Show why not representative jorgensen has introduced a bill in the legislature placing an excise tax on natural gas of one cent per thousand feet this measure has raised a storm of protest from the salt lake daily press who brand the bill as sectional and an effort of the country people to tax the cities which alone have the convenience veni ence of natural gas but lets see natural gas comes into utah from another state and is sold here by a large public utilities corporation in competition with home produced fuels the invasion of gas was a blow to coal industry and coal la taxed owners of coal j properties are compelled to pay adva lorem taxes upon improvements as well as upon the coal lands whether these lands are developed or whether mines are producing in 1930 the tax on coal amounted to 10 cents per ton it is estimated that the proposed gas tax would amount to about the same rate as that now imposed on coal it is further estimated that the proposed gas tax would cost the average user from fifteen cents to one dollar per vv this is not burdensome and surely utah fuels should not be penalized by taxation when foreign fuels brought into this state are exempt if the people of utah insist on new sources of taxation as was indicated when the constitutional amendments were voted last fall here is a meritorious field for new tax revenues it seems to us that the bill is just |