From Deseret News archives:
Legislature is facing odd tax dichotomy
GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., wants a $100 million tax cut this year, coming in a reduction of his flat-rate personal income tax plan. The rate would go from 5.35 percent to 5 percent, and everyone would get personal tax credits.
House and Senate GOP leaders, however, want to cut the state-mandated property tax now levied by the 40 different school districts.
House Republicans want to cut taxes by $300 million, mainly as a way to slow state government growth.
Senate Republicans have not yet picked a tax-cut figure, but it would cost around $250 million to eliminate the mandated property tax.
Democrats in the Legislature also have not detailed their plans — if any — for tax cuts. And minority party leaders have been talking as if they want no tax cuts, the extra funds going into needy programs like public and higher education, Human Services and so on.
The dichotomy?
Both the personal income tax and the state-mandated property tax go directly into public education spending. And so while GOP state bosses say their main priority this year is public education funding, they are also suggesting tax cuts that would curtail that spending.
Now, the Republicans say that even with their $100 million, or $250 million or even the $300 million in tax cuts they will provide more public education funding than ever before, as the state has $1.6 billion in one-time and ongoing revenue surpluses.
And even with tax cuts, they can achieve some of the public education goals debated previously — like all-day kindergarten for children whose parents want that option.
Meanwhile, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, a noted conservative who, in his job as president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, routinely battles for slower government growth, says he will push legislation that will pump $200 million into class size reduction and teacher pay incentives.
If legislators and Huntsman will adopt his education funding plan, says Stephenson, Utah can go from one of the lower teacher pay states into the middle-range of teacher pay across the nation. And through an incentive-pay proposal, Utah can also make great strides in attracting and keeping qualified teachers in some of the science and math disciplines — an area that Stephenson says is greatly hurting these days.
Stephenson is against reducing or eliminating the state-mandated property tax, saying it is the most stable of taxes and what schools need is funding stability.
