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Show Legislature considers 200 bills this week By Rep. Gayle F. McKeachnie As the next to the last week of the general session of the 44th Legislature concludes, the Utah House of Representatives has completed its consideration of House bills. During the final week the House will direct its attention to consideration of Senate bills and budgetary matters. The House has considered a tremendous amount of proposed legislation during the week and has passed to the Senate over 200 bills for their consideration. A number of the bills are aimed at revising the Utah State tax system. House Bill 227 and House Bill 228 deal with a proposed redistribution of sales tax revenues collected by the cities and counties throughout the state. H.B 228, sponsored by Representative Carl Saunders of Ogden, would change the formula presently existing under Utah law which distributes sales tax revenues to the local entity in which they are collected. Under the new formula revenues would be distributed partially on the basis of point of collection, as under present law, but' would distribute 30 percent of the revenues on the basis of statewide population with the change to be phased in over a three-year period. The passage of H.B. 228 would result in a significant loss of revenues to Vernal City, Uintah and Duchesne counties. The bills passed the House with a substantial majority indicating a general dissatisfaction throughout the state with the present formula. Representatives supporting H.B. 228 voiced serious concern that the present formula has distorted the growth process in many cities resulting in numerous annexation problems and serious disputes including litigation among cities, especially on the Wasatch Front. Although I was unable to support the passage of 228, because of the financial impact it would have on Uintah Basin communities, one must concede that the distribution of sales tax on the basis of point of collection has caused a considerable number of problems even in our own communities. The heavy support received must be read as an indication that sales tax revenues may not always be available in the future for our local communities and that local government leaders would be wise to start to prepare now for funding of local programs and services on a balanced tax program which is not heavily dependent on local option sales tax. Other tax measures passed by the house, by a heavy majority, and sent to the Senate, included a package of bills designed to remove the 24 mills property tax mandated by the state for financing of public schools, and to place in substitue thereof a cent and a half sales tax collected in each local school district throughout the state. The package also included variations which would make only a partial substitution providing for a balance with both property tax and sales tax contributing to the financing of the public school system. That package of bills was tabled by the Senate Committee on Revenue and Taxation with very cursory consideration and will not be acted upon. Notwithstanding the failure of the bills to be enacted into the law during the present session, it is reasonable to predict that the ideas embodied therein will be seriously considered during the interim between the present session and next year's budget session, and that a program to accomplish the switch from property tax to sales tax for the financing of public schools will be seriously considered in the 1982 budget session of the legislature. Major Senate bills which have been the subject of considerable debate and study for the entire session came before the House in the last week of the legislature. Included are the controversial con-troversial Senate Bill 134 known as the Bankers Bill constituting a recodification of the banking laws of the state, recodification of the laws of the state governing health in Senate Bill 74 and a bill providing for the reorganization of the Department of Natural Resources and consolidation of the Office of Energy with Natural Resources. Senate Bill 134 and Senate Bill 74 comprise well over 600 pages with several hundred pages of amendments amend-ments made in the Senate. One of the major tasks of the House of Representatives will be to give adequate consideration to those major bills within the short time limits remaining in the 1981 general session. |
