Provo Daily Herald – Democrats decry Herbert’s stance on taxes
Democrats decry Herbert's stance on taxes
Joe Pyrah – Daily Herald |
Democrats responded strongly to Gov. Gary Herbert's state of the state address by calling for targeted tax increases.
"Are you OK with increasing the class sizes in our schools because we are notpaying for the 11,000 additional students that are entering our public schools this year alone?" Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones asked the public.
Jones issued the Democratic response hours before even seeing the governor's speech, saying that she didn't expect anything different from what they've heard numerous times before.
"We know what he's going to say," Jones said earlier in the day.
Democrats are striking a more defiant tone early in this legislative session. During Herbert's speech, they sat quietly — for the first time in recent memory — while the governor was getting standing ovations from Republicans for promising no tax increases and bemoaning federal intrusion.
"We've cut so deep. We've cut so deep already," said House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, after the speech.
Litvack says a number of tax increases should be on the table, including the tobacco and gas taxes, both of which the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce supports.
"We have to identify where the line in the sand has to be drawn," Litvack said.
After the speech, both sides said the other's proposals were short-sighted. Herbert said in an interview afterward that increasing taxes now doesn't leave options for the future.
"It's not that we don't need a tax increase," he said. "It's that we don't need it right now."
Democrats disagreed, saying that by cutting critical services now instead of covering the shortfall with "targeted tax increases" that it will cost much more to restore them later.
"Unless we invest in our most important resource, our human capital, we are at risk of falling to average, to mediocrity," Jones said.
