Surveys show that the property tax is the most hated of all taxes, in part because it is assessed based on the value of the property, not on the ability of the taxpayer to pay the tax. So, Valentine said, everyone from young marrieds to retirees can be hurt.

Still, the Senate leader acknowledged that property taxes in Utah are relatively low compared to other states. Sales and income taxes are more of a burden to the average Utah family than are property taxes.

Not all lawmakers like the property-tax cut.

Monday, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told the Deseret Morning News' editorial board that he opposes the property-tax cut. Stephenson is the head of the pro-business Utah Taxpayers Association, which has not taken a position on the issue but has concerns.

Stephenson said he wants a stable and broad-based tax approach to public education funding. And cutting back the basic school levy property tax would greatly harm that effort, Stephenson said.

"That is not good tax policy to eliminate the education property tax," Stephenson said. The Utah Taxpayers Association, he said, is "committed to education in Utah, and that would destabilize funding over time. The income tax is so volatile."

Utah has what's called an equalized public school funding system — which successfully provides a minimum amount of cash for each student in public schools from a variety of sources.

Personal income and business income taxes are pledged to education. Individual school districts, in order to belong to the state public education funding system, must levy a certain property tax rate, set by lawmakers each year.

Stephenson said currently those levies among the 40 school districts in the state raise about $250 million. And he said those funds should be left alone, not cut back as some legislators are proposing.

Stephenson added that historically whenever the Legislature has forced reductions in the property tax for schools, local governments and/or individual school districts jumped in and raised their own property tax rates — taking much or all of the property taxes that lawmakers meant to go to property owners.

"They have to go through Truth in Taxation" public hearings to take the taxes lawmakers wanted to go to taxpayers. "But the locales did that to fill the void" in taxes left by legislators, Stephenson said.

In short, property owners ended up not getting the tax cuts promised by lawmakers.

A hefty tax cut this year is exactly what most Utahns want, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll published over the past weekend shows.

Pollster Dan Jones & Associates found that 38 percent of Utahns want at least a $100 million tax cut — as recommended by the governor. Nineteen percent said they favor a $300 million tax cut backed by House Republicans. Together, 57 percent of Utahns want a major tax cut, the poll shows.

Asked what kind of tax cut they would like — assuming a tax cut is coming — 48 percent of Utahns said they want a combination of tax reductions, including sales, income and property-tax reductions.

Only 12 percent told Jones they want all tax cuts coming in a property-tax reduction.

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