5% flat tax urged for Utah

Utah should have a flat-rate income tax of 5 percent, a high-powered tax task force recommended Monday.

State residents should also get 50 percent tax credits for charitable gifts and home mortgage interest on their income taxes. And the Legislature should remove the much-hated sales tax from unprepared food, the Task Reform Task Force recommends, although it didn't specify which of the proposed food tax plans should be adopted by legislators next year.

The income tax proposal it recommended is not greatly different from the one forwarded by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. several months ago.

"We are very happy" with the new alternative unveiled Monday, said Huntsman spokesman Mike Mower.

The new 5 percent income tax plan will have some "winners and some losers" as far as who pays a bit more or a bit less in tax, said Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland. Dougall and task force co-chairman Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, worked out the differences over the past two weeks among several income tax reform suggestions.

But, said Dougall, compared to Huntsman's earlier proposal, "the winners will get less of a tax cut; the losers less of a tax increase" under the new plan, nicknamed H3.

Dougall anticipates a single bill — "Individual Taxpayer Relief" — with both income tax changes and food tax repeal included.

The 15-member task force has held dozens of official meetings — not including countless private sessions between some members — and half a dozen public hearings to come up with 20 or so specific tax reform recommendations for the Legislature. A complete list of its recommendations can be found on the Legislature's Web site: www.le.state.ut.us.

"We're all pretty much agreed" that the state and local sales tax should be removed from food," said House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart, R-St. George and task force member in moving that the four main plans discussed by the task force should be sent to the Legislature as a whole. "The difficulties we have are with the details."

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said sending the issue forward to the full Legislature without a specific proposal is the right thing to do.

"The decision (on which food tax repeal plan should be adopted) should be before the body that will make it — the Legislature," said Valentine, who is a member of the task force and who believes the repeal should be made without raising or shifting taxes. The $166 million revenue loss from axing the food tax can be made up from surpluses and cutting programs, he said.