Utah GOP leaders push tax cut plans
$115 million slash may be spread across board
There are no losers who would pay more under the new plans, said Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, on Monday.
"There are only some big winners — and those are mostly low-income Utahns," said Harper, co-chairman of the Legislature's main tax-writing committee.
"We are very pleased that interest in these new plans is coming together," said Mike Mower, spokesman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. "There is a lot of momentum" for them.
The Legislature's Revenue and Taxation Committee plans to discuss several new tax-reform proposals on Wednesday, said committee co-chairman Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo.
One new proposal has been drafted by Huntsman. The other, a slight variation from the governor's new plan, is being put forward by Harper, Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, and other GOP House leaders.
Can there be enough agreement so that a special legislative session can be called by the governor this year, in time to give a significant income-tax cut in 2006?
"If there can be general agreement on which way to go, the governor is very open to calling a special session" before the Legislature convenes in the 2007 general session in January, said Mower.
Harper said he didn't know how many low-income Utahns would soon be paying nothing under the "dual income-tax system."
"But I think we could drop as many as 20 percent to 25 percent of people" from the income-tax rolls, he said.
That should get some Democrat votes, GOP leaders hope. Since Republicans hold the governorship and more than two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate, they don't need Democratic approval. But a bipartisan tax reform would look better, leaders said.
Bramble, a certified public accountant, said over the last month, legislative GOP leaders and Huntsman have been discussing various kinds of tax reform based on the idea of a dual personal income-tax system, originally floated in late spring.
"With the change of just a few lines in the current tax form," said Bramble, Utahns could figure their taxes two different ways. Taxpayers would then pick the option that saved them the most money.
That does away with one of the big political complaints of adopting only a flat-rate income tax: Some taxpayers who get special exemptions now, like senior citizens, could stick with the current system. And then there would be no "losers" who might have paid slightly more under Huntsman's original flat-rate plan.
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