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Show Amendment to Exempt Hospitals And Church Schools Disclosed By C. Sharp The Utah Legislative Council, Coun-cil, Tax Commission, attorney attor-ney general's office and other groups are preparing proposed pro-posed bills to allow property tax exemption for nonprofit hospitals and schools. This was disclosed Oct. 19 at a meeting of the Legislative Legisla-tive Council Committee on Taxation and Transportation. Salt Lake County Atty. Carl Nemelka had told the Salt Lake Ministerial Association in a Newspaper Week address that Westminster College would be on the tax assessment assess-ment rolls next v" Nemelka contended earlier that once" the county assessor has placed properties on the tax rolls that neither the county commission nor the State Tax Commission has power to exempt them. Granted Exemptions The Salt Lake County Commission Com-mission recently took off the tax rolls church welfare farms and the Deseret Industries Indus-tries properties of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter-day Saints, rectories and convents of the Catholic Church and Masonic Lodge temples. All these properties proper-ties had been tax exempt until Assessor Earl M. Baker Ba-ker placed them on the rolls this year. The county commission Oct. 18 employed C. Keith Rooker, Salt Lake' attorney, to take to court their property tax exemption dispute with Assessor As-sessor Baker. R. Milton Yorgason, Tax Commission member, repor-" repor-" ted to the council committee that research indicates that the exemption problem can be solved by a single amendment amend-ment to a state law. Proposed Exemption This would clearly empow er the County Board of Equalization Equali-zation (same personnel as the County Commission) to correct cor-rect errors in the assessment books of the county and to determine whether property which has been assessed is exempt from taxation. Vernon L. Holman, Tax Commission chairman, pointed poin-ted out that such action would avoid necessity for expensive and prolonged litigation tode-termine tode-termine whether a property should be tax-exempt. A delegation from the Utah Hospital Association presented pre-sented a draft of a proposed bill to specifically exempt non-profit hospitals. John S. Boyden Jr., hospital association attorney, said California, New Mexico and Colorado have enacted laws defining constitutional provisions provi-sions on tax exemption. Bills Drafted Holman said Assistant Atty. Gen. G. Blaine Davis now is drafting a similar bill and another which would exempt non-profit church schools from property tax. Clarence E. Wonnacott, government gov-ernment relations representative represent-ative of the hospital association associa-tion and assistant commissioner commis-sioner of Health Services for the LDS Church, said no expectations ex-pectations of making a profit or recovering capital investments invest-ments in church hospitals is harbored. Any possible surplus above operating expenses is used to replace depreciated properties propert-ies or to institute new services ser-vices for the public, Wonnacott Wonna-cott said. Sen. Moroni Jensen, committee com-mittee council for the council, coun-cil, instructed his staff to cooperate co-operate with Davis in preparing pre-paring the bills. Coal Washing Plant The State Land Board agreed ag-reed Oct. 18 to lease 240 acres ac-res of state land south of Wattis in Emery County for use for a coal washing and preparation plant for Plateau Mining Co. at a price of $1 a year per acre. Richard Day, Santa Fe.N.M. secretary and counsel for the mining company, a subsidiary OF United NuclearCorp., supported sup-ported the proposal. The property pro-perty is the former Lion Coal Co. mine. The Land Board also approved appro-ved a revised special use lease for 103 acres of state land at an off ramp from 1-70 under construction three miles mi-les west of Cisco, Grand Co. K. E. McDougald, former mayor of Moab and Phillips Petroleum Co. distributor, told the board he intended to build a large service station, cafe and a truckers' center at the site. Cecil Thomson, Moab, board chairman, siad clearance will be obtained from the 1-70 planning plan-ning Committee before final approval of the new lease. McDougald will pay one per cent of his gross receipts or 12.5 per cent of his net receipts re-ceipts for use of the land. |