| OCR Text |
Show QSol eliminate the burden of welfare which the various counties of the state have borne. The 15 percent which the counties have been contributing- through funds raised from property taxes henceforth will be obtained from state sales tax collections. Another major welfare bill was approved by the House with surprising sur-prising ease. It was Rep. Wm. L. Warner's (R-Sevier) HB-151 that would limit welfare payments to $175 per month regardless of the size of the needy family. In addition, addi-tion, the state would have a preferred pre-ferred claim on all estates which exceeded $8,000, plus $200 for funeral fun-eral expenses. t The cost of fishing and hunting in Utah also took a jump during SB-43 which will increase all resident resi-dent fishing licenses $1. The mea-the mea-the week when the House passed sure also ups the ante on all nonresident non-resident fishing and hunting licenses li-censes as well as alien licenses. Constituting less than seven per cent of the world's population, he and his fellow Americans own most of the world's radios, more than half of the world's telephones and three-quarters of the world's cars. The committee on Public Debt Policy has figured that each of us iowes $881 more than he makes, 'Too bad we can't figure our income in-come tax on that basis. A third tax measure, however, would increase by 50 percent the gasoline tax motorists would have to pay. Introduced by Reps. (Mrs.) C. L. Jack and Don C. Hale CD-Salt CD-Salt Lake), the gas tax bill would increase the present 4-cent per-gallon per-gallon tax on gasoline to six cents. This increase would be limited to the years 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1951. To encourage industrial expansion expan-sion in the state, Mrs. Jack introduced intro-duced HB-232 which would grant corporations which process or manufacture finished goods from Utah raw materials certain exemptions ex-emptions on payment of corporation corpora-tion franchise taxes. This exemption exemp-tion would be determined by adopting adop-ting a ratio arrived at by comparing compar-ing the sales of goods finished in Utah to the sales of all products and other income. Already law is HB-130 by Rep. E. K. Olson (D-Carbon). This bill, signed by Gov. Maw, will give veterans, vet-erans, if single, an income tax exemption ex-emption of $2700 and, if married, $3300 for the years 1946 through 1949. , Another measure approved by both houses was SB-93 by Sen. Sol J. Selvin (D- Tooele) which will . The honeymoon is over on Capi- tol Hill. Peace and tranquility that has marked relations between the 27th Utah Legislature and Gov. Herbert Herb-ert B. Maw have been replaced by the old feud over politics and appointments. ap-pointments. What will come out of the situation situ-ation is pure speculation at this stage, but either the governor or the Senate must give ground during dur-ing the next two weeks, if the state's official famliy is to be complete com-plete when the legislators adjourn sine die.. There appears little doubt in Capitol corridors that the Senate, and especially its Republican members, mem-bers, is holding up some of the governor's Democratic commission appointments in an effort to force reappointment of Otto A. Wiesley, Republican, to the Utah Industrial Commission. The governor already has submitted sub-mitted the name of H. Fred Egan held by Mr. Wiesley, and he was of Salt Lake for the position now one of five who failed to draw a comment from the Senate following follow-ing an executive session during the session's sixth week. Others submitted, but neither confirmed nor refused, were J. Lambert Gibson, Democratic chairman chair-man of the State Tax Commission, Dr. Philo T. Farnsworth, Democrat, Demo-crat, for the State Public Welfare Commission; and Arthur L. Crawford, Craw-ford, Republican, and Rulon S. Howells, Democrat, for the State Publicity and Industrial Development Develop-ment Commission. Gibson, Crawford and Howells are all interim appointments and their names were submitted as early as Jan. 21, while names of Egan and Farnsworth, the latter appointed to the welfare commission commis-sion when the Senate refused to confirm the interim appointment I of Wendell Grover to fill the unexpired unex-pired term of David Trevithick, were preferred during the past two weeks. Probably more disturbing to the amiable relations between the governor gov-ernor and legislature than the appointment ap-pointment issue during the sixth week was action on a "headless ballot bill. Gov. Maw took an al-loted al-loted five days to veto the measure, meas-ure, and the Senate responded by overriding the veto on a 17-6 count. The House, however, was not inclined to override and the proponents of the measure were successful in putting the bill on the table by a 37-20 vote. This gives the "override" advo-' advo-' cates an opportunity to gather new ; strength, but there appears little hope, even in the most optimistic quarters, of passing the bill Over the veto. Some Senate observers saw the override more as an attempt to set a precedent, but the more popular opinion is that those in favor of the measure see considerable val- ue to the "headless ballot" in 1 building good government. It was introduced by Senators Ward C. measure, HB-94, to provide for removal re-moval from office of county asses-sessors asses-sessors who fail to assess property proper-ty as provided by law, was defeated defeat-ed by a favorable voice vote to strike the enacting clause. The seven tax bills provide for assessment assess-ment of property on a basis of 50 percent fair, reasonable cash value and provide for close supervision of the program by the State Tax Commission. Tax relief for a large number of Utahns, people with estates of $40,000 or less, also appeared in the offing when the House placed its stamp of approval on an already al-ready passed Senate bill, SB-108 by Senators Alonzo F. Hopkins (D-Rich); Dexter Farr (D-Web-eri and Claud Hirschi (R-Wash ington) . This measure would eliminate elim-inate inheritance taxes on estate of $40,000 or less where the residue resi-due is willing to the surviving spouse or children. At the present time, Utah law exempts only estates es-tates of $10,000 or less. Holbrook (DnDavis) and Mitchell Melich (R-Grand) and would eliminate party emblems and the "straight" vote listing the candidates candi-dates by the office and placing party designation opposite each candidate's name. Voting against the override in the Senate were Senators Val H. Cowles (D-Carbon), Lorenzo E. Elggren (D-Salt Lake), Dexter Farr (D-Weber), J. Francis Fow-les Fow-les (D-Weber), Grant Midgley CD-Salt CD-Salt Lake) and Sol J. Selvin (D-Tooele. (D-Tooele. Senator Fowles was the only member of the upper house to change his vote between original origi-nal passage and the override vote. The one state department to grab a lion's share of attention was the State Dept. of Publicity and Industrial Development which was finally given $300,000 per year from motor vehicles registration regis-tration funds to carry on its operations. op-erations. Gov. Maw's action is still awaited and it is remembered he told a press conference that the department must have $400,000 I per year to carry out its program. Legislators point out, however, that the department has more than $300,000 in unincumbered funds to add to its appropriation. The iSenate also passed a measure meas-ure to reduce the Publicity and Industrial In-dustrial Development Commission to one member and its proponents are predicting the bill will gain approval of the House and the governor. Opposing the measure in the Senate were Senators Elggren, Elg-gren, Cowles, Fowles and Selvin, while the appropriation measure for $300,000 per year won unanimous unani-mous approval. Closest of the session in the Senate Sen-ate to date saw final passage of a measure to eliminate the dealer's license fee of $5 for selling oleomargarine oleo-margarine on a count of 12-11. The question of taxes occupied most of the time of members of the House during the week. Seven of a series of eight measures, sponsored spon-sored by the Utah Tax Study committee com-mittee and . designed to equalize property assessments throughout the state, were approved. The 8th |
