Ten years ago, Tim Quinn wouldn’t have imagined he would be leading one of the largest tax reform efforts in Utah history.
Hey, he didn’t even live in Utah.
But with only three years experience in the Utah Legislature, Quinn, R-Heber City, says he basically “self-selected” the position he’s in today – chief sponsor of HB441, the massive (250-page) bill that would extend the state sales tax to hundreds of services not currently taxed, lower the rate from 4.85 to 3.1 percent, cut the sales tax by $75 million, cut the income tax rate from 4.95 to 4.75 percent – more than $250 million over several years.
If Quinn, and GOP House and Senate leaders and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, can get this done over the next week, Quinn may well earn a nickname that is floating around Capitol Hill – the “Mighty Quinn” – of Manfred Mann song fame.
Quinn, first elected in 2016, has only three years in the House, not a veteran of a dozen years as one may expect for someone carrying such “a heavy lift” bill.
In an extended interview with UtahPolicy.com, Quinn said toward the end of the 2018 Legislature he started looking at the problems of the state’s General Fund – mostly funded by the state sales tax.
It soon became clear to him, as he asked more and more questions, that the structural imbalance between the state’s personal and corporate income tax take and the sales tax couldn’t continue.
He decided he must work on solving the issue.
“I just didn’t think that it would happen this year,” – so quickly, says Quinn, a former owner of a mortgage loan company who moved to Utah from the Atlanta suburbs. (“I got tired of the humidity, traffic and crime” of Georgia after 35 years.)
He had an employee who lived in Holladay, and Quinn and his family used to come to Park City to ski. Someone suggested on their next visit they stay in Heber City – and after that ski visit they sold their Atlanta home and move to Heber, within six weeks, he recalls.
Today, Quinn and a son operate a specialty business that provides non-prescription “natural” drugs to smaller pharmacies.
“I have eight children and 24 grandchