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Show FROM TITE DESK OF G. STANFORD REES State Senator Representing Beaver County Tuesday is the last day for the introduction of bills in the Senate except by unanimous consent of all the senators. There have been well over 100 bills introduced in the Senate. Of interest to the business men is the Senate Joint Resolution which would place on the ballot bal-lot an amendment relating to tax exemption for tangible personal per-sonal property constituting inventory in-ventory and held for sale in the ordinary course of business. This amendment if passed by the voters of the state would allow the legislature by law to exempt such property from taxation. Anything held for sale could be exempt. It would take a law by the legislature to do this after a favorable vote by the people. At present the Inventory Tax is combined with a tax on personal per-sonal property owned and used by business firms. The combined com-bined tax is assesed by the county against an annual statement filed by each business busi-ness firm listing its total inventory in-ventory and valuation of personal per-sonal property owned and in use. Actual revenue is around 3,000,000 per year. All of this is collected at the county level as a portion of the property tax, with the proper portion being credited to the Uniform School Fund. The business men feel strongly, and rightly so, for many reasons, that this is an unfair tax. In the above form I was opposed to this S.J.R. which is numbered 1. It was manded by Senator Ferry to include J farm products. The bill now reads, "Tangible personal property prop-erty in Utah on January 1 held for sale in the ordinary course of business and which constitutes the inventory of any retailer or wholesaler or manufacturer man-ufacturer or farmer or livestock live-stock raiser may be deemed for the purpose of ad valorem property taxation to be exempted." ex-empted." I voted for the bill in the ebove form and talked on the floor of the Senate in favor of the amendment. Held for sale on January 1st determines that which is exempt. ex-empt. Just how much revenue would be lost by the bill in its present form I do not know. This will be estimated The intent of the amendment is to exempt all poultry and animals being held for slaughter slaugh-ter within the year. Note that if passed in the election next year by the people it would be up to the Legislature in 1969 to pass a law covering this so it could not be effective until 1969. If this tax exemption exemp-tion were to become law, and not sufficient money came into the State Treasury, then new taxes would have to be imposed. im-posed. My feeling is that if the people understand the proposition proposi-tion they can decide what they want to do. This S.J.R! No. 1 passed tie second reading calendar and is now on the third reading calendar.. cal-endar.. A favorable vote on this calendar would send the measure to the House of Representatives Rep-resentatives for consideration, from there it would go to the Governor and if he signs it, to the people in 1968.. I have had many calls on this resolution reso-lution so I have tried to present pre-sent the picture as it now stands. On the third reading calendar I will vote yes if the measure is not changed. G. Stanford Rees. |