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Show Storehouse Report Law Changes So? by Legislature Will Affect Menrly Every Utahn By C. Sharp Many new laws will affect af-fect virtually every Utahn as a result of the flood of bills which were enacted by the Legislature during its last few days ending early morning March 12. On the final day more than 80 bills were acted upon by the two houses. These included the appropriations ap-propriations bill apportioning appor-tioning $531.6 million. This is 37.43 million above current spending, and $4.5 million more than Gov. Calvin L. Rampton recommended. Also approved was a beer tax increase which will yield an estimated $750,000 a year. This increases in-creases the state tax from $1.10 per 31 gallon barrel to $2.35. Camper Tax Owners of campers will have to pay property tax on the campers to obtain license plate decals for the pickup trucks which carry car-ry the popular mobile living liv-ing quarters. Provided Rampton signs the bill, citizens will make their first simplified state income tax returns in 1973. New laws making this possible are the work of the tax revision committee commit-tee headed by Sen. Kend-rick Kend-rick Harward, R-Richfield This committee, aided by a team of accountants and lawyers, has been at work more than two years preparing acceptable legislation legis-lation to permit Utahns to use federal taxable income as a base for computing their state tax. A single prosecutor system of handling criminal crim-inal trials wll become effective ef-fective in 1973. District attorneys will be phased out in favor of 29 county attorneys and their as. sistants. Workmen's .Compensation Workmen's compensation compensat-ion payments were raised from $47 to $54 a week under SB 242-5 sponsored iby Sen. Omar Bunnell, D. Price, and others. For an additonal dependent the rate was raised from $3.60 to $5. For the first time the rate of payments was fix-, ed by the Legislature rather ra-ther than leaving this in the hands of a joint committee. com-mittee. New law also for the. first time recognizes pneulmocomiosis (black lung) common among coal miners, as an indus. trial disease compensable under the law beginning in 1973. Public schools will receive re-ceive state aid of $121.02 million compared wth Rampton's recommended $118.99 mllion and $111.31 million appropriated for the current fiscal year. Higher Education Higher education will receive $77.05 million including in-cluding $50.4 million general gen-eral fund money. Including Includ-ing federal aid and other restricted funds in Rampton's Ramp-ton's figures, this totals $129.93 mllion compared with Rampton's proposed $126.31 million and $118. 36 million appropriated by the last Legislature. In a last minute scramble scram-ble in the steering com-(mittee com-(mittee of the appropriations appropria-tions committee, $200,000 was added for higher education edu-cation projects for the economically disadvantaged. disadvant-aged. This includes $10,000 for the College of Eastern East-ern Utah at Price. Bunnell Bun-nell says this will provide scholarships for about 20 Mexican- Americans. Rep. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, aided in obtaining this money. Snprinf SfM2G?nn Cnivii . - - - - - ' -. . w. . . ; Rampton announced that he would have to call a special session later this year to reapportion representation repre-sentation in the Legislature Legisla-ture after the 1970 census as provided by law. "It appears to be mathematically math-ematically impossible," he said, "to apportion the legislative districts without with-out either electing legislators legis-lators at large from sev eral counties, or by crossing cross-ing county lines and electing ele-cting a representative from a district which includes in-cludes all of one county and only part of another." Concerning the mine occupation oc-cupation tax increase which he had proposed and which was defeated' iii the Senate, he said. l- "I feel that the mining industry should bear a greater portion of the state's tax burden in cases where it is able financially fin-ancially to do this." Sees Levy Increase Rampton predicted that a state property tax levy of from 1.5 to 2.2 mills will have to be imposed next fall to support the state aid for public schools voted. This would mean a tax increase of from $1.50 to $2.20 per $1,000 property valuation. Sen. Wallace H. Gardner, Gard-ner, R-Spanish Fork, appropriations ap-propriations committee chairman, said possibly no increase will be required, !but if revenue does not come as anticipated, a levy of a mill to a mill-and a-half could be expected. Rep. Kenneth Sillman, R Green River, and Harward teamed in supporting two resolutions to benefit southeastern Utah, highways. high-ways. Roads Money Silliman sponsored and kept rolling HJR26 which directs the Highway Department De-partment to: cooperate with the Colorado Hghway Department in Studying feasibility for a spectacular spectac-ular scene route from Moab Mo-ab northeasterly into Colorado. Harward introduced SJR23 asking Congress to unfreeze approximately $5 million in forest highway and public lands roads money frozen during the past two years and due to lapse July 1 unless it can be revived. At stake is approxmate. ly $2 million for work on U-95 over Comb Ridge and adjacent San Juan County Coun-ty scenic areas; $1 million in forest roads money for thru Huntington Canyon, rebuilding the road Emery County, and $400, 000 for completing U-44 across forest lands in Daggett County, plus other oth-er forest roads money. |
