Walker faces uphill fight for any tax reform

Gov. Olene Walker is set to release today her ideas on how the Utah tax system should be changed to better meet the state's needs, especially funding public and higher education.

I don't know what she'll say.

But she has hinted at several things since she took office a month ago when former Gov. Mike Leavitt resigned to become the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

• Utah's property tax burden is not as high as the burden people pay in sales and income taxes.

• The property tax burden here is not as high as in many other states.

• The state shouldn't be subsidizing water development and county roads with the state sales tax revenue.

Walker has already said she won't recommend a general tax hike in the 2004 Legislature.

That's probably politically wise, since one wouldn't pass if she did suggest it.

Weeks ago, the Deseret Morning News reported that Walker was, however, considering recommending a public referendum on the 2004 general election ballot about raising some taxes to support public education.

She now may be backing away from that idea, worrying it could cause more harm than good.

After all, the 2004 Legislature would have to approve such a non-binding referendum. And even doing that could lead to conservatives grumbling, maybe not a good thing with all of the 75-member House and half of the 29-member Senate up for election next year.

Putting a tax-hike referendum on the ballot would, of course, lead to a tax-hike debate. And depending on how that went, conservative legislative candidates would likely have to take a public stand on raising taxes. And if most of the legislative winners were on record to NOT raise taxes for schools, then it would be nearly impossible for the 2005 Legislature to do that.

And so Walker and her public school supporters could be shooting themselves in their collective feet to have such a referendum — even if most voters at the polls actually did approve more tax dollars for public education.

In any case, Walker is clearly going to be a vocal governor over the next 12 months.

And I say, more power to her.