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Show State Wil! Seek New Bids on Timber Property in LaSal Mountain Area By C. Sharp The State Land Board Jan. 26 decided to advertise for new bids for cutting lumber east of Moab. Cecil S. Thomson, Moab, chairman, explained that this was done because the attorney attorn-ey general had held .that the board could not extend the 10-year old agreement held by the San Juan Lumber Co. In other action the board agreed to sell 10 acres of. land near Huntington at $100 an acre for use by the North Emery Water Users Association Associa-tion for a reservoir and ga. thering lines. It also agreed to lease 10 acres of state land near the old Job Corps Center south of Carbon County for $25 a year. This land is to be used as a parking area. Kennecott Case By a 3-2 decision the State Supreme Court last week upheld up-held a $2.3 million deficiency assessment by the State Tax, Commission against , Kennecott Ken-necott Copper Corp. Unless the court rehears the case and changes ilo mind this will mean more than a million dollars a year in revenues to the state for succeeding years. Another "if" is whether .Kennecott appeals the case to the U. S. Supreme Court on grounds that it sets up an unfair taxation upon interstate inter-state operations. Other observers say tha; Kennecott would be wise to pay up. This would stop the interest which Kennecott is required to pay on the amount amou-nt held deficient. It also might block countermeasur-es countermeasur-es against the company in the form of a higher mine occupation occu-pation tax. Tuckett Opinion In the majority opinion written by Justice R. L. Tuckett he held that the Tax Commission was justified in requiring another method for computing Kennecott's corporation cor-poration franchise tax. Tuckett said Kennecott had attributed only $4.6 millionj of its net $39.86 million income in-come to Utah. Yet for computing its depletion de-pletion for that year, Kennecott Kenne-cott had attributed Utah income in-come from sales at $117.41 million, he said. "We do not construe the statute as limiting the commission com-mission to the use of the formula in all cases," he said. Interestate Formula He referred to a formula devised by the National Con ference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws permitting permitt-ing interstate corporation to allocate its income on a basis of property, payroll and sales in all states. Chief Justice E. R. Callis-ter Callis-ter Jr. wrote a sharp dissenting dissent-ing opinion. "In the instant action the Tax Commission, in defiance of express legislative policy and in disregard of the purpose pur-pose of tire sales factor in production jurisdiction in effect ef-fect apportioned the sales of the Utah Copper Division to this state," he said. Erickson Dissent Sixth District Judge Fer. dinand Erickson of Monroe concurred in Canister's dissent. dis-sent. Erickson sat in place of Justice F. Henri Henriod who had disqualified himself. Justice A. H. Ellett and J. Allan Crockett concurred in Tuckett's majority opinion. The College of Eastern Utah, Price, was one of five state schools of higher learning learn-ing which showed a drop if enrollment during the fall quarter just completed. CEU showed a drop from 645 students enrolled in the fall of 1970 to 555 enrolled jr. the fall of 1971. This was a decrease of 14 per cent. Other schools showing a decrease de-crease were Weber State, from 7,504 to 7,100, 5.4 per cent; Southern Utah State, fram 1,964 to 1,856, 5.5 per cent; Snow College, from 808 to 786, 2.7 per cent and Dixie College, from 1,226 to 1,145, 6.6 per cent. The four other state-supported schools of higher learning showed increases in enrollment for all the nine schools of less than three per cent. |
