Utah House passes narrowed manufacturing sales-tax exemption; late recycling amendment removed after fiscal review

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House of Representatives on Nov. 20, 1996, passed a revised sales-tax exemption for manufacturing, House Bill 3,001, and forwarded its version to the Senate after removing a late amendment that would have extended the exemption to some recycling businesses.

Sponsor Representative John L. Valentine, presenting the second substitute, said the change narrows the session’s work to the manufacturers’ exemption and removes more complex Tax Commission rule codification that officials wanted to consider later. "The second substitute takes out all of that language ... and moves forward only on the issues of the manufacturer's exemption," Valentine said on the floor.

Valentine and other sponsors described the bill’s core elements: a clarification of the ‘‘new and expanding’’ and ‘‘replacement’’ exemptions, a four-part test for replacement parts (including a three-year economic life), and a phase-in of the exemption (30 percent through June 30, 1997; $60,000 through June 30,…