Show wa by harry marlow whether education or gov J bracken lee will have the most to say about taxes in utah for the next two years has come to the fore as the one big issue facing the twenty twentynlnth ninth utah legislature and with the 80 60 day session now halt half over education thru its school boards and the legislature threatens to take the matter of taxes right out of th the e governors hands in his opening message to the lawmakers governor lee asked that they give first consideration to a reduction of income and sales taxes now the schools have come on with a bill endorsed end orned hy v boards of education to raise the classroom unit allowance under the uniform school fund from 3300 to 3800 to increase transportation por tation allowance by 325000 and to jump maximum districts may tax over and above the minimum mum for buildings and operation by 20 per cent or four our mills this bill went balling sailing through the senate without dissent and without an amendment and Is expected to get got little more op position in the house this tt would mean that unjess unless the bill is vetoed and the veto sticks about any chance of Income tax reduction Is out the window I 1 since income taxes form a ma lor jor portion of twentyfive twenty five per cent of the uniform school fund the latter fund would be increased more than 3000000 by the classroom unltralse not more than 75 per cent of the fund can be colle collected thru property tax but taxi tax commission S officials already predict passage of the bill will yau raise the pro mclgrty milgrty property tax levy by nearly four i ellb mllb 4 on every 1000 valuation aaion ation which would indicate that every nickle that can be raised by income tax will go into the fund solperturbed so Sol perturbed Is the governor over the turn of events that he has made mada op up his mind to take the entire problem to the people le in ink a series of radio broa broadcmta mats hell talk about taxes for schoola schooh schoolq schoo lq his own tax reduction and balanced budget program and hell even no go to the citizens over he the disposal of the old state prison I 1 rison ratter grounds in regard to the latter arounds frounds he e insists all but a 35 acre plot plo be sold for private development the 35 acre he said should bo be sold gold to the salt lake city school district for or a new high school site mte bills in the legislature call for retaining the around ground other than that proposed for a high II 11 school as a state park ll 11 rk under a 1947 law it Is all a fi reserved r e s arved erved at present for state park purposes second only to the t h tax t question Is that of reapportionment reapportlonment reab rea1 p r 11x n of the legislature something that hasnt been done since 1031 for sometime it appeared th the issue might be sidestepped again bespit desplt despit appearance of a number of bills all in definite rural or urban classifications on the siibtect iniblect but sen A I 1 tippetts D ephralm ephraem chairman of the senate committee on state and municipal affairs which held the bills in the upper house suddenly asked that the senate decide whether it wanted to consider them or not he insisted that feeling on the matter was so to far apart and so much emotion had been generated over the issue that any agreement between urban and rural factions Is out of the question he ile suggested that rather than waste days of debate the matter might well bo ix submitted for legislative council study for two bem ycar 7em this tailed failed to meet the approval of a majority of the senate however and on a vote of 10 to 12 the body decided not to submit the que question 31 uon for study but to debate it on the floor senator tippetts was the only rural senator voting to submit the question he was joined by sens brockbank cannon day jensen and watson all of salt lake fowles and jenkins weber thorn kom and clegg of utah county on the other side two urban senators marthakis and elgreen algreen of salt lake joined rural sens heese reese box elder muir mulr melr cache hopkin of rich summit wasatch Waa atch daggett aa and morgan ashton duchesne and uintah paxton beaver and Mil malllard mlllard millaral laral larsen sevier gar field wayne kane and plute plate beal iron and washington adams emery grand and san juan dillima mllllman &illima juab and too ele gibson carbon and bums burns davis over in the house the question had not been touched through the fourth week at of the session and it may not show until after the measures hit the senate one orre thing that could happen Is the eventual presentation of the matter to the legislative council since resolution calling for council study of reapportionment was introduced in the senate as a compromise in case a long debate produces nothing it appears that rural lawmakers holding the very slightest and sometimes questionable numerical edge in each house will not relinquish control of the house on a population basis without a more certain edge being granted in the senate such as an equal number of senators senator in each county or senatorial district I 1 sen alonzo F hopkin D woodruff made this clear when he said during the tippetts prompted discussion that rural counties will not stand by and have three counties control the he t legislature which would h happen n a in the cw case of weber S salt t agn gn lake ake and utah counties on a reapportionment on a straight population U apportionment afportionment tion basis he ile said rural counties were on the defensive because urban areas had forcedthe forc edthe issue senator hopkin then added that we intend to defend a way of life as dear to us as Is the way of city life I 1 to the urban legislators meanwhile the legislation passed by both houses has been controversial noncontroversial non and unspectacular ta the house however did pass a bill to provide a gas tax refund on motor fuel put to non highway use this would mean money in the pockets of farmers it if it passes the senate and is 13 signed by the governor proponents said it would take some 500000 per year from gas tax revenues which would mean that an increase in gas taxes would be forthcoming it if the highway fund Is to be kept intact senators agreed to accept the measure for discussion in a full scale consideration af 6t 6f the utah legislative councils highway program including a raise in gas taxes and an increase in truck licensing 11cens ing lees fees one thing me the house did before endlngthe endingfthe fourth week was remove necessity of notarizing state income tax returns this year when the senate bill for mat that purpose reached the lower house an emergency clause to make the law effective on approval was attached now all it needs is a signature of the governor to release taxpayers from this little annoyance and fix it up so all that is necessary is to sign the return as the citizen does his federal income tax |