They all are right.

The question is whether the gain will outweigh the loss.

Some states have become havens for businesses who seek out low-tax environments, but will deleting a corporate income tax in Utah make the state a much more alluring locale? If so, will new businesses be able to offset the deficit caused by repealing the tax?

"It means less money in the pot for education - that's of grave concern," says State School Board Chairman Kim Burningham. "They say they're going to make it up. That's a nice promise, but how's it going to happen?"

Utah is one of 44 states that charge some form of corporate tax. But in the West, it's competing against three states, including adjacent Nevada, that do not tax a company's profits. Of the states in the West, five of them are in the top 10 business-friendly states, according to the nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation.

Utah's 5 percent corporate tax lands smack in the middle nationally, with a rank of 26th highest.

It gets worse. Utah's combined state and local tax burden ranks No. 7 heaviest, the foundation reports. Nevada ranks 30th, Colorado 40th and Wyoming 44th.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s deputy chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, argues the corporate income tax - started in 1931, at the same time as the state's personal income tax - needs to be scrapped to create an advantage to attract business and boost existing companies. Without a change, Ashdown says, the money for education will continue to dwindle.

"We've backed ourself into a corner," he says. "We've got growing needs and we're trying to support it on the sections of our economy that are shrinking."

It's true that Utah's corporate income tax hasn't been a stable source of income. In some years, it brings in $120 million; other years, $200 million, depending on the economy.

"It's incredibly volatile," Ashdown says. "The problem is you don't know what it's going to be."

If Rep. Wayne Harper's House Bill 78 passes, the calculation will get easier: zero by 2012. The bill calls for phasing out the tax, slicing it 1 percent a year beginning next year until it's gone.

Without any changes, the tax is likely to bring in less money by then anyway, according to Ashdown. But school officials say the loss will still be significant.

"They're simply saying, 'Yeah, we can do this,' and we're saying, 'How?' " says Utah Education Association President Pat Rusk, who wants some type of guarantee that school coffers won't be deprived.

Of the 44 states that have a corporate income tax, only two have a lower rate than Utah (12 of those states have a sliding scale that tops out higher than Utah's rate). In fact, Utah ties South Carolina for the third-lowest flat rate.

So, the question remains: how much of an edge would Utah gain by abolishing the tax?

Ask Nevada, where taxes on casino gambling profits eliminate any need for corporate taxes - or personal income taxes, for that matter.

Somer Hollingsworth, president and CEO of the private, nonprofit Nevada Development Authority, says the tax break is helpful when negotiating with businesses contemplating a move to the Silver State.

"Whatever they're paying in another state, that goes directly to the bottom line," he says.

But "just because you don't have a corporate income tax doesn't mean companies are simply going to show up overnight," Hollingsworth cautions. "It's not No. 1 on their list. . . . It's icing on the cake."

That's seconded by Jim Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah.

"I don't know if there's a great advantage or not to economic recruiting since 44 other states have" some form of a corporate income tax, says Wood, a member of the governor's council of economic advisers. "How are you going to make up $200 million? You're losing a fair amount of revenue."

Wood says companies looking to relocate have a long list of what they need. At the top of the list are the cost and quality of labor force, available transportation and proximity to marketplace. "Tax savings would operate at the margin," Wood says.

Case in point: KraftMaid Cabinetry Inc. announced last week it plans to build a $100 million facility in West Jordan, adding 1,300 jobs. The company's marketing manager, Kim Boos, says tax considerations were not among the deciding factors.

Ashdown says under a model from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, the state should reap a net gain of 9,600 jobs by 2012 if HB78 passes. And Ashdown adds that dumping the corporate income tax is not the only tax reform that Huntsman will push.

"Corporate income tax is only the first piece," Ashdown says. "This is being done against a broader context."

Utah's tax code, while refurbished over the years, still survives on a 1950s frame, Ashdown says. But in 2005 and beyond, that tax structure won't work. "If you get the tax reform done, we'll be a business-friendly, less-burdensome state with a structure that can pay the bills."

Though more tax reform could take at least a year, Ashdown says the state could look at taxing services, the largest sector of the state's economy and the fastest growing.

According to the Tax Foundation, scrapping Utah's corporate income tax could profit the state.

"That would be a boost; that would be a positive," says Bill Ahern, director of the nonprofit foundation, citing academic research that says states without such a tax benefit.

So, will the state add thousands of jobs? "That's possible," Ahern says.

"Of course, it will depend on the whole economy."

tburr@sltrib.com