It took them a day to get their act together, but legislative Democrats came out swinging Wednesday against the Republican plan, unveiled Tuesday, to cut property taxes by $90 million, eliminate the state-mandated property tax altogether and shift $186 million to other taxes.
Adjectives flew as about 20 Democrats attended a morning press conference."This is a cowardly Cowboy Caucus out of control, cynical and disastrous," said House Minority Leader Frank Pignanelli, D-Salt Lake. The "radical right" in the Legislature could destroy Utah's vibrant economy, he added.
Senate Minority Whip George Mantes, D-Tooele, said he was personally offended when he had to vote on a $5 billion budget plan Tuesday afternoon after five minutes of explantion by Republicans. "The 60,000 people I represent were disenfranchised, as were all the constituents of (Democratic) colleagues."
The idea of shifting $186 million from property-tax revenue to other taxes - mainly the sales tax, corporate income tax and a possible severance tax - is a major, major change in how Utah government operates, said Mantes, and should be done very carefully, after a lot of thought and study.
House Minority Assistant Whip Grant Protzman, D-North Ogden, said "early, preliminary" figures from several sources show Utahns would end up paying between $20 million and $25 million more in federal income taxes. That's because homeowners and business owners can now deduct their property taxes on federal income tax returns, but they wouldn't be able to deduct the off-setting sales-tax increases on their taxes.
"I can assure you," shouted Pignanelli, "that Utah Democrats will never give in to sending $25 million of the citizens' hard-earned money into the black hole of the federal government."
While they say they want to discuss where the $186 million tax shift will go - whether to sales tax or some other taxes - Republicans do say that an increase in the 6 percent sales tax by 5/8 of a cent would bring in $144 million. A 5/8-cent increase, Democrats say, would move Utah from having the 16th-lowest sales tax in the nation to having the sixth highest.
"One-third of Utahns rent, don't own homes," said Pignanelli. "And this is nothing more than a tax increase on one-third of the people, many of whom are low income, on fixed incomes, and can't afford this."