Walker doubtful tax plan will pass

With but a year left in the unexpired term of former Gov. Mike Leavitt, politicos said Gov. Olene Walker was crazy to think she could shepherd a major reform of Utah's tax system.

Walker remains undaunted, but she no longer has any illusions that her tax-reform package will lead to sweeping changes in Utah tax policy. In fact, she fully expects there won't be enough political will for lawmakers — or a new governor, for that matter — to act on the recommendations of the task force she put together.

"Will it be accepted? Probably not," Walker said Thursday during her monthly KUED news conference. "It depends on the Legislature. There will be real political consequences."

Walker already got an idea of those consequences. Just before the May 8 state GOP convention, Utah real estate agents got wind the task force was looking at the possibility of a services tax. The agents struck back with a vengeance, making it a campaign issue for Walker, who finished fourth in a field of nine GOP candidates.

"I've already seen the effects of tax reform," she said, referring to the backlash.

Now unfettered by a re-election campaign, Walker is pushing ahead with the reform package, knowing she won't be around to push it through the Legislature. But she also hopes it becomes the focus of discussions by GOP nominee Jon Huntsman Jr. and Democrat Scott Matheson Jr.

"There are many things in the tax reform package that would be very difficult to impose if I were a candidate," she said.

Will the candidates embrace the reforms, which she says would include significant changes to the state income and sales taxes? "Tax reform is easy to say by political candidates but very hard to implement. And the fact I am not a candidate will make it easier for me to put forth."

That is because those who generally come out ahead with reforms are silent, whereas those on the losing side tend to make a lot of noise, she said.

The tax reform proposals would undoubtedly raise taxes on some and lower them on others, all in the name of return fairness and equity to a tax system that has not been modified in decades. Some of the changes, she said, have the potential to raise more money for education.

"We're mainly looking at the structure of the tax system, which is a major undertaking," she said. "And any time you do that, it has real political consequences, and that's one reason I'm not certain that it will pass. But I certainly hope that it will be a focus of discussion."