Utahns favor cuts and tax increases, poll says

GOP legislative leaders aren't ruling out tax increases as a way to balance the state's budget during the session that begins Monday, a position shared by most Utahns according to a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll.

Forty percent of those polled by Dan Jones & Associates said there should be a combination of program cuts, employee layoffs and tax increases to meet an estimated $1 billion shortfall in state tax revenues. A third say legislators should use the state's Rainy Day fund, bond and make other short-term fixes to carry state government through the current recession.

But only 11 percent agreed with the GOP legislative leadership's "base budget" approach of slashing state programs and laying off employees. Even fewer, 7 percent, wanted to see taxes raised enough to make up lost revenues so budget cuts and layoffs could be avoided.

"We've already talked about tax increases," Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said Wednesday, suggesting the poll results mirror the positions of lawmakers.

So far, he said, the majority of the Senate Republican caucus isn't ready to raise income taxes and has little interest in a sales-tax hike. But Waddoups said there may be support for an increase in the gas tax, depending on Utah's share of the federal stimulus package pending in Congress.

Senate Republicans don't want to increase the income tax until they see how much money the state's new "flatter" system brings in later this year. "We want to give it a chance to play out before we decide what to do," Waddoups said.

House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, said the GOP majority in the House isn't talking about tax increases — yet. "As we progress through the session, there will be discussions, I'm sure, on raising taxes. Which ones, I'm not sure," Garn said.

The House Majority leader said he was surprised at the poll results. "Because of the economic conditions we're in," he said, "I'm surprised people want to give up more of their money to government."

The new survey of 413 Utahns statewide, conducted Jan. 15-17, may provide some public opinion ammunition for GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative Democrats and moderate Republicans who say the conservative legislators' 15 percent cut across the board approach is unnecessary. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.