December 6, 2018 – The Utah Taxpayers Association supports Governor Gary Herbert’s proposed tax modernization examination contained in his Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget proposal released today.
While we have concerns with some of the specifics, the Governor’s proposal to broaden the sales tax base while lowering taxes strongly correlates with the Taxpayers Association’s principles of sound tax policy. Additionally, the Association supports the Governor’s recommendation of requiring users of roads and water to pay for the full cost of the service rather than having transportation and water subsidized by sales and property taxes.
The Association is encouraged by the Governor’s following tax modernization items:
- Eliminating the double taxation of small business personal property,
- Cutting taxes by at least $200 million to prevent growth in government following new revenue from the collection of remote sales taxes,
- Reducing the number of sales tax budget earmarks, and
- Efforts to broaden the base and lower the rate.