Chief economist's departure is troubling

With the quick retirement last week of longtime Utah Tax Commission chief economist Doug Macdonald, a lingering question in state politics once again surfaces.

What is the balance between objective, differing opinions and the monolithic executive and legislative branches of state government, where especially in Republican-dominated Utah differing points of view are often not accepted, sometimes not even tolerated?

First a disclaimer: I've known Macdonald for 25 years. I've found him to be honest, straightforward and professional in his economic/tax work.

As the head of a small, but talented, three-person economic unit for the Tax Commission, Macdonald's tax collection/economic prediction models have, over time, been some of the most accurate in all state governments.

The tax reports, combined with a fiscal conservative policy by the GOP-run Legislature and a string of Republican governors, have resulted in Utah consistently being named by various groups as one of the best-run states in the nation.

It was Macdonald's professional discussions about GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman's "fairer/flatter" rate income tax proposal, which will go before a May special legislative session, that prematurely ended Macdonald's long career.

You see, Macdonald was telling some people in private, and even sometimes in public, that all was not perfect with Huntsman's reform. Some individuals and groups, like retired senior citizens, could see their taxes go up (if only slightly) under the Huntsman plan — or at the very least, the wealthiest among us would get more of a benefit under "reform" than would middle-income Utahns.

Some GOP legislators have been battling Macdonald, et al., in the Tax Commission for some time. Longtime advocates of tax changes in Utah, like the Utah Taxpayer Association, have also had run-ins with Macdonald and his economic unit before — public battles over tax policy as well as private fights over how much of a fiscal note to place on tax-cutting legislation.

Now, in talking with Macdonald, he clearly says that such fights, while tiresome and perhaps even troubling in a public policy type of way, were a part of his taking early retirement at age 58. It must be said that like thousands of other veteran state workers Macdonald decided to leave early to get a very generous post-retirement state health insurance program.

Last Friday was the deadline to retire and get extra health insurance before a 2005 legislative cutback in workers' benefits kicked in.

The benefits, added to a memo sent to the economic unit by Tax Commissioner Palmer DePaulis warning the economists not to give their personal tax policy opinions under threat of disciplinary action, led Macdonald to get out.