State superintendent of public education Patti Harrington choked with tears when she said she's afraid Utah's public education system is falling behind — 144,000 news students coming into the system over the next decade. And with the high number of retiring teachers, "Utah can't keep up" in paying for new teachers. Income tax money should go there, she said.

Asked in the Democratic House caucus to defend her "yea" vote for the tax cuts in a Tuesday morning interim committee that approved of the "dual track" system, Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, said: "It doesn't harm anyone and (at least a $48 tax cut) helps everyone a little bit."

A retired teacher, Moss said it's clear the $70 million taken off the table during the 2006 Legislature for tax cuts will not "go back to eduction now."

Since the only alternative is a tax cut — and since at least $30 million is going to spread the brackets in the current system — she figured she would vote for it and hope for more true tax reform later.

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