Show u X Delta Utah out of countv-- S2000incountv-S2S0- months $1300 (In Advance ) Copy 50c Senior Citizens (65 and older ) $1800 in countv S 2000 cut of county USPS Vol BO No 31 February 15 1990 County sues for PA fast audit data vr - f i ’v Digging out The weather lately has been a bit iffy but when it snows it SNOWS Last week at last enough snow fell to require shoveling At 300 North 100 West in Delta these youngsters enjoyed the task Left to right Lisa Stevenson Jason Cox and Kevin Steven- son That's Boots on the left Pool money okayed Creative financing has convened $500000 Fillmore and Millard County set aside to build a swimming pool into $750000 Last year the county put up $250000 to match a like amount from Fillmore to build an indoor swimming in Fillmore to serve east county pool residents The county money came from a windfall tax settlement The city money came from reserves County Commissioner Mike Stylcr said he and other local officials met in Salt Lake City with Thursday Feb the State Community Impact Board and made a proposal If the board would approve a $750000 loan at 4 percent Styler said the $500000 could be invested to retire the debt in 15 years The board uses mineral lease revenue to help communities impacted by It is mineral extraction industries composed of a member of the State School Board the State Treasurer the Chairman of the State Highway Commission a mayor and a county official Alice Shearer usuaDy a commissioner Deputy Director of the State Departand Economic ment of Community Development chairs the group The board reviews grant and loan applications monthly Board members were so impressed with the Mtilard county proposal they suspended rules that require an autohold on funding The loan matic was approved that day on a unanimous vote Styler said State Treasurer Ed Alter was particularly impressed with the “He looked over the sheets proposal and said ‘This is the kind of ingenious financing that I really like'" he said “He said it helps them stretch their money and us stretch our money and in the meantime build a pooL" Stylcr said he was “very proud of our people and of the homework they had done" on the project County Administrator Robyn Pearson Fillmore Mayor Keith Gillins and Millard School District Superintendent Kenneth Topham were also at the meeting “We also had a representative from Boetcher and Company with us" Stylcr said "They had date all of the number projections for us" The pool will be built in downtown Fillmore next to the Statehousc Museum and the county courthouse Bids for pool construction will be opened Tuesday Feb 27 "We’re targeting to have a pool opening on the 4th of July” Stylcr said Newspaper earns awards The Millard County was among weekly newspapers honored at the Utah Press Association’s 97th annual convention held Feb at the Holiday Inn in St Cwge The paper received awards in two categories in its division in the annual better newspaper contest It won first place in “best news photography" for a picture published on Feb 23 989 of Ann Painter standing in front of the smoking ruins of her Leamington house which had burned to the It also tied ground the night before (with the Morgan County News) for second place in "best feature column" Friday February 16 1990 for “Media Man" Awards in the better newspaper contest designed to help small newspapers improve their product are given in 19 categories For purposes of the contest the 45 weekly newspapers which comprise the UPA are divided into three division based on circulation As a result papers are judged with colleagues of about the same size Utah’s six daily newspapers are not presently UPA members UPA members also honored the late Abraham B (Abe) Gibson at the con- - See AWARDS page 3 Murder trial to begin The murder trial of Lance Conway Wood is set to begin on the morning of Tuesday Feb 20 in 4th District Court in Provo The trial was moved from Millard county to Utah county in a change of venue motion by defense attorney Marcus Taylor County Attorney Warren Peterson concurred with the motion Judge Boyd L Park will preside Wood is accused in connection with the death of Gordon Ray Church an SUSC student and former Delta resident The victim’s body was found near Cove Fort Nov 23 1988 acMichael Anthony Archuleta in the crime cused of being a murder in was convicted of October 1989 and sentenced to die Archuleta is expected to testify against Wood did not appear in the Wood Archuleta trial About 70 prospective jurors will be sworn in Tuesday Each will be given a questionnaire to be used to further qualjury with ify them and select a three alternates Questions on the form will likely be the same is those used in the jury selection process for the Archuleta trial which took a week That form had over 250 questions on it Panelists will be dismissed to fill out