Guard tax waiver hits snag

A plan by Utah lawmakers to give troops deployed overseas a break from paying state income taxes this year may have run into a snag.

Legislative leaders said Thursday concerns have been raised about the possibility of a lawsuit over the proposed tax exemption for members of the Utah National Guard and military reserve units serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The issue was expected to be on the agenda, or call, for next week's legislative special session. Now lawyers are reviewing whether exempting select military personnel from paying state income taxes for 2004 would place the state in legal jeopardy.

Gov. Olene Walker and legislative leaders met for more than an hour Thursday to finalize the agenda for the special session, set to start at 2 p.m. Wednesday, the same day lawmakers hold interim meetings.

The governor's spokesman, Amanda Covington, said a closer look is being taken at the tax break "to make sure it's well-researched. . . . I don't think anyone is looking for a reason not to do it."

Senate Majority Whip John Valentine, R-Orem, said he still believes the tax break will end up before lawmakers next week. Valentine said the law allows for taxpayers to be treated differently when there is a "rational basis for that difference in treatment."

He said members of the National Guard and Reserves are being sent overseas for an unspecified amount of time and "having to come back, in effect, to a shambles in their financial situation."

That, Valentine said, differs significantly from someone who has made the decision that the military is a full-time career. The state ran into a similar problem years ago with federal retirees.

House Speaker Marty Stephens said other items for the special session included a $1.5 million construction project at the state prison in Draper for more female inmates.

Other items, Stephens said, are securing the archaeological finds at the state-owned Range Creek site at a cost of approximately $150,000 and correcting a problem with a trust bill that passed last session that affects interstate banking.

A bill that would cover the cost of abortions for indigent women carrying gravely deformed fetuses didn't make the agenda, however. The sponsor of that legislation, Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, had said it was probably too controversial to handle in special session.

Valentine said there was discussion about the bill but no agreement to deal with it now. "It's an issue that is very difficult to handle in a special session because of both the nature of it and of the technical nature of the fix that would be required."

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