SALT LAKE CITY — It may be a bleak budget year, but Republican legislative leaders are still eyeing another income tax cut.
"We believe we can find another tax cut there for income taxes again," House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said in an interview Wednesday with FOX 13 News.
Governor Spencer Cox did not propose an income tax cut in his budget to the legislature, citing tax cuts already offered by the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that President Trump pushed last year. But Speaker Schultz believes there may be room for it.
"Our budget is actually really still pretty good here in the state of Utah. We have enough revenue to cover the increases that we need to have and we think we can find enough revenue to offer an additional tax cut. Does that mean there’s a lot of things don’t get funded? Absolutely," the Speaker said. "That’s the case every year and that’s a good thing honestly. Keeping government limited and our fiscal house in order."
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Utah political leaders have made little cuts every year on the income tax for the past five years. The income tax is also earmarked for public education and some social services (though lawmakers also dip into other revenue sources to fund those as well).
Lawmakers are gearing up to address property tax increases that have given many Utah residents sticker shock. There is also a bill to cut the gas tax in half.
In the Senate, Democratic leaders have also made affordability an issue for their policy priorities but urged caution on any tax cuts. Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, told reporters another income tax cut was "on the table" but declined to commit.
"We’re early in the session, everybody knows that," he said. "We’ve got lots of demands for services. We’ve got to look at February numbers. We’ve got to try to figure out the effects of the Big, Beautiful Bill."
