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Show Tax Cuts, Tax Jumps Under State Consideration Senator Omar B. Bunnell, 'majority leader of the Utah State Senate, and Grand County's representative in the state's upper body, this week told the Times-Independent that although it is early, some major changes in tax measures will probably be passed by the Utah Legislature this year. Underway only a week and a half, the 1 Legislature has already made major progress on the appropriations bill, Sen. Bunnell said, and it is hoped that the massive funding document will be finished fin-ished and before the entire legislature for consideration long before the hectic last week of the sixty-day session. The appropriations bill, in past years, has not been made public until the sixtieth day, and that practice has resulted in numerous numer-ous ommissions and oversights, despite the detailed work put into it by subcommittees. "It is almost certain we will pass a property tax rebate for citizens over 65, who have yearly incomes of under $7,000," Sen. Bunnell said. This age limit might be lowered if we have enough money available, he continued. Sen. Bunnel also said that there was strong support for a measure which would for all practical purposes eliminate state inheritance tax. A proposal to eliminate sales tax on food is in the mill, but if it were passed, all other sales taxes would have to be raised by about l'i percent to make up for the funds loss, he said. . On the other side of the taxing coin, Sen. Bunnell stated that it is almost certain that the gasoline tax will be increased by 3 cents per gallon. 'The last two years we have had to take money out of the general fund to help finance highway department construction and maintenance. It seems only fair that the people who use the highways should pay for them, and on that assumption the increase is justified," he said. The veteran legislator stated that the Senate spent much of the first week considering Gov. Scott Matheson's appointments ap-pointments of some 20 new commision-ers commision-ers and administrators to various state offices. Among that gToup, Les Graves of Moab and Mack Johnson of Price were confirmed as appointees to the institutional institu-tional council of the College of Eastern Utah. A new set of five liquor commissioners appointed in July by Gov. Calvin Rampton were never approved by the Senate. "Since this board has been operating the liquor organization for six months, we had some basis to judge attitudes and abilities. Although we were under heavy pressure from Salt Lake based interests to approve all five commissioners, the Democrats in the Senate decided to approve four and to refuse to consent to Otis Plant, the chairman. This decision was based on 3 considerations: 1. Governor Matheson's desire to select a strong commissioner of his personal choice; 2. Mr. Plant's failure to cooperate with the Legislative Analyst Ana-lyst for requests for information regarding regard-ing liquor department operations and, 3. his apparent inability to act as part time commissioner and to let administrative personnel take charge of the day to day operation of business." Sen. Bunnell said that since it takes some time to get the system moving, the Senate approved only two major issues during the first five days of the session. Excellent progress is being made by committees, however, and he stated that it is expected that debate on the important bills in the hopper will begin sooner than usual. |