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Show 16 monday. june 19,1978 ?) V , open account !Chuck AKerlow Tax reform not limitation Utah is more than ready for tax reform. Notice that I said tax reform and not tax limitation. The reason for the distinction is that tax limitation, in my opinion, does not address some of the inequities in the present tax structure. To limit the growth of government is a noble idea but I think the time has come to carefully analyze what taxes support what governmental activities and to what extent those taxes ought to grow in relationship to those activities. had the opportunity of watching Howard Jarvis debate the speaker of the California assembly, Leo McCarthy, in Los Angeles during the Proposition 13 campaign. The point Jarvis drove home to me was that the property tax in California was related being used to support sciences. Jarvis approach in Proposition 13 was more than one of simply revolting against taxes. He was also concerned about the structure of taxes in Calfornia. I non-proper- Photographed by Robert Brantley Specsoffikc (CaDwepag .of Utah business. When thats what want to know about, I read The Enterprise. Bob Pembroke . I President A.H. Pembroke Co. ty Jarvis argued that the California property tax was being used to support education, welfare, health, matching funds for other federal government programs and a host of other governmental activities which service. did not provide property-relate- d Jarvis main thrust was to propose that the property tax be limited to paying for those services related to properties such as: police, fire protection, street improvements, maintenance, etc. He pointed out to Speaker McCarthy that the California constitution provided clearly that the legislature had the responsibility of funding education. street-curb-gutt- er Governor Rampton recently has come out in favor of abolishing the property tax altogether. I am not prepared to suggest that, but I do believe the time has come in Utah to look seriously at our entire taxing system. While the present proposals for tax limitation are a step in the right direction, my concern is that we will still be left with the same old taxing structure only with new constraints upon it. Tito Emtteu'pDSse Dtnxeanns DonasDoness Utah's only business newsweekly. There is a great emotionalism at present concerning taxes. Some have called it a tax revolt, others believe that it is less serious than that. I believe there is no question that the taxpayer has reached a saturation point. Taxes on property in the state have gone up consistently as have taxes on other items. The time has come to take a searching look at how we tax and why we tax and how we can use the taxing system to limit government growth in the future. I think tax limitation does not quite accomplish that objective. |