| OCR Text |
Show By Harry Marlowe Now that Gov. J. Bracken Lee's biennial "state of the State" message has been delivered to the 31st Utah Legislature, Legis-lature, the big question is "How much of it will be enacted into law." There is little doubt that part of the governor's legislative legis-lative program will find its way into the statutes. There 'is just as little doubt that some of it will be dropped by the wayside. The governor's basic promise was simple. Either, he said the state cuts down on service, ser-vice, particularly to schools, or the property tax goes up. Actually, the answer is not that simple. Some services can be cut down. That Is pretty well agreed by those who have a habit of looking at things realistically. But you cannot refuse to give the best of existing services to school children just because their numbers num-bers are- increasing. Neither can the state go on using property tax, or the threat of hikes in property tax, as a revenue cure-all. cure-all. Search For Reveue There must be other sources of revenue. Some of them have already al-ready been suggested to the legislature. leg-islature. Many of them are somewhat some-what unrealistic. Some have no chance of passing. Among the suggestions (none of these, incidentally, come from Gorvernor Lee) are a higher income in-come tax rate on higher income bracket taxpayers, a one per cent hike in corporation franchise taxes, and an 'increase in the state's one per cent mine occupation occu-pation tax. Terhaps the answer lies in the intimation of the governor that maybe a little decrease in services ser-vices can be linked with a little increase in taxes as a method of solving the fiscal problem. Some Solutions Certainly the legislators have some methods which will help without hurting anyone too much. All the tax studies made in the past year have pointed out some inequities that one sound income tax law could solve without any increase in taxes but with considerable more revenue reve-nue to the state. Also inclusion of such thigs as uranium, oil and gas under the mine occupation occu-pation tax will bring more money mon-ey without cutting into the pockets poc-kets of heavily burnened taxpayers. i But these sources are - not enough. There will have to be some clear thinking on monetary mone-tary matters, some "hold the line" attitudes on unnecessary expenditures, and some real careful care-ful Judgment on what spending is unnecessary. Certainly, the 1955 legislators cannot easily afford af-ford to add too many new expense ex-pense burdens on the state. May Withold Aid It seems likely the state will abandon its program of state aid for emergency school building. But the program need not come entirely to a stop. No one, Including In-cluding the governor, Is advocating advocat-ing taking away some extra taxing tax-ing power given districts to help raise funds. Also, a new building code setting up safe realistic standards will not hurt. This is the session when it looks like some real progress will be made on legislative reapportionment. re-apportionment. The legislators fall are aware of the problem. So ( is the public, and more of them seem inclined to go along with o moderate approach to the problem. prob-lem. Some Attitudes Already the legislature has indicated in-dicated its support of the Upper Colorado Project, one of the items I called for by the governer. j His idea of spjiting the sales tax revenue surplus between schools and the building fund is getting favorable comment. The general condition cf government, barring any new spending splur-I splur-I ges, is not bad. I Admittedly, the 1955 Legislature Legisla-ture faces some tough problems. And the governor's program will I not supply all the answers. But there are some hopeful signs in the first 10 day? of the session. I The legislators are aware of the i problems. And, they all seem inclined in-clined to do their darndest to come up with some sort of an answer. |
