A new independent report bolsters Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s claim that Utah's personal income taxes are too high and should be reduced.

But the annual survey by the Utah Foundation, released Friday, also shows what some critics of the state's taxation system have said for some time: Utah has relatively low property taxes and one of the lower corporate income taxes in the nation.

Huntsman, in his first legislative session in 2005, asked lawmakers to phase out Utah's already-low corporate income tax. Lawmakers refused. And since then the governor has turned his attention to removing the sales tax from food and reforming and reducing the state's personal income tax.

The 2006 Legislature took 2 percentage points off of the state's food sales tax, a cut that comes Jan. 1. It also approved a $70 million income tax cut, but legislators couldn't decide exactly how to give the cut.

Huntsman has called a Tuesday special legislative session where it is anticipated lawmakers will cut the current personal income tax system by $40 million and in 2007 instigate a flat-rate income tax option that will reduce taxes by another $30 million.

Here are some of the foundation study's main findings:

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• Among the 11 Western states Utah has the third highest personal income tax burden. Only Oregon and California have higher income tax burdens, based on taxes paid per $1,000 of income. Utah ranks 17th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in personal income tax burdens.

• Utah's property tax burden is 10th among the Western states and 39th in the nation.

• The state's corporate income tax ranks seventh among states in the West and 35th nationally.

• The Utah sales tax burden is 6th in the West and 13th in the nation; although those ranking will change when the food tax cut takes effect the first of the year.

• The foundation's report says that like many other states, Utah has been raising its mandatory fees more and more over the last 20 years. Utah has the 3rd highest mandatory fees among the Western states and the 8th most burdensome fees in the nation.

Raising fees instead of taxes is one way for lawmakers to stay out of hot water with voters. Citizens rarely see the fee increases, which get less media attention and are often lost among all the other costs of living in a high-tech society.

Wyoming and Nevada have no personal income tax at all. Other Western states have been cutting their income tax rates. And Huntsman says Utah must adopt the dual tax system, with a flat income tax rate of 5.35 percent, to be competitive with other states in attracting growing businesses with high-paying jobs.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com