Legislature set to implement flat tax in special session

Republican legislators have agreed to have a special session later this month to vote on Huntsman's flat-tax proposal. The main goal of this proposal is to lower the income tax rate for wealthy executives so they'll bring their companies to Utah, at a cost of lowering the amount of money we have available to fund public education. Somehow that doesn't seem like a good tradeoff.

Coverage in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune:

"If I knew the increased revenue from the $70 million tax cut was going to [bolster] education, it would be one thing," said Rep. Brad King, D-Price. "But there's no guarantee that will happen."

Huntsman argues that reducing the state's top income tax rate from 7 percent to 5.4 percent will lure top executives and their companies to Utah rather than surrounding Western states.

But Sarah Wilhelm, an economist for Voices for Utah Children, told lawmakers that little correlation exists between tax cuts and economic development.

"This will cause a small uptick in our economy," she said. "It certainly won't have enough impact to pay for the $70 million tax cut."

At the end of the Tribune article, they point out that the tax cut for the average Utah family will be "Roughly equal to the price of one gas fill-up for the family minivan." Haha.