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Show Arguments for We need to deal directly with taxes on homes! Property taxes on homes are too high and home owners carry too much of the property tax burden. Our Constitution does not allow the Legislature to directly correct this imbalance. The Constitution needs to be amended so property taxes will be fairer. Proposition 1 will allow the Legislature to correct these problems and will result in fairer property taxes. Without Proposition 1, property taxes on homes are likely to Increase significantly. People are concerned con-cerned about taxes on homes. In response to these concerns, the Legislature has passed tax laws to protect home owners. Railroad and mining companies are challenging these laws in court. If they win, the current protections will be removed. The result will be that home owners could see large property tax increases. The Utah State Tax Commission estimates that under the present Constitution if these protections are removed the assessed valuation on homes could increase as much as 87 percent. Proposition 1 will amend the Constitution to allow the Legislature to hold residential property taxes down. The Tax Article Revision will allow for taxes on homes to be addressed directly and will ensure that home owners are not subjected to burdensome tax increases. The Legislature has passed protections based on Proposition 1! Proposition 1 will allow the Legislature to directly exempt property taxes on homes up to 45 percent of property's value. The Legislature has already passed a law to implement this provision to grant home owners a 25 percent exemption. Enactment of this law is tied to the passage of Proposition 1 by the voters. If Proposition 1 Is defeated, home owners will not have this protection against possible tax Increases. Large publicly-owned Industries should pay their share of taxes! Under the present Constitution, property prop-erty owned by any level of government is tax exempt. As a result, publicly-owned industries like the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain Power Project (IPP) do not directly pay property taxes. These projects, however, increase the tax burden for everyone. It is true that IPP and similar projects are required to make payments in place of the property tax. However, the status of these payments is in doubt and the affected local governments have little control over such payments. Proposition 1 will allow the Legislature to place such projects on the tax rolls. Without Proposition 1, hundreds of millions of dollars In revenues may be lost. Proposition 1 will allow for flexible funding for education! The present Constitution unnecessarily limits the money the state may give to education. Currently, the state may not provide more than 75 percent of the funding for the minimum school program. The Constitution should be amended so that the state can contribute to education as needed. I z. Furthermore, efforts to reduce property taxes hurt f, education. Proposition 1 will provide flexibility In I funding for education without making the schools i unnecessary victims of reduced property taxes. VOTE "YES" ON PROPOSITION 1 ! Senator Karl N. Snow, Jr. I Senate Majority Leader I 1847 North Oak Lane I Provo, Utah 84604 I Representative Franklin W. Knowlton 1 Chairman, House Revenue and Taxation Committee S Box 426 I East Lay ton, Utah 84041 1 Rebuttal to Arguments in Favor of Proposition No. 1 Proposition 1 does not guarantee tax relief to anyone. Proposition 1 will not reduce home property taxes nor will it keep taxes from rising. It will only allow the legislature to manipulate valuations. It does nothing to control tax rates which are set by local governments. Thus, the proposition addresses only one side of the property tax equation. Look at history. The legislature has tried to reform property taxes for the past ten years hoping to grant tax relief, but the results have always been the same-higher same-higher taxes. First, it was the reappraisal program, later a freeze on assessments, next a 17 reduction in the statewide school levy, then a 20 rollback in residential assessments, now we have indexing every two years. These have all been done in the name of property tax reform and fairness. How much did these reforms lower your property taxes? We need tax limitation, not tax shifts. No matter how much the legislature wants to grant property tax relief it will never be successful until it is willing to take a hard line with local governments by placing limitations on mill levy increases. Court cases will not automatically increase taxes. Property taxes will not automatically increase if court cases are lost. Our courts may rule to lower state assessed property valuations to the same level as residential valuations and local governments would be forced to cut spending to recapture any lost income. HELP SAVE UTAH'S ECONOMY AND JOBS BY VOTING "NO" ON PROPOSITION 1! Jack A. Olson, Executive Vice-President James A. Thompson, President McCown E. Hunt, Secretary-Treasurer Utah Taxpayers Association 1809 Wilson Avenue Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 -8- |