Too bad the old nag wants to come in.
Huntsman and his allies, unwilling to give up on some form of the tax cut that died in the last regular session of the Legislature, have cooked up a deal to bring the issue back before a special session by attaching some welcome aid to mass transit.
The plan starts with a change in the state's income tax brackets that pencils out to at least a $70 million cut in the money raised for public education. That's something the plan's backers insist on calling "tax reform," apparently hoping to fool the majority of Utahns who, polls show, would rather have schools made even marginally better than taxes made, for most of us, infinitesimally smaller.
In the plan's second year, taxpayers would gain the option of figuring their taxes the old way - rates up to 7 percent, minus deductions - or a new way - a flat rate of 5.25 percent, no deductions. But it is still a stretch to call that "reform," as it would be more complicated for taxpayers to figure out what method would be best for them and more difficult for the state to project revenues.
The whole plan is built upon the governor's unproven, and unprovable, belief that flatter and lower income taxes will lure new business to the state, resulting in more tax revenue.
All this log-rolling would partly redeem itself by funding the expansion of light-rail service in Salt Lake County and, perhaps, the expedited launch of the Front Runner commuter rail service all along the Wasatch Front. It would do that by, one, allowing Salt Lake County to raise sales taxes, rather than property taxes, to expand TRAX service to the south and west and, two, funneling county hotel tax funds that were intended to finance a professional soccer stadium in Sandy toward mass transit instead.
The plan is to bring all of this to a September special session, so lawmakers can approve a tax cut just in time for the election.
They'd be doing their constituents a much greater favor by helping them get the transit services they need, without cutting their school funding in the bargain.
