A uniform rate for the combined sales taxes of state and local governments would make life easier for merchants, and possibly expand the tax base to catalog and Internet sales. That's the argument for a single rate.

Unfortunately, HB378, which embodies the uniform rate idea, also would repeal the local-option sales tax for zoos, arts and parks (the ZAP tax) that voters in Salt Lake County have approved not once but twice. Voters in other Utah counties and cities also have cast their ballots for similar taxes.

HB378 also would kill the ability of local and county governments to enact local-option sales taxes for roads or transit.

Some in the Legislature seem eager to take away local autonomy to tax for projects like zoos, recreation centers and TRAX trains, even when the voters approve them in general elections. We believe this is too high a price to pay for sales tax uniformity.

In other contexts, legislators champion the notion of local control. That principle goes out the window, however, when they disapprove the outcome.

We can't help but believe that the unspoken motivation of this legislation is to eliminate local-option sales taxes, and the projects they fund, that certain lawmakers don't like.

For example, some legislators are particularly hostile to Salt Lake County's new 0.25 percent sales tax that would, among other things, speed completion of TRAX lines. They would rather see the money spent on roads, despite the fact that voters approved the tax primarily to fund mass transit.

In the name of a unified tax rate, HB378 would repeal the legal authority for ZAP, and it would turn the local-option transportation taxes into state levies that the Legislature could control.

But different cities and counties have different needs. Tax policy should have some flexibility to reflect that diversity.

Finally, this bill would earmark a 0.25 percent state sales tax for transportation and leave less of the revenue pie for other state services.

In the current time of record state tax collections, that may be affordable. In lean times, however, it could starve other state programs and reduce the state's budget flexibility.

Some in the Legislature seem eager to take away local autonomy to tax for projects like zoos, recreation centers and TRAX trains.