Tax task force mulls 'right-size government'

The state's Tax Reform Task Force pledged Tuesday to work toward a "right-size government" that lives within a budget without always expecting to collect more revenue.

But not before two of the three Democrats who sit on the task force tried — and failed — to eliminate those statements from a list of goals and principles intended to guide the group charged with restructuring the state's tax system.

House Minority Caucus Manager Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, said she wanted the changes made because the task force should be focused on coming up with new tax policy, not on the size of government.

"I believe this is a clearer statement," McGee said of her proposal, which also would have called for "an equitable system where taxpayers in similar circumstances have similar tax burdens and taxpayers with low incomes have a minimum tax burden."

Not so, Republicans on the task force said.

The co-chairman of the task force, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said he was "seriously troubled" by the proposed changes.

"This sounds like a road map for tax policy that I find very difficult to embrace," he said.

Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said lawmakers hear a lot about the need to run government like a business. The way to accomplish that, he said, is to "tell government, 'This is what you can expect' — find the efficiencies to make it work."

The GOP lawmakers, however, did add language to the task force list about creating an equitable system for taxpayers with similar tax burdens and for those conducting similar transactions.

Only McGee and House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, opposed the original list of goals even with that amendment. The only other Democrat on the task force, Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, sided with the Republicans.

McGee said she wasn't surprised her proposal failed.

"I thought it was a good discussion," she said, chalking up the defeat to philosophical differences with the majority party over the role of the task force.

One of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s appointments to the task force successfully added the governor's own goals for the task force to the list.

"It's what we're calling, 'The Tree,' " Huntsman's deputy chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, said.

The governor wants the new tax structure to be transparent, revenue sufficient, efficient, equitable and simple, Ashdown said.

"He would just like to see his principle help drive tax reform as we move forward," Ashdown said.