Utah's special session tough to predict

Utah's 104 part-time legislators will meet Sept. 5 to hear detailed proposals on cutting the state income tax and giving Salt Lake County residents the option of voting to raise their sales taxes slightly to pay for new TRAX lines in the county.

By legislative standards, these are actually fairly monumental decisions.

Construction of the TRAX light rail lines to Draper, South Jordan, West Valley City and the Salt Lake International Airport could be moved up by years.

And giving state residents the option of a flat-rate income tax would be the first major change to the state's personal income tax system in decades.

Since by law all of the personal and corporate income taxes go to public and higher education, many Democrats and education special interest groups are pushing for no special session this fall.

They prefer that lawmakers take up these weighty issues in the 2007 general session, which starts in January.

But Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and GOP legislative leaders — who have basically signed off on the two plans — say legislators have been studying these options for at least a year.

Both items need action now, the governor claims.

The state Tax Commission must have a decision on the flat-rate tax by the end of September or private firms that offer tax preparation help, like TurboTax, can't get their software changes done in time for the 2006 tax year filings.

Also, if the Legislature doesn't act before December, the $70 million earmarked for income tax cuts this year would have to wait until the 2007 tax year.

Finally, the Salt Lake County Council has already approved ballot language giving county residents the option of raising either their property tax or sales tax enough to pay off a $900 million bond to pay for the expensive TRAX extensions.

The council has the authority to issue a general obligation bond, backed by a property tax hike.

But the council can't raise the sales tax. It takes the Legislature to authorize a voter-approved sales tax hike for TRAX.

Raising the property tax is always a crapshoot — the tax is so hated that residents often vote down property tax bonds.

Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV polls by Dan Jones & Associates show that county residents are more likely to vote for a sales tax hike than a property tax increase — so proponents of expanding TRAX in the county (which include a number of influential state legislators) want to put the sales tax option on the November ballot, not the property tax hike.