Hey, what they lacked in good grammar they made up with chutzpah. The stadium started filling up. And the Utes stormed their way straight into the BCS, didn't they?

So, there was Gov. Olene Walker on Monday, counting down the final weeks of her administration, unwrapping her proposal for a big tax overhaul. The spiral-bound tome is 2 inches thick and titled "Recommendations on a Tax Structure for Utah's Future."

You don't have to remember that. What matters is the mantra. Walker repeated it several times at her news conference: "Broaden the base. Lower the rate."

And "laugh in your face."

OK, I added that. Because, as usual, the governor has noble intentions, but she has a Legislature that would prefer to just lock her out. Republican leaders have already been carping about Walker's failure to include them in her little tax overhaul group. On Monday, a couple of powerful Republicans predicted the reform package would run up against time limitations next year. Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, told me the tax system is "very complex. While it's important we look at our tax structure as a whole, there is no compelling reason for us to jump into this all at once."

Much of what Walker pitches takes courage. She wants to update Utah's rusty old tax structure, which has been chugging along largely undisturbed for three decades.

Walker and her eight expert advisers are trying to simplify things and, they promise, to spread the tax burden. This is not a "revenue enhancer," Walker said, but it will help ensure more money for a booming school population 10 years down the line.

Walker recommends the state adopt a flat personal income tax of 4.9 percent. The top rate is now 7 percent, which hits practically everyone because it kicks in at $4,500 in personal earnings and $9,000 for a family.

Another major piece of Walker's plan is to recognize the change in our economy from agrarian and product-based to service-based. That requires a shift in the sales tax system. Walker said she could take us from a national ranking of 34th in sales tax to 45th. If the Legislature buys into this, we would move from the state rate of 4.75 percent to 3.75 percent across the board, and consumer and professional services would start charging sales tax.

That means everyone from kitchen remodelers to landscape firms to your friendly neighborhood nail technician would start taxing their services.

The theory, according to Keith Prescott, chairman of the state Tax Review Commission and a member of Walker's expert panel: The wealthy would pay more in sales tax because they can afford new kitchens, xeriscaping and a weekly manicure. Missing, near as I can tell from Walker's list, are some big exemptions for big business that have been carved in stone forever and will go untouched - such as sales tax on ski lift tickets.

The experts said they spent little time discussing removing sales tax from food or clothing, which many tax gurus consider one of the most regressive taxes of all. Walker's committee reasons that everyone would have more money under this plan, and the tax on food would hurt everyone less.

Walker wants this seen as a whole package. She hopes the Legislature won't just chop it up, piecemeal. Or ignore it all together.

Remember, it's all in the mantra: Broaden the base. Lower the rate. And . . . watch lawmakers skate.

hmullen@sltrib.com