Letter: Instead of a tax cut, can’t we at least give Utah teachers a bonus?

This past year we received more tax revenue than we budgeted for in the education bucket of the state tax code. Hooray!

When I learned about this from my state congressional representative I thought, “Finally! Utah might not be in last place this year in per pupil spending!”

I was a little surprised to learn, however, that the Legislature is planning on passing a tax cut. Even more maddening is that this cut might give me back only a few dollars (maybe even the cost of a movie ticket!). There are few areas Republicans and Democrats agree on in Utah and education is one of them. Constantly, polling reveals teacher pay and per-pupil spending is top of the list of concerns for Utahns. Utahns understand how important education is to the health of our democracy. We also saw during the pandemic our teachers work overtime, reinvent education from scratch, and generally become the superheroes we need, though we don’t deserve right now (to paraphrase Utah County Commissioner Brandon Gordon).

So maybe instead of enabling me to see yet another Avengers movie this year, can’t we at the very least give our teachers a bonus?

Matt Gardner, Millcreek

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