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Senate concurs with amended tax bill shifting renewable credit date and adjusting filing thresholds
Summary
The Senate concurred with House amendments to second substitute SB 223, returning the renewable energy credit start date to Jan. 1, 2007, and adjusting personal-filing thresholds to lower the income floors while modifying the phase-out to fit a $219.34 million fiscal target.
The Utah Senate on Feb. 28 concurred in House amendments to second substitute Senate Bill 223, a package of tax amendments that include changes to renewable energy incentives and personal-income thresholds. Senator Niederhauser, presenting the bill, said the House amendments move the renewable energy credit to take effect Jan. 1, 2007, avoiding a one-year gap in incentives.
Niederhauser described larger tax-code adjustments intended to align the fiscal note with the Legislature's target: he said the filing-status thresholds were moved from $14,000/$21,000/$28,000 (single/head of household/married filing jointly) to $12,000/$18,000/$24,000 with a phase-out of 0.013 per dollar. He told senators the bill's updated fiscal note is about $219,341,800.
The amendments also address county-level sales-tax uniformity: three counties (Millard, Kane and Emery) that had not adopted a quarter-cent local option would be required to adopt it, or the state would enact the option and deposit the proceeds into the general fund to create a single statewide rate on food.
Senator Jones questioned whether changes would shift burden to the working poor; Niederhauser said the adjustments were a fiscal-balance decision intended to give some middle-income filers a break. After debate, the Senate voted to concur in the House amendments; the clerk reported the bill passed on final vote (26 yes, 0 no, 3 absent reported). The bill will be returned to the House for its further action.
