Last week the Utah Tax Reform and Equalization Task Force held its first series of eight planned public town halls to discuss whether Utah tax policy is in need of reform. I attended two of the meetings and came away quite disappointed, because both meetings were more a propaganda campaign than a listening tour.
Upon arriving at the meetings, attendees were presented with a glossy “Fact Sheet,” banners and slick, professionally produced videos asserting that Utah’s current tax system is broken and must be reformed. The materials claim, without question, that the “ways Utah has funded the state budget no longer meet today’s needs.