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Show m sips ton liEiDftfEOEi, ffoii rGteMo eqqshigs Under the bill, a homeowner is entitled to a direct refund from the State general fund of 27 of the property tax which a homeowner pays in 1979 and every year thereafter." there-after." "Each homeowner is entitled en-titled to $100 and the maximum refund is $400. For example, an average homeowner who earns $15,-000 $15,-000 and is living in a home that is assessed at $8,000 would be paying an average tax of about $560. That homeowner would be entitled to a refund of $151.20. Renters Ren-ters would be entitled to a refund of 2.7 of their total yearly rent paid or $100, whichever is greater. "The second major tax reduction measure is Senate Bill 345, the school finance bill, which provides $20 million mil-lion worth of tax reduction by decreasing the State established es-tablished local mill levy for' the support of the public school system. That mill levy currently is set at 28 mills and will be reduced by 4 mills to 24 mills in 1979. Thus, a homeowner whose home is assessed at $8,000 would have his or her taxes reduced by 4 mills or approximately ap-proximately $32. About half of this total relief goes to business and industry and the other half goes to homeowners. home-owners. "A third significant part of this tax relief package is the expansion of the existing exist-ing circuit breaker property tax relief for low income individuals age 65 or over and to widows and widowers regardless of age. Senate Bill 186, sponsored bySena-tor bySena-tor Haven Barlow and others, would provide tax relief to those individuals whose yearly incomes are under $7,000. "The amount would depend de-pend on income and could be as much as $300 for those individuals with household incomes of under $3,000. Minimum relief under this program is $100 for those earning between $6,000 and $6,999 yearly . Renters would also be eligible for this relief but would have to fill out a special form in conjunction with the relief that they are entitled to under un-der Senate Bill 320. "While I am disappointed that the Legislature did not provide for additional relief re-lief for 1978 property taxes the Legislature did remove the existing $2.4 million limitation on the current circuit cir-cuit breaker. Therefore, homeowners and renters who are eligible under the existing exist-ing circuit breaker must file before April 15, 1979 to receive the relief under the current provisions before the new law goes into effect," ef-fect," said the Governor. Five other smaller tax reduction measures will provide about $1 million of relief to various individuals and sectors of our economy. Senate Bills 32 and 9 allow heads of households, those single persons who have been divorced or widowed and who have dependent children, to file under the married taxpayers tax-payers rates instead of the single income tax rates as they do now. This will provide pro-vide tax reductions of approximately ap-proximately $45 toeachper-son toeachper-son in this group. For those age 65 and older, the amount of pension money which is exempted from State income tax has been increased from $4,800 to $6,000 and could provide as much as $93 of relief, depending on the individual's in-dividual's income. House Bill 344, allows for a deduction from adjusted gross income for expenses incurred in adopting a child. House Bill 105, also sponsored spon-sored by Representative Money, would exempt farm machinery from State and local sales tax, to encourage encour-age more people to engage en-gage in farming in Utah and to help hold down rising food costs. Lastly, Senate Bill 330, sponsored by Senator Fin-linson, Fin-linson, would increase to $8,000 the amount of income that a person may have and still be eligible for the county property tax abatement or deferral program. This program pro-gram is optional with local counties and individuals who feel that they might qualify should check with the local county treasurer to receive further information on this particular program. "These 12 bills which I am signing," said Governor Matheson, "and the proposed constitutional amendments which will be before the voters lns1980, would provide pro-vide significant short and long range tax relief to the citizens of our State." Governor Scott M. Matheson Mathe-son signed 12 bills as part of a major tax reduction and limitation package that was passed by the 43rd Legislature. Legis-lature. The 12 bills are designed to provide tax payers with more timely information in-formation on taxes which they owe, to provide for general gen-eral governmental taxation and expenditures limitation at the State and local level, ,and to provide for general O State tax reductions and tax relief. "This significant group of bills is an out -growth of a year long study by my Tax Revision Study Committee and extensive legislative debate de-bate during the last session," said the Governor. "The bills represent a compromise. Many had advocated ad-vocated for the removal of the sales tax from food. I supported that position. Others felt that the entire available relief should come In the property tax area." "The final package isprl-marily isprl-marily a property tax relief re-lief package. However, by providing some expansion of the existing circuit breaker legislation, by providing important im-portant tax decreases for single persons who have dependent de-pendent children, andbypro-viding andbypro-viding new relief for our senior citizens, it is a tax package of which we can all be proud." This is not a Governor's tax package or a Republican tax package, or a tax package pack-age of one committee. But, . rather the result of input from thousands of Individual citizens and many interest groups throughout the State. The Legislature chose to adopt a statutory method of expenditure and revenue limitation. I support that concept. I believe that the statutory approach places the necessary controls on O State and local government expenditure without hampering ham-pering our future growth as a State, and without unduly restricting re-stricting us as constitutional amendment might have one." "House Bill 303, sponsored sponsor-ed by Representative Gary Brockbank, will assure that over a period of years, a smaller percentage of a citizen's taxes will be used for support of government at both the State and local levels. The measure ties future expenditures to rise in per capita personal income in-come and population changes. This is a sweeping sweep-ing limitation proposal and one that may cause some problems at the local level; but it is a limitation proposal pro-posal with which we can work." "House Bill 231 provides specific limitations on the property tax after a property prop-erty revaluation. While some restrictions did exist prior to this legislation, this particular bill tightens the restrictions and prevents excessive property tax increases in-creases following a property prop-erty revaluation to prevent the kind of large increases which occurred in Salt Lake County this past year." "Senate Bill 190, spon-spred spon-spred by Senator Warren Pugh, Senator Omar Bunnell, Bun-nell, and others, is an extremely ex-tremely important bill. In effect, it provides for a freeze on assessment rates at the January 1, 1978 level. Thus, after the second round of revaluation, all locally assessed property In the State will be assessed at a January 1, 1978 level. This also takes the inflationary factor out of property taxation tax-ation and requires that any increase in taxes be reflected reflect-ed in an increase in tax rate, not simply a change in assessments." "Senate Bill 138, sponsored sponsor-ed by Senator Fred Fin-llnson, Fin-llnson, would establish a deadline of November 1st for the mailing of tax notices to taxpayers. This measure will insure that this vital tax information is given to the taxpayers on a timely basis. 0"ln the area of tax reductions, reduc-tions, the State Legislature passed, and I am happy to sign, 8 bills which provide pro-vide approximately $75 million mil-lion in tax reduction and tax relief to Utah citizens. The largest of these measures meas-ures is Senate Bill 320 which will provide $51 million worth of tax relief to Utah homeowners and renters. |