the form Tuesday When the court convenes probably the next day a motion will be entered by Taylor with Peterson likely concurring to bold verbal questioning of jurors in private One question on the form asks whether jurors would prefer to be qualified in private Jury selection in the Archuleta case was closed after several jurors requested it Peterson said the Wood jury could also be selected behind closed doors if some jurors preferred it that way "The court will hold a hearing" Peterson said "but it will base the hearing in part on the results of the question- nairc by Kca Rand Millard County wants access to a State Tax Commission audit of taxes Power the Inlermountain j d by Agency that local officials say could be as much as S26 million short A hearing on the matter before the Utah Supreme Court is scheduled for Tuesday Feb 20 at 9 am in Salt Lake City Millard County Attorney Warren Peterson said negotiations with the commission are continuing If successful he said the hearing would then be cancelled IPA was audited for sales and use tax on the equipment and materials installed Power Project at the Intermountain north of Delta after the plant was built IPP accounts for about 85 percent of the Millard county lax base The audit w as cond uc ted by the Sales and Use Tax Audit Division of the Slate Tax Commission The commission collects sales and use tax on behalf of local entities State sales tax is 6 percent in most counties Almost percent goes to local governments based on point of sale population and other factors The state keeps the rest Peterson said the county heard from an unofficial source that an audit of IPP disclosed $24 million to $26 million in tax assessment and collection deficiencies If the information is correct about $4 million of that would belong to the comity But the commission refuses to surrender the audit to the county to confirm the information The county got a quarterly lax check from the state in late 1988 with $700000 “It just kind of fell out of the sky" Peterson said County Administrator Robyn PearHe discovered IPA son investigated had questioned the audit met with the commission reached a compromise and the check was a result of that compromise “We’re talking a little over $3 million short" Peterson said “and nobody told us We were tipped off by somebody in the state who no longer works for the state And it wasn’t the auditor by the way “So we’re sitting down here wondering where is the $3 million? Why was it com promised? And all we have is IPA people saying "Yeah we’re aware of it and it’s incorrect and we’ve compromised and don’t you worry about it’ Don’t worry about three million bucks? Who are we kidding?” Why is the data being withheld? Peterson said IPA claims the data is “proprietary information" that no business should be required to have such information given out to the public in general “That’s true when you’re talking about private enterprise" he said “but we’re talking about a public entity here" IPA General Manager Reed Scarle describes IPA as an “interlocal cooperating entity" which he said is “somewhere in between (public and private) but it’s much closer to a government public entity” Still whether or not tax recipients may have access to the tax data on such entities is being questioned “That’s exactly the question that the court will be deciding" Scarle said The Utah Tax Code provides that information concerning tax returns including audits is confidential Butthe law contains exceptions to provide access to that information through the courts under certain conditions Soon after Pearson’s investigation the county filed a motion to intervene in the matter wiih the commission Butthe commission issued the check for the settlement then issued an order denying Millard county’s right to intervene Peterson said "They compromised the thing and issued the money" he said “before telling Millard county that we couldn't even find out what was going on" The county appealed to the Utah The major issue as Supreme Court Scarle sees it is whether or not the commission has authority to settle of sales and use tax discrepancies “and specifically whether the local government jurisdictions have the right or not to intervene in before or after the State Tax Commission involvement with regard to those issues" He said “Sales and use tax issues have always been settled and resolved between the Tax Commission and the payer of those sales and use taxes" The court ordered the commission to send them the record in the case But IPA then filed a motion to protect the record “The thrust of their motion is to deny Millard county the right to see the Tax Commission record" Peterson said The commission concurred with the IPA motion “How is When the court persisted (the county) going to prepare their brief if they don’t have the background information?" as Peterson put it - IPA offered an alternative Peterson said the alternative was that if the information was provided - See TAX page 2 Supreme Court to hear tax issue by Ken Rand The Intermountain Power Agency is appealing two cases it lost in district court involving assessment and collection of property taxes The Utah Supreme Court will hear the appeal Wednesday March 14 in Salt Lake City District courts in Garfield County and in Weber County ruled last year that IPA must pay an assessment to defray the cost of collecting taxes The utility had claimed it was exempt from the fee The assessment and collection mill levy was passed by the state legislature two years ago Taxpayers arc charged a 0005 lax levy (the cquivclant of 25 IPA mills) which goes to county governments to cover their costs of assessing and collecting taxes Millard County Commissioner M ike Stylcr explained that at one time that fee was paid by the collecting entities namely the school district cities special service districts and the like “When they received their taxes" he said “they just paid back a pro rated cost of collecting those taxes which the counties collected for them” Stylcr said the schools cities and others approached the legislature to change the system to assess the fee from the taxpayer rather than the recipient Dove case parallel Millard County Attorney Warren Peterson said he sees a parallel between the IPA tax audit case and the Dove Supermarket case both of which involve the StateTax Commission The Commission discovered grocery store owner Dcon Dove of Springville was deficient in paying chain several taxes for his years ago A deal was struck: if Dove could pay off the deficiency he could keep his doors open The Tax Commission made the deal “without any approval or any chances for the local entities that they’re supposed to be representing to have their own interests protected" Peterson said “Who's minding the store?" The same kind of secrecy is volved in the Commission denial of the county request for information on the IPA tax audit Peterson contends The problem with the Tax Commission private settlement with Dove was exposed in February 1989 when the Dove stores including the one in Delta closed in a bankruptcy proceeding Dove now faces trial in June seen on 56 counts of 13 felony charges including tax evasion Dove is charged with defrauding various victims including 10 cities and the Tax Commission itself of more than $6 million between 1983 and 1988 About $52 million of that is in sales taxes About $110000 of that figure is owed to Delta Delta and the other nine cities volved have filed a claim with the state for the tax money they say the Tax Commission should have collected for them Tax Commission figures show the amount owed by Dove is $761 3877 A solution to the problem made obvious by the IPA and Dove cases is now being addressed in Senate Bill 241 It was introduced onto the Senate floor by Kay Comaby Wednesday Feb 7 SB241 would give political subdivisions access to Tax Commission sales and use tax records subject to restrictions This confidentiality bill specifically targets the type of circumstance that we face in the IPA audit" Peterson said “Their lobby was a pretty good Stylcr said “so the legislature FUND RAISER PARTY For Delta Wrestlers program to honor 1990 State Champions Feb 22 Delta High School Lunch Room Tickets $1000 each Special invitation to former state champions w ho will also be recognized Get tickets from Glitchen Shumway LeRay Jackson 6 Margie Beckstrom Lon Jackson The West Millard Cultural Council presents in concert Tickets $300 each && ‘nhfmssmfoE cmamwer ‘eMs'embde TLT said A state levy was phased in to pay for the collection costs through the Slate Auditors office The Auditordistributcs the taxes back to the county IPA said the law was unconstituBut courts in Ogden and in tional IPA has Panguitch ruled otherwise appealed those rulings to the State Supreme Court “Millard county is not a party to that case” County Attorney Warren Peterson said “but it involves the same questions that are being presented in a case in which Millard county is a party" Peterson said a case is pending against Millard county filed by IPA and Union Pacific Railroad attacking the constitutionality of the law as well as the way the county has interpreted it “The proceedings in that lawsuit have been stayed in all counties in the state except Millard county" he said “All the other district courts stayed any further proceedings in (the case) until the Supreme Court reached a decision on the two cases before it But our district court chose not to" Stylcr said the case represents about $450000 in income potential to Millard county He said it represents about $12 million in costs to IPA at 7:30 pm at the Delta High Auditorium one" okay” See related story inside |