This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A gathering stampede among members of the Utah Legislature to curtail or end state tax breaks for clean energy technologies is based on the idea that those industries are doing well and so no longer need the help.
Maybe not. But our lungs still do.
The point of tax breaks is not always to help a particular business or industry do well. It's to encourage people to do things that benefit the state as a whole.
Government action to encourage the use of rooftop solar and low- or no-emissions cars may do more to benefit to the whole of the community than many other tax breaks. Pulling them back, especially when other forces are at work to make rooftop solar installations less financially appealing, is not a step we should be eager to take.
Utah lawmakers Wednesday were examining bills that would reduce or end those tax benefits. They argued that clean energy providers have reached a level of stability that they no longer need the "training wheels." And they put the cost to the state income tax, which is dedicated to public education, at upwards of $20 million in 2016.
That is an argument that could easily be raised for just about every other tax break provided by state and local government to other businesses and economic sectors, some of which don't need the help, some of which may do significant harm to the air those children breathe and the water they drink.
The theory of tax reductions, rebates and such is that a certain business or sector needs a boost to get started. Once that's accomplished, the state, county or city that granted the benefit will be rewarded with a going concern that pays taxes, employs people (who pay taxes) and interacts with other businesses (which pay taxes).
That's fine, though it is not always clear that the benefit outweighs the cost. That was the case when Salt Lake County officials torpedoed big tax breaks for a planned Facebook data center that would have employed precious few people.
But there is no question that, in a valley where auto emissions are the primary source of gag-inducing air pollution, boosting the sale of clean, or cleaner, cars is a common good.
The case for subsidizing rooftop solar may be a smidge less certain. But, while Rocky Mountain Power is also attacking its use through a proposed change in its rate structure, and the future of federal tax breaks for the industry is also uncertain in the face of a new Republican administration, there is no reason for the Utah Legislature to administer yet another blow.
Clean energy has a value to taxpayers far beyond any recruited companies or created jobs. There is no call to pull away their tax incentives just yet.