Gov. Michael O. Leavitt urges Legislature to authorize $50 million reserve to settle refunds for federal retirees

Governor Michael O. Leavitt asked the Utah House of Representatives on the opening day of a second special session in October 1993 to authorize him to offer a settlement to federal retirees affected by a recent Supreme Court ruling that found the state's retiree tax exemption discriminatory.

Leavitt said the decision created a retroactive liability the state could not easily absorb and proposed a package intended to limit the state's exposure while delivering refunds to eligible retirees. "We will set aside the necessary state funds. That would be $50,000,000," he said, and proposed that the state pay refunds but not retroactive interest in the circumstances created by the Court. "It is fundamentally unfair to require somebody to pay interest retroactively when they acted in good faith to that point," Leavitt said.

The go…