Gov. Mike Leavitt officially added his "no" Wednesday to a chorus of opposition to an increase of 10 to 15 cents per gallon in the state gasoline tax - at least as far as the 1994 legislative session goes.
And the governor conceded that federal retirees will not accept his settlement offer on taxation of their pensions. He released more results of a state-funded poll on the state's offer."I will not be supporting a gas-tax increase this session," he said Wednesday during his monthly news conference at KUED-TV. "I am holding out hope we will not need a gas-tax increase."
The Utah Department of Transportation had been seeking a gasoline-tax increase to pay for improvements to I-15. Those improvements are expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, most of which will come from the federal government.
About a month ago, the federal government increased the gasoline tax by 4 cents a gallon, and Leavitt said it would be too burdensome on Utahns to add another 10- or 15-cents-per-gallon increase in the state tax.
"Swallowing both of those in one year seemed to be a difficult pill," he said.
Legislative leadership has already come out against the gasoline tax increase, and with Leavitt's opposition, any gasoline tax increase in the near future is likely dead. Rep. Byron Harward, R-Provo, the sponsor of a gasoline tax increase in last year's Legislature, has said he won't move ahead without Leavitt's support.
Leavitt also told reporters he will not support raising taxes to fund the state's share of the Central Utah Project, nor will he support property tax increases for schools. Those funds, he said, can be generated without raising taxes.
The sticky issue of settling a lawsuit with federal retirees over taxation on their pensions was also on the governor's mind. "It's clear to me at this point that the retirees aren't going to accept my offer," the governor said.
But he's not ready to give up on it yet. He has proposed polling all 20,000 involved federal retirees about his plan.
In October, a special session of the Legislature offered $50 million to the 20,000 retirees who paid state income tax from 1985-89. That would pay for full tax refunds plus 6 percent interest.
Leavitt said he wants the Utah State Tax Commission to find out if the majority of all retirees oppose his plan to return their back taxes with 6 percent interest instead of the 12 percent many of them believe they are owed.
Jack Helgesen, attorney for the retirees, says there's no way a majority of retirees will accept the offer. Helgesen doesn't even think the offer will be mentioned in court. The Ogden attorney has held 16 "town meetings" across the state so far with retirees. Of the 1,769 who've attended and voted on the 6 percent offer, 93.3 percent rejected it. Only 118 voted in favor. Helgesen believes the Utah Supreme Court will reject Leavitt's request for a rehearing and that 3rd District Judge David Young will simply order the state to pay the full refunds with 12 percent interest.