Financial task force divided over resolution

Nearly two years after it was convened, the Legislature's Financial Institutions Task Force on Thursday found itself arguing the same points, over the same issues, in an effort to progress to some kind of an end.

At what was thought to be its final meeting, the task force's co-chairmen, Sen. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, and Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, submitted a draft resolution for the committee's consideration.

"I believe strongly that we need to send a message to Congress," Alexander said. "I believe it's important for this state to find out what the federal government is really thinking and what their intentions are as we move forward."

As distributed Thursday, the resolution urges Congress to examine the rulings of the National Credit Union Administration, that industry's national regulator, and to take appropriate action; to allow states and local governments to impose the same taxes on federally chartered credit unions as they levy on state chartered ones; to provide a tax structure for financial institutions that lets states determine which taxes to apply, regardless of charter; and to explain its rationale if it determines that no changes to the tax structure are warranted.

What ensued during the two-hour task force meeting, however, were debates not only on issues of taxation and "level playing fields" between financial institutions, but also of education funding, the role of the federal government and states' rights.

Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, argued that introducing a bank/credit union resolution to the Utah Legislature would resurrect a divisive, bitter debate.

"We're stirring up an issue that's going to create a big rift in the public," Waddoups said. "We're in a time where we just went through a nasty, ugly campaign nationally and in some cases in our state. We're supposed to be getting to a point now where we're healing. We're supposed to be mending fences.

"I believe we're opening the rift further. I don't think sending this almost-meaningless resolution to Congress is going to help put us on an amicable friendly relationship in this state."

But Rep. Michael Noel, R-Kanab, countered that "the purpose of bringing this forward, again, is the very reason we established this task force. There are some real concerns out there, in the financial institutions of this state, that it impacts lots of people's lives, that it impacts our school system.