SALT LAKE CITY — A question on Utah ballots on Election Day this November asks where your income taxes should go. In effect, asking whether that money that has been earmarked for public education now be changed to fund other state budget needs?
Several educational organizations, including the Utah Education Association, Utah PTA, Voices for Utah Children and Utah School Employees Association, have launched a campaign called Utahns for Student Success to battle against the proposed amendment which would remove the earmark on income tax for public education.
“We anticipate that what would happen is other state needs would take priority over public education. At this stage of the game, we know that we have a revenue source that is stable. Where the problem comes in is distribution of that revenue,” explained Renee Pinkney, President, Utah Education Association.
Separate from the campaign, the UEA is now part of a lawsuit seeking to keep Amendment A off the ballot.
“We have the same arguments, that the constitutional amendment a language was not published in any newspaper that were aware of, let alone the newspapers in all the counties," added Pinkney. "And so that criteria is constitutional mandated and it did not happen."
Part of the amendment would also remove the sales tax on food. Opponents believe voters shouldn’t have to choose between the two.
“That can happen any time, that’s political will. So if the constitutional amendment on its face is so strong of an argument, why are they trying to incentivize voters with a false choice,” said Pinkney.
"If you’re going to give us an opportunity to say, 'Hey, we're going to give flexibility in the budget so that we don’t force tax increases down the road sooner than they need to be and also lower the food tax,' it's a win for taxpayers,” said Billy Hesterman, president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, which supports the amendment. "We'd like to see that money unlocked, to go to the highest priority needs.
"We believe that will still probably be education, but we would just like to see that flexibility within the budget, so the money goes where it’s supposed to go."
During monthly news conference Thursday, Governor Spencer Cox also spoke in favor of Amendment A.
"The idea of the earmark and all of that money going directly to education funding has never worked the way it was intended to work," he claimed. "And so instead of keeping up that charade, what we should do is actually put some protections in place, which we’ve done via legislation, to make sure that we're getting more funding to our schools."
Utahns for Student Success also plans to launch an ad blitz urging voters to defeat Amendment A in the upcoming election.
