Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Under a compromise being discussed by legislative leaders, taxpayers could be given the choice of paying under the current state income tax system or under the proposal for a flatter, system that would have a lower rate but fewer deductions.
"This is a great chance for the state to move to a progressive tax system," Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, said Monday.
Gov. Jon Huntsman's deputy chief of staff, Mike Mower, said Monday night that the new compromise "moves us a great distance to our goal of a more competitive tax system and one that secures education funding."
However, Mower, who was quoted in a copyright story in the Deseret Morning News, said the governor was not yet ready to call a special legislative session to enact the compromise.
Huntsman is not going to call a special session until the votes are lined up, several legislators said.
"I think the dual system has real merit," said House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, who believes there may be enough Republican voters alone to secure passage, even if Democrats do not agree.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said he hopes to get "at least half of the Democrats to support this. It's a fair compromise, can really help some lower-income Utahns" by giving them a chance to pick a tax system that will save them money.
Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said having two systems could be confusing to operate and difficult for state budgeters to determine how much income tax will actually come in.
"I'm not totally opposed" to the new compromise, said Valentine, a tax attorney. "I'm asking our fiscal analysts and the (state) Tax Commission to come up with some numbers" on how the two-prong approach will actually work.
Tax Commission spokesman Charlie Roberts said it could be a headache to run two personal income-tax systems at the same time, "but it could be done."
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who co-chaired last year's tax-reform task force, said having a dual system "creates a complexity, and if you are locked in and can't change, we're just facing discontentment year after year" as a filers' financial situations change and they cannot quickly move to the other, more beneficial, system.
Harper said more than 60 percent of Utahns do not itemize on their state income-tax returns and instead take the standard deductions.
He said those taking standard deductions would fare better under the flatter-rate income tax plan, so most Utahns would choose the new system.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
