Governor's proposal to not cut taxes may fail

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. released his 2008-09 budget this past week, an $11.7 billion affair packed with spending on a thousand different programs employing tens of thousands of people.

Compared to recent years, this budget is absolutely skinny.

State tax spending would increase by just 3.6 percent. That's compared to double-digit spending gains the past two years that increased spending by nearly one-third.

In 2005, Huntsman asked for a phase-out of the 5 percent corporate income tax — which would have been a $200 million tax cut by 2012.

In 2006, he asked for a $60 million general tax cut.

And in 2007 — the record year of state tax surpluses and revenue growth — he asked for a $100 million tax cut.

In 2005, Huntsman's first year in office, his GOP majorities in the House and Senate refused to cut the corporate tax. In 2006 they gave a $90 million tax cut. And last year they gave a $220 million tax cut.

So Huntsman's record in getting lawmakers to make tax cuts is mixed.

In his new budget, the governor doesn't suggest any tax cuts. But it appears that Republican members of the Legislature may well want some kind of property tax relief, even if it is only $30 million or so.

Huntsman, all of the 75-member House and half of the 29-member Senate are up for re-election in 2008.

No one, either Republican or Democrat, has yet announced against Huntsman, who says he will only serve one more four-year term, if he's re-elected.

Former GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt, who after his first term was reaching the heights of popularity, as is Huntsman this year, coasted to his first re-election in 1996. Leavitt set a modern-day record in the size of that election win statewide.

So one can see Huntsman may not have much to worry about in his 2008 election and thus feels he can bypass a tax cut during the 2008 election year.

But his GOP colleagues in the Legislature — less well-known and perhaps a bit worried about their political futures — may want another round of tax cuts, especially considering the budget-busting that has gone on in recent years.

After all, besides giving tax cuts exceeding $310 million over three years, there has been record spending in important programs like public education.