H.B. 235 Income Tax Revisions: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate it committee. So try to make your bill reading a little easier on this ones. Uh, all this does is change the individual and commercial income tax from 4.5% to 4.45%. So it knocks off, um, five hundreds of, uh, of the, of the tax. Anyway, it, uh, it's, the fiscal note on this is about a hundred million dollars annually. It is retrospective. So, uh, for the first year it's $124 million. And, uh, we've been able to cut taxes, uh, responsibly and measured, uh, for the last several years. And I think that helps us to see where we're at, that we don't, uh, that, that we still, what we're able to do is build up the economy and the revenues that we get because of the health of the economy, uh, pays for that cut. And I think that's been very, uh, good for us over the last few years, and we'll continue to do that. What that does is it, you know, creates a tax environment that businesses like to deal with and, and individuals like to be here because of that. And so the Piute grows and we get the benefits and, uh, we're still able to pay for other needs. Uh, we're, we had almost a 6% increase in our education, um, appropriations this year. We're still able to, uh, cover other needs. And so we feel this is just prudent and reasonable at this time. So I'll answer any questions if there are.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair and representative. I really like this bill. I've already voted for it. Um, I'm curious about this, this bill kind of came to us in, in an odd way because I don't think I've ever seen a, a house bill in a senate committee that did not have a house committee hearing. Can you talk to us about that?

Yeah. So there was another bill that's just identical to this, that was, um, presented in our house, Reverend Tax Committee, and it, it passed that committee and it was just decided that this would be the one that we'd bring forward.

Okay. So it's kind of maybe an effort to show the House and the Senate are united on this bill?

We, we, you know, we, we both kind of start from the same place. We both hope to end in the same place.

Right. Okay. Okay. Thanks.

Uh, thank you Mr. Chair and committee for the time today. Billy Hesterman with the Utah Taxpayers Association. Uh, very happy to speak on this idea. Again, to say that we are very supportive of an income tax cut for the residents of the state of Utah and think that they'll appreciate the, uh, extra money that they'll be able to have in their bank accounts so that the business of u Businesses of Utah will also appreciate the ability to put more money into the economy and be able to grow and thrive and help build those state revenues for the upcoming year. So because of those reasons, we ask you to move the bill forward. Thank you for your consideration today.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a, a motion that we favorably recommend House Bill 2 35, the full body of the Senate.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, so this bill is an income and a commercial tax cut, and it goes from 4.5 to 4.55%. Um, so the fiscal note is about, it's like 101,000, uh, each year. I mean a hundred, 1 million each year, but it's, uh, uh, retrospective. And so the first year it's $124 million. And, uh, uh, it looks like with the, uh, financial report that we've got, we're able to fund that this year and still meet our needs in other areas. Um, so for the last, uh, five or six years, uh, we've been able to cut, uh, a little bit into some of our, uh, taxes and income tax and some social security tax and other taxes that we've been able to, uh, uh, do that on a, a responsible, uh, proactive way that, uh, eases the burdens on taxpayers throughout the state. And the thing I like about this, it covers, it covers all the taxpayers. Uh, it's everyone, everyone benefits from this. Um, some, some people say, well, we should take this money and use it for other areas in our, uh, state in education or other needs. And, uh, what I say to that is that our education has gotten an increase and it is increasing and we're covering the needs of the education and other areas. And the good thing about a tax decrease is that, um, it spurs other economic growth. So consider the health of Utah. We, we were surprised to see the increase in our revenue this year, but I think it's because of good policy decisions that create an environment where individuals and businesses want to come and build our economy. And because of that, our Piute grows. We don't have to cut the Piute, the Piute grows and, um, uh, it, it's balanced and measured. We're still able to pay our debt. Uh, and we have very little of that. We we're putting money into the rainy day funds. I think we've about maxed those out and, uh, this is fiscally sustainable. So I, uh, I'd be open to any, um, questions at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the sponsor yield to a question? Representative Christofferson, will you yield to a question?

I will, yes. Representative Peterson,

Thank you. I, I believe based on the testimony, I, and I may have heard him wrong, so I apologize, but I think it's worth clarifying. I think he said we were going from 4.5 to 4.55, and I think we need to make sure that everybody knows we're going from 4.5 to 4.45. I may have said that 4.45 is where we're going. We're cutting five basis, uh, 0.5 basis points. It it's only a $200 million clarification, so I thought I better Thank you. Make sure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the sponsor yield to a series of questions? Representative Christofferson, will you yield to a series of questions?

I will, yes. Representative Stoddard.

Okay. This bill did not get a committee hearing. What was the reason for that?

Um, another bill that's exactly the same, uh, received a committee hearing in yesterday's, uh, rev and tax committee and it passed. And this is the exact same bill.

Okay. Thank you. Um, Mr. Speaker, did we ask our education groups to do a 5% cut across the board? I believe we did. Do you know how that squares up with this income tax cut?

Um, I think that, uh, the, the information that I received is the education, uh, uh, needs were met and exceeded. We actually were able to increase, uh, funds to, to cover education needs this year as well as, as, uh, cut the burden on income taxpayers.

All right. Thank you. No further questions.

Yeah, thank you. So appreciate the, uh, clarification. This is a cut of 0.5 basis points from 4.5 to 4.45. Thank you.