide if big nonprofit credit unions should pay corporate income taxes on "profits" not returned to members.

Howard Headlee, president of the Utah Bankers Association, said Monday the credit unions ads are "public deception at its worst," and pointed to what he said was its biggest misrepresentation.

A resolution cannot raise taxes; it's only an opinion expressed by the Legislature, Headlee said.

"The credit union lobby machine has run out of facts and are demonizing the banks in order to scare credit union members into action. When people find out the truth, they are going to be very disappointed."

Simpson said HJR1, despite its author's claims to the contrary, is really an attempt by Harris Simmons, chairman of Utah's own Zions Bank and president this year of the American Bankers Association, to "have something to hold up" showing local support as he takes his national agenda to impose corporate income taxes on nonprofit credit unions to Congress.

The association has no plans to counter the credit union advertisements with ads of its own, according to bankers association spokeswoman Kristen Wilde.

Maybe the banks aren't running TV and radio ads, but they are spending three to four times what the credit unions are on lobbying and back-room consulting, credit union advocates say.

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