After lean years with hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to state government, two conservative lawmakers say now is the time to cut more.

Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, the vice chairman of the budget committee, unveiled a bill this week that would slash taxes by $600 million, a record tax cut for the state, eclipsing the cuts enacted during Gov. Jon Huntsman’s administration.

“Oftentimes we talk about how we do more for less. I suggest one of the things we ask is: How do we do less for less,” said Dougall. “How do we put more money back in the hands of taxpayers to run their lives, to do the things they think are important.”

Across the Capitol, Sen. Casey Anderson, R-Cedar City, in his first year in the Legislature, has put together a tax overhaul that would raise the food and gas taxes, cut the income tax by more than 1 percent, and — most notably — do away with the $2,775 per-child income tax deduction.

“The overall policy is to help businesses [create] good, high-paying jobs, grow the economy and put people back to work,” Anderson said.

All told, Anderson’s proposal would be a net $30 million tax cut.

House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, argues that, after more than a billion dollars in cuts in recent years, now is not the time to be discussing tax cuts, especially the size of Dougall’s.

“It’s impractical and, quite frankly, given the cuts that we’ve made to critical services,” he said, “to be forced into a position of making the types of cuts to reach that [level], I would say is a bit inhumane.”