Show ILI aum ium UNDER THE CAPITOL DOME by harry Mar marlow loWes speedy action on income tax reduction spurred on by gov J bracken lee was the major consideration as legislature this week swung into its second week of action indications were good that tt bat gov leeana the states state tax payers would get the sought lyra for reduction although there were some differences of opinion as to just how much of a cut the legislators would go for gov lee wants taxes cut as A first order of business thereby clearing the decks for a realistic appraisal of the states anticipated antic abed revenue for the coming b blenn biennium 11 lum and also an equally realistic view of how funds I 1 should ou id be allocated and the legislators have moved with commendable promptness to get the tax dash slash proposals into the legislative mill As the week opened no less than nine bills were in the hoppers asking income tax cuts through increased exemptions six of the bills cam efrom the governor blueprinting his proposals the mo lee package it if adopted would cut some from the income tax reve nue three other bills backed by the utah legislative council want taxes cut only an estimated to main feature of the governors tax slash proposal are to up exemptions from the present rate of per person 1200 per couple and for dependents to a exemption in all three categories along with the increased nereas ex emption sare gadded proposals t to being bring utah vetura Ve returns turn more in line with federal returns provide for a short form which Is based on net income and allows federal taxes to be deducted dedUc tell and make inae the whole thing retroactive to include returns return sWed filed this year on 1952 1932 income ithe balance of the governors bills take up the lack slack in the uniform school fund which will be bo left by the 3 income tax cut gov Y lee Is asking an appropriation of be made from sales tax revenue to the school fund for each of the 53 1853 1933 54 34 and 1654 1054 55 53 fiscal years ars then because the I 1 e chief executives cu tives tax reduction plans also call for elimination of state property taxes he w wants ants to give i from sales tax funds to the school fund in bo both th the 1953 54 and 1054 1934 55 fiscal years yeam I 1 ithe the legislative legisla ilie council proposals are more moderate in aror their air tax de decrease case they advocate that all exemptions be placed at 1600 1 which increases only the exemption for dependents equitable features of federal tax laws are included the ahe present short form would be repealed and the loss to the uniform school fund would also come out of sales tax surplus should the council plan be adopted preliminary clock room talk has not increased which propos ah ali likely to get the legislative approval or whether a compromise might be hammered out one thing though appeared certain the republican ma majority or 15 8 in the senate and 39 21 in the house are determined to give the governor some sort of se cuts v t f v there were however some indications which might possibly presage developments when the the bills come up for consideration one of these was that in the house some 25 republican legislators placed their names on the bills favored by gov lee among them thern were the majority floor leader rep charles R peterson R and the majority nahi whip R rep clair 11 ho hopkins akins R H vernal e r only six more representatives would have to be found to put the bill over in the senate the division of those favoring one or the other bill ill is not so clear the legislative council tax bills appeared to tu have the th early strength there are ux ReP republican ubIL senators who are members of the council and aud three democrats Ho however not all signed he the council tax bill five jeans put their names on the governors over nors proposals one in te cresting feature was the comment by sen mart marl D gibson D price that the governors bill comes a lot closer to the welfare commission estimates of the minimum an individual can live on than ours does doft gov lee also made one other request which the legislative council moved promptly prompt to L answer this ibis one was on the always hot issue of legislative reapportionment in n his opening message gov lee said he hoped the legislature would meet its constitutional mandate and solve the knotty problem the next day the council meland hammered together a compromise which the 13 man body felt they could agree on r under the irlan plan introduced under council sponsorship in la the senate the house would be cut to 53 members and the senate cut to 21 1 house member ship now stands at go and the senate at 23 up until now the big stumbling block to reapportionment has bee been the reluctance anco of the other 26 counties to allow control of the legislature to be centered in the three populous counties of salt lake weber and utah at A things now stand the t 26 20 county rural bloc has in the senate and two in n the house under the legislative coudell council plan the urban county k trio would have I 1 11 I 1 e se senators a majority of one ne but would have only 29 25 representatives sto in the house to 29 28 for the others a minority of three with the counties broken up into districts with one senator from each district a lot of the rural objections would be alleviated levia ted and a better distribution of representation offered the citizens of the three counties tal under der the new plan Salt lake e county would he be cut from to 19 to is 15 members in the house of representatives Re cache box elder carbon raj anc sanpete would each lose tone one representative and Dav Davis laCoun coun ty would gain oneall other counties would remain remain unchanged the elnan senate i J would be reached by a in the southern tand i and eastern sections of the state duchesne county i now in a sena senatorial torla district with uintah would be t added to the district inow com of rich luch morgan summit wasatch and daggett daggett county along with uintah emery grand ard san juan counties count les would make up ai new district beaver county would be split away from millard and added to iron and washington to form another district millard is added to sanpete San pete making last change this leaves cache box elder davis and carbon counties as single lingle county districts utah and weber counties will be split to form two districts and salt lake into seven districts although there are apt to be several veral more reapportionment bills dropped into the hopper before the session ends council members are hopeful this bill will meet most of the objections organization of both houses went off without a hitch following an advance plan blueprinted d for the first time since 1931 b by republicans sen ben mark paxton R fillmore took over the senate president chair so long occupied by democrats A pair of former house speakers sen rendell mabey R bountiful and sen clifton G M kerr R tremonton are majority floor leader and majority whip respectively seni serm J francis fowles bogden DOg den president last session is leader of the democratic minority over in the house rep mer rill K davis R salt lake became the third republican speaker in four sessions rep charles R peterson of provo will guide the GOP bloc as majority floor leader aided by rep clair R hopkins R ver nal as majority whip democrats brats chose rep W G bill larson D magna as minority leader and rep wendell grov er D riverton as whip committee appointments went to ke key republicans e with democrats cra rt getting ge t ir two minor chairmanships man ships in both houses the vital appropriations committee will be led by the joint ailworth vil joia leadership of sen allworth wOrth S woolley 11 salt lake and rep lawrence B johnson R ran dolph bo both th are staunch backers of the economy program of gov lee I 1 e other key senate chairmanships went to the following agac agriculture alture and irrigation IrTi gation sen serl B H R vernal education sen serb luke clegg R provo highways sen clif p orn G M kerr R tremonton health and labor sen frank M openshaw M R salt lake judiciary sen sert edwin B cannon pon R salt lake revenue and taxation sen ellas L day R H salt lake welfare areSen am taylor burton R salt lake appointments Sen rendell N mabey 11 in the house top committee rep johnson ahe the following Agriculture Rep archie 0 gardner R delta education rep simeon A dunn it hyrum highways and aero rep reo clair R hopkin R vernal irrigation rep heber sevy bevy Rw R cedar city labor rep theodore C jacobson it san salt lake livestock it rep welby W young heber rheber R ak city itly mining and smelting smelling sm elting rep G douglas taylor R salt lake public lands rep G 0 patterson R moab public welfare rep john H johnson R tro pic revenue and taxation rep ralph sheffield R salt lake university of utah rep jaren L jones R salt lake |