Yes, there are still some large families here. And Utah's birthrate still leads the nation. But family size has dropped dramatically here since the 1950s — as it has across the nation.

Huntsman adviser Keith Prescott said that under the governor's plan (five exemptions allowed) 90 percent of all taxpayers wouldn't be impacted by that limit.

But changing societal attitudes is often a tough job.

A number of Utah families may have two or three kids, but they have cousins or friends with five or six kids, they attend church were large families are still praised, and they may not like the idea of actually financially harming their relatives and friends.

Huntsman can easily solve this problem by just dropping the five-exemption limit. That would only cost around $13 million — nothing in an $8 billion state budget.

A tougher fight will be eliminating the current deduction for mortgage interest paid.

Expert after expert says that the deduction really has no financial impact on whether someone buys a house or not. It may have a psychological impact but not a financial one. And the biggest financial impact is on your federal income taxes, and the mortgage deduction would remain there.

In fact, when someone applies for a home loan, whether you get a mortgage interest break or not, or how much that may be, is not even in the approval calculation, experts have told the Tax Reform Task Force.

But in recent years the Utah Association of Realtors has become especially politically active, hoping to have a $1 million political action committee in the near future.

As one legislator told me: "I'll throw myself on a sword for a flat tax" that has no deductions at all, "but why go up against a $1 million Realtor PAC" over excluding mortgage interest deductions when you are keeping charitable giving and dependent children?

Now for Matheson.

Utah's lone Democratic congressman had his attorney send KSL Radio a letter this past week warning of possible legal and ethical consequences if longtime radio talk show host Doug Wright challenges Matheson in the 2nd District. (Wright would run as a Republican.)

There are Federal Election Commission and Federal Communication Commission fairness laws, the question of KSL's credibility and so on, the attorney writes.

I see this shot across the bow as an attempt by Matheson to get Wright either in or out of the race early.

The last thing Matheson wants is a popular radio talk show host on the air, maybe taking a few shots at Matheson himself, or Democrats in general, right up until the mid-March candidate filing deadline.

If or when Wright announces, KSL bosses say he's off the air. So if he gets in, he'd be off the air of a 50,000-watt popular radio station (which can reach listeners throughout the state) for a year before Election Day — a good thing for Matheson. I don't know how much money Wright makes, but he'd also be without a salary for a year, another good thing for Matheson.

If Wright says he's not running — well, he could change his mind in March and jump in, but then that would look cheap and Matheson could make noise to KSL about unethical conduct and so on.

Talk show hosts have run for office before both in Utah and outside — with mixed results.

Wright appears to be taking his time deciding, and KSL bosses say they won't push him one way or the other. So it appears Matheson will just have to wait it out also.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com