House passes substitute to remove sales-tax exemptions and add tax on cable/satellite services, 39–32

The Utah House on March 4 passed the third substitute (as amended) to Senate Bill 213, a broad sales-and-use tax measure that removes or reduces a set of existing exemptions and adds a new tax category for multichannel cable and satellite services. The House adopted an amendment that expands the bill’s definition to cover "multichannel video or audio service" providers and related technologies, then approved the substitute as amended on a 39–32 roll call.

Sponsor Representative Becker described the package as a belated effort to address a long list of exemptions that the Tax Review Commission had recommended for repeal. He told colleagues many of the exemptions are "anachronisms" that no longer serve their original purpose and that the state has "been imposing tremendous cuts" in recent budget cycles. Becker argued the…