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Group wants new tax rate replaced

These people will have to be marketing wizards just to collect 92,000 signatures, let alone try to convince people struggling through a recession that paying more taxes is a good idea.

Why do Democrats always think that the solution to every problem is raising taxes?

Frandsen is out of touch with reality. His comment that "giving a CEO a cut in taxes" is stupid. His group is advocating a increase in state taxes to 10% on anyone making $25,000 individually or $45,000 for a joint return is taxing all middle and upper income taxpayers. Taxes is a very important element for companies in determining whether to relocate. It will mean less jobs created in Utah.

Secondly, there is little proof that throwing money at education is the going to be the difference maker. Are our students in Utah performing poorer than students in other states? The answer is an overwhelming "NO". They are getting a good education. If the school districts were serious about giving more money to teachers, why don't they cut the bloated staffs and give it to teachers. When the Granite School District bought the hospital on State and 24th to use for offices, I knew that bureaucracy in schools was out of control.

Gee what a surprise. Democrats wanting to hike income taxes. No thank you.

The District of Columbia is usually in the top 5 in spending per student. Utah is usually in the bottom 5. Average ACT score in DC for 2007 was 18.7 (dead last). Average ACT score in Utah was 21.7. National average was 21.2.

Where would you rather send your children to school?

We've lived in the DC area. Believe me, no sane parent would choose DC schools over Utah schools.

More money for school won't guarantee better education. Raising taxes won't guarantee more money for schools.

California already learned a sad lesson on earmarking tax revenue for a specific purpose. Let's not repeat their mistake here in Utah.

Instead of changing the income tax system, what we need is to eliminate it altogether, and replace it with higher sales taxes. That way EVERYone would pay, no matter what your income or citizen status is. We wouldn't have to be spending hours every year trying to figure out how to lower our income taxes; we'd put the greedy CPAs and tax software companies out of work; it would be fair across all segments of society; it would discourage our society's emphasis on mass consumerism; we wouldn't have to worry about deductions, credits, exemptions and all that garbage because we'd all be paying the same. It would be a true flat tax that we as consumers could decide how much to pay based on how much worthless junk we're constantly buying.

Republicans did a great job of increasing taxes on the middle class with this new 5% flat tax. Go check your taxes, but when I figured mine both ways, the new 5% flat tax was a whopping $400 dollars higher. After talking to an accountant, I learned that those making $150,000 or higher were the ones benefiting significantly from the flat tax, while the majority of Utahns were subsidizing that benefit to the Upper Class. The sad thing is that too many people were in support of the flat tax without realizing that it robs from the middle class and gives to the upper class (and you know what? the tax form wasn't any easier). Way to go Utah Republican legislators, you sneaked through a significant tax hike. We might as well vote for Democrats now.

I lived in Washington State for a couple of years, and I liked their system. No sales tax on food, 8% sales tax on most goods, even higher taxes on prepared food, and no income tax. That way you were taxed on what you consumed, not on how much you earned.