Tax reform repeal: The sheeple speak
You can take a medicinal cannabis initiative supported by voters and wrangle it into something different to satisfy church influences.
You can refuse to pass laws fully securing LGBTQ rights. While Utah law states people cannot be fired because of sexual orientation, it protects coworkers who argue their opposition because of religious or moral beliefs, which can make for an uncomfortable workplace environment.
You can sell off our dwindling natural resources and beauty, enact ridiculous liquor laws, and oppose salary equality for women by refusing to pass separate wage equality legislation for women, which is why Utah has the second-largest pay gap in the nation with women making just 71 cents to each dollar a man earns.
But by God, the only way to shake up the rubes and get them into a pitchfork and torch furor is to pass legislation that will allow you to impose new taxes.
That’s why, in a dramatic turnaround, the governor and legislative leaders announced last week that they plan to repeal a huge and highly unfavorable tax plan that roused the normally docile sheeple who bow in reverence to the Red State misfits who tend bar in the state capitol.
After a special legislative session last month it was announced that there would be a new tax structure implemented that would impose higher taxes on food, gasoline, and other consumer needs.
Now, you can put a sin tax on booze and cigarettes.
You can tax the hell out of luxury items like mega-sized televisions.
You can levy heavy taxes on vehicles.
But, when it comes to food and gasoline?
It was a stroke of incredible ignorance by the governor and Legislature to think they could dip into our pockets for extra revenue by taxing our mechanical and biological fuels. I mean, we all need food and to be able to buy that food, we need to be able to get ourselves to work. Access to food and gasoline is non-negotiable. We need both to survive.
Neither is a luxury, even though many Utah families are cutting those corners pretty tightly.
Hiking state tax on groceries from 1.75 percent to 4.85 percent would have meant that families on the edge, getting by on the cheapest rather than the most nutritious foods, would have some very difficult decisions to make before heading to the checkout line.
To their credit, the voters supported a proposal to present a ballot initiative in November to repeal the new tax law and had, according to organizers of the effort, gathered some 150,000 signatures, more than enough to place an initiative on the November ballot to toss out the flawed legislation.
I’m surprised.
Utahns don’t turn on their leaders very often, and when they do, their anger is usually aimed at the feds.
The last time I saw such grassroots activism in Utah was when the George W. Bush clown car pulled up at the gates of the Nevada Test Site and wanted to implement the Divine Strake Program, a major bomb test that would have shaken loose innumerable amounts of radiation from the desert floor, spewed them into the air, and created a whole new generation of downwinders.
We stopped that nonsense with the support of then-Gov. Jon Huntsman, who placed his name at the top of that petition and hand delivered it to Washington, D.C.
The public also shut down plans for a proposed coal-burning power plant just outside of Mesquite. That effort was represented by Rudy Giuliani, a weasel in training at the time, who served as a legal representative for the group.
But those were outsiders, carpetbaggers swooping in to take advantage of a disadvantaged public that had been abused by government at its highest levels for far too long.
This current rebellion?
It is rather startling because, well, we all know where the Legislature gets its marching orders, and the voters aren’t about to cross those guys without a really good reason.
This botched tax reform bill offered a really good reason.
Utah has this squeaky, saccharine-laced Mayberry reputation for being very family friendly, a reputation for being utterly dedicated to its children, a reputation for hard work and values.
But that just never fit well with this tax reform legislation.
Boosting taxes on food and gasoline literally puts our families and kids in jeopardy healthwise and creates obstacles for the working men and women who are already trying to stretch their paychecks beyond reason.
It was bad PR, bad judgment, bad mojo.
There were, according to some, a number of tradeoffs.
The legislation promised cuts in the income tax and additions to per-child dependent exemptions. Still, economic analysts said the bill would have a negative impact on residents and small businesses. Even though personal income has gone up, it hasn’t kept pace with housing costs. That’s why the Utah Foundation’s Community Quality of Life Index has experienced a significant drop. Add to that the fact that Utah is driven by an increasingly service-driven economy, which is traditionally lower paying. The new bill, by the way, would have levied significantly higher taxes on service industry businesses.
The major impact is that it would have taken about half a billion dollars and moved it from income taxes, which fund education, and placed it into the General Fund.
That’s a scary thought because, well, our Legislature and governor all talk about putting an emphasis on education, but it seems like there is never enough to go around to help our kids in the classroom or the teachers who are so dedicated to serving them.
The issue of tax reform will sit dormant for at least a year as legislators point out there will be a new governor elected in November and he or she should be a part of the process, especially since Republican hopefuls formed some of the greatest opposition to the bill.
The takeaway from all of this is that these guys work for us.
We elected them.
They are supposed to represent us.
And if we don’t like what they are doing, we should make the correction in the voting booth – whether through referendum or replacement.
There is strength in numbers, you know.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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Wow, citizens spoke up against a horrible tax law and you still managed to insult us as rubes and sheeple? Put down your double edged sword for once and don’t attack the very audience you are speaking at.