D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli, Democratic challenger to state Treasurer Ed Alter, has criticized an Alter statement printed in the Deseret News in which Alter says the compensation to Utah businesses for collecting state taxes is "too high."
"It's amazing that an elected politician could be so open in his hostility toward Utah business," said Pignanelli. "This statement is a clear indication that the state treasurer should be out on the streets."When the state went from quarterly to monthly remittance of the state sales tax by businesses, the Legislature decided to let businesses keep 1.5 percent of the tax as payment for collecting the tax. When sales tax was remitted quarterly, many big retailers invested the sales tax receipts for several months, earned interest and kept the interest, saying the interest paid them for collecting the tax in the first place. At a recent legislative hearing on the 1.5 percent allowance, several local and state officials testified that the 1.5 percent was too high. Alter was one of them, contended Pignanelli.