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Government Specialist Richard Piatt reporting Of all the issues lawmakers consider, tax and fee increases affect the most people right where it counts.
Lawmakers say the increases are unavoidable--most of them include the cost of doing business. There is good news: Vehicle registration fees won't go up this year. Lawmakers instead decided to start charging sales tax on cable and satellite television service.
That tax will generate about $20-million a year.
For a subscriber who pays $40 for cable, the tax would amount to about $3 a month.
You will also notice fees going up for things like hunting and professional licenses, which will boost state coffers by about $1.7 million.
Sen. John Valentine of Orem says, "Fees are charged for the services that government renders. And so we try to make them comparable to what they charge for them in the private sector. And so that the services rendered are comparable to the fees that's being charged."
There is more good news: At one point, lawmakers were talking about more general tax hikes, in the form of income tax hikes, taxes on fruit stands and on newspapers. Those proposals were all thrown out.
