Tax reform referendum is nonpartisan 'Utahns revolt,' supporters say

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SALT LAKE CITY — Backers of a citizens referendum on Utah’s just-passed tax reform law say they can’t print the petitions fast enough.

“We have plenty of people who want to sign,” said Fred Cox, a former Republican legislator who helped organize the effort to undo the tax structure approved Dec. 12.

Some of them, including GOP gubernatorial candidates Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton and Jeff Burningham and Democrat Zachary Moses, put their signatures on the petition Monday during a news conference at the Capitol. Organizers have already turned in a batch of signed petitions to the state elections office.

Cox said the referendum has bipartisan support.

“This is not a Republican revolt. This is a Utahns revolts,” he said.

The Republican-controlled Utah Legislature passed a bill in a special session earlier this month that lowers the state income tax rate and provides tax breaks to low- and moderate-income residents, including a larger dependent exemption and a grocery tax credit to offset raising the state sales tax on food to 4.85%.

The law also imposes sales taxes on wholesale gasoline purchases on top of what will be a 31-cents-per-gallon gas tax in 2020, expected to add at least 10 cents a gallon at the pump.

Gov. Gary Herbert signed the measure last week.

Referendum backers must gather nearly 116,000 signatures from at least 15 of the state’s 29 counties by Jan. 21 — less than a week before 2020 Legislature convenes — to get the issue on the November 2020 ballot. The governor and lawmakers have said the referendum could delay tax cuts and rebate checks.

Cox said referendum organizers intend to get signatures from every county and exceed the number required.

“We are moving faster than the printers can go,” he said, adding a second printing company is now working on petition packets.

Utah Legislative Watch, Utah Tax Reform Coalition, United Women’s Forum and Citizens for Tax Fairness are among the groups advocating against the new tax law.

Brett Hastings, director of Utah Legislative Watch, said the groups don’t take a referendum lightly and see it as an integral and indispensable part of the checks and balances on government.

“This referendum is in essence a vote of no confidence in our Legislature and in our governor, at least on this question of tax reform,” he said.

Hastings said the “radical and risky” measure opens the door to taxing all services and raised the tax on food and gas to detriment of poor Utahns.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Burningham, left, and Brett W. Hastings, director of Utah Legislative Watch, center, listen as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zachary Moses speaks about a citizen’s referendum on Utah’s tax reform law during a press conference at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019. (Photo: Colter Peterson, KSL)

Taxing gas will make everything Utahns buy and the services they use more expensive, said Dalane England, of the United Women’s Forum.

“We’re also very opposed to picking winners and losers, pick certain service industries to attack and some leave alone for a while,” she said, adding it’s only a matter of time before all services are taxed.

Krista Palmer, of the Utah Tax Reform Coalition, said while she wishes the governor and legislators a merry Christmas, they have “all but ruined Christmas for us.” She said the tax reform was based on flawed math, inaccurate information and a “made up” revenue crisis.

Utah, she said, has the finest economy in the United States.

“We’re winning,” Palmer said. “We’re winning at everything.”