Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

Don't let Amendment G take you by surprise

9/16/2020

0 Comments

 
When voters get their ballots in the mail next month, they will face, among many other things, Amendment G, which asks whether to change Utah’s constitution to expand the use of income and intangible property taxes “to include supporting children and supporting people with a disability.”
The phrasing is important because the word “education,” is nowhere to be found.
For that matter, neither are the words “tax reform.” 
And yet, Amendment G is all about both those things.
This may all seem minor and trivial in a world filled with COVID-19, racial unrest and a presidential race; but many moons ago, long before people were sent home, economies began to collapse and mask-shaming became a thing, tax reform had people in an uproar.
That was last January. Lawmakers had just passed a reform bill that increased the sales tax on groceries and that added about 12 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline, all in an effort to fix a growing imbalance between sales and income taxes. People were incensed. So many registered voters signed petitions that a repeal vote was certain.
So lawmakers retreated hastily and beat them to it, repealing all they had done not long after the 2020 legislative session had begun.
But reform didn’t go away. It re-emerged in March as a deal to create a new reserve account for education designed as a guarantee against the rising costs of growth and inflation. Social Service programs that help children and the disabled were to be moved from sales tax funds to income tax.
But it all would hinge on voters approving Amendment G, which would end Utah’s 89-year-old guarantee that all income tax collections go solely to education. 
I’m guessing you have forgotten about all of this. It’s more than a guess, actually. Soon to be released poll numbers show only a tiny portion of likely voters consider tax reform an important issue any more in this year’s race for governor. 
And why should that be surprising? Last March education leaders, including those from the powerful Utah Education Association, literally linked arms with legislative leaders and Gov. Gary Herbert in support of the deal.
In politics, this is called making something a moot point. If a tree falls in the forest and no one opposes it, no one cares.
Except that three former education heavyweights do. 
Bob Marquardt, former member of the Board of Regents and former chair of Weber State University Board of Trustees, Dixie Huefner, Emeritus Professor of Special Education at the University of Utah, and Rich Kendell, former commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education, strenuously object.
They met Wednesday with the Deseret News/KSL editorial board. One of their main concerns is transparency. 
“My guess is most of the public, most of the public school community, have no idea that they’re going to lose $600 million out of their fund or much, much more,” Kendall said, noting that is how much estimates say will be taken from income tax funds for social programs, although he said the real figure could be much more. 
“Whether this is a good idea or not, the way it’s being done is just outrageous,” Marquardt said, calling the absence of the word “education” on the ballot and effort to “gloss over the true impact.”
Huefner added, “You change the constitution, it’s extremely difficult to change it back.”
But the three have no resources to mount any sort of mass-media campaign. Those who do, like the UEA, don’t want to. 
This is one tree that is likely to fall without so much as anyone yelling “timber!”
Supporters of the deal will argue it makes up for money lost from income tax receipts and provides necessary hedges against future growth. However, as the few opponents of the deal noted last winter, the difference between today’s constitutional guarantee that income taxes go to schools and a new law setting up a fund is vast. The Legislature may change laws at any time. The constitution can be changed only by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature and a vote of the people.
It’s also worth remembering a debate lawmakers had in 2019. It concerned voters passing Proposition B, which many of them strongly opposed. People voted for it, some of them believed, because the wording on the ballot was misleading. It didn’t state a proposed tax increase prominently enough.
The result was a bill requiring future initiatives to clearly declare how they would be funded. That bill was signed into law. Words, its supporters argued, matter.
As do words that are missing.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.