From Deseret News archives:
New laws ring in with new year
Car insurance rates, natural gas taxes rise
SB149 mandates new, higher coverage amounts on the state's requisite automobile liability insurance. Previous minimums of $50,000 for the injury or death of two people in an accident will go to $65,000 and second-party injury, death or damages limits raise to $80,000 from $65,000.
An agent from AAA Insurance Co. said Wednesday that, for their agency, it is not necessary for a customer to make changes to their policy. He explained that states that change their insurance requirements automatically communicate those changes to insurers, who update the policies on the effective dates of the new requirements. He could not give an exact figure on what additional costs will come with the upgraded coverage, but did confirm that it would increase rates for most customers.
HB106 makes changes to credits offered by the state on vehicles that use clean-burning fuels, but will also impose a new fuel tax on one of those fuels.
Julie Halvorson, assistant director of Utah Taxpayer Services, said a new 8 1/2-cent tax will be collected on every gallon-equivalent of compressed natural gas sold in the state. The tax replaces an old system of requiring owners of natural gas vehicles to purchase a clean fuel certificate every year. That new tax will come on top of recent price escalations in the compressed natural gas vehicle fuel market, approved by the Utah Public Service Commission, which just jumped from 80 cents to $1.14 per gallon this month and are expected to bump up to $1.43 per gallon on July 1, 2009.
New, sort of, to the list of vehicles that qualify for a credit are gas-electric hybrids. Hybrids, at one time, qualified for some kick-back from the state, but have been off the list the past few years. The new bill will put $2,500 back in the pockets of new hybrid and CNG-powered vehicle owners and offer other credits on equipment to convert a vehicle to CNG. A minor bummer-factor — the credit used to be $3,000.
Other new statutes that come into play as the last notes of "Auld Lang Syne" die away will require new computerized mass-appraisal systems for county assessors, create tax breaks for airlines (like Delta) that make Utah home base for their aircraft, mandate judicial review requirements for justice courts and add a bit of additional paper work to the to-do lists of vintage car enthusiasts.
E-mail: araymond@desnews.com
