60% in poll want big Utah tax cut
And GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Republican legislators are steadily moving toward giving them what they want.
A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted this past week by Dan Jones & Associates finds that 30 percent of residents don't want any tax cut this year; they'd rather have $1.6 billion in surplus tax revenue go to needy state programs.
But 29 percent favor a $110 million tax cut pushed by Huntsman; 9 percent like a $150 million tax cut originally suggested by Senate Republicans; while 22 percent like the GOP House's $300 million tax cut.
Add all those tax-cut advocates together and you get 60 percent wanting to see their taxes reduced in some manner this year.
Jones found that 9 percent didn't know or have no opinion about tax cuts. Jones polled 418 adult Utahns between Tuesday and Thursday of last week, with the poll's margin of error plus or minus 5.0 percent.
After the poll was conducted, Republican leaders announced a "soft" compromise on tax cuts. GOP senators would go up, House Republicans would go down, resulting in a tax cut of $210 million.
Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said that a flat-rate income tax reform bill (SB223) sponsored by Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, is a "preferred alternative" among the 21 Republican senators.
SB223 would further reduce the flat rate tax from 5.35 percent to 5 percent. The measure would also give hefty, non-refundable tax credits to families and individuals.
It would cost $102 million this year in tax cuts. So, if GOP senators went with that bill, their $105 million in tax cuts is about used up.
House Republicans aren't necessarily happy with SB223, however, some saying it doesn't do enough to help middle-income large families.
Testimony before a special tax review group also showed Friday that SB223 would make Utah's personal income tax system more volatile to large swings — a lot more money coming in with good times, but more cash lost when the economy takes a downturn.
The House majority likes a bill backed by House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, that would remove the food sales tax from so-called "boutique" taxes, like the ZAP and transit taxes. That approach would cost those special districts about $20 million.
Meanwhile, fiscally conservative House members say a $210 million tax cut is not enough. They predict that state government will grow too much unless $300 million to $400 million in taxes are cut this year.
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