During his opening remarks to the Utah State Senate on Monday, Senate President Stuart Adams committed to working to maintain Utah’s high economic ranking. Adams said according to Harvard University, the state is number one in the country for upper mobility.
Part of this discussion will include tax reform. Senator Lyle Hillyard, of the 25th Senate district, was one of the law makers on the tax reform task force and sponsored the reform bill during the December special session. A citizen referendum was filed on this bill and legislative leadership decided it would be best to repeal the legislation.
“I felt badly that we lost control of the narrative," Hillyard said. "People could pick and choose different things that they didn't like, but I think they didn't catch the overall glimpse of what we're really trying to do and what we try to put in here to protect people who may have been adversely affected by it.”
With a new governor coming in, Hillyard said it’s hard to put time into explaining what was done in the in the bill and look into reform.
“I'm personally not wanting to add more tax reform until we see who the new governor is," said Hillyard."I'm going to be listening very carefully during this next session or during the summertime, to see what their specific solutions are. It's not just good enough to say 'well, we'll talk to the people and let the people decide' because I found in this situation, I have all sorts of extreme suggestions”
The tax reform bill will likely be repealed this week as lawmakers continue the discussion during the session.
