Brakes put on the push for a tax-reform bill

HB 441 is dead, for now. The Tax Equalization and Reduction Act, supported by Utah Governor Gary Herbert, was postponed by lawmakers after a pushback by many small businesses and other groups. The governor says the state will now study the complicated proposal over the coming months and likely have a special session at some point in the future. On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, State Senator Scott Sandall said the legislation was rushed.

“My position, I’ve been pretty vocal about it, was that the process was moving way too quickly,” Sen. Sandall said. “There wasn’t enough time to try to digest all the pages, kind of like what we talked about last week. Quite honestly, I think we’ve got some things that we can do before we look at taxing services that we’ve never taxed before. Simply because we don’t know how the ripple effect will work on a lot of those issues and I think they made the right decision.”

Sandall says he applauds those who put the brakes on the process but also praises those trying to work on the problem of the imbalance in sales tax revenue and a huge increase in income tax revenue.

“Now, as far as a special session goes, I think it’s still a little too early to try to determine how long it may take to work through some of this. I think there’s a lot of information that the public needs to hear and deserves to hear about what it is we’re trying to solve. I think more ideas will come to light on how we might do that.”

The senator says he feels representatives can accomplish this in a few simpler moves than trying to throw on a large net and tax a myriad of services.

AUDIO: Sen. Scott Sandall talks with Jason Williams on KVNU’s For the People

 

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