Drafting a new tax structure for Utah in time for the 2006 Legislature is "perfectly doable," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday, even though the state's task force on tax reform has yet to start work.

The task force has set a date for its first meeting — May 9. And the remaining members are expected to be named today, including Huntsman's chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, and Pam Hendrickson, chairwoman of the Utah State Tax Commission.

"I think the task force work will pick up in earnest very, very quickly, and I do believe that by November we're going to have something to show the citizens of this state," the governor said during his monthly televised news conference on KUED Channel 7.

Earlier this week, the co-chairman of the task force, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said the panel was getting a late start and might not be finished with the overhaul of the state's tax system soon enough to be considered by lawmakers next year.

On Thursday, Bramble announced that the task force was ready to meet and consider a long agenda that includes adopting guidelines such as "nothing is off the table" and the possibility of identifying services that government should stop providing.

"The challenge with this whole thing is we're not trying to just tinker," Bramble said. "We're looking at fundamental changes to our tax structure. . . . That will require a lot of work, defining what tax reform should look like and then gaining support for the proposals."

He said at this point, it's "an aggressive timetable" to be able to present the task force's findings to the Legislature's interim committee on revenue and taxation in advance of the session. Interim committees are scheduled to hold their final meetings in November.

Huntsman said the final product "will resemble somewhat" the recommendations made by his predecessor, former Gov. Olene Walker. Walker unveiled her tax reform plan late last year, shortly before leaving office.

Walker's plan, prepared with a small group of advisers that did not include members of the Legislature, called for establishing a flat rate for individual income tax, eliminating corporate income taxes and extending the sales tax to consumer services, including health care.

Huntsman tried to push the phase-out of corporate income taxes through the 2005 Legislature, but lawmakers decided they wanted to wait until they could see the entire package of tax reform.

He has been less forthcoming about the other elements of Walker's sweeping proposals, which were published in an inch-thick volume. At Thursday's news conference, the governor said Walker's plan is "where I am leaning in terms of what I think is good tax policy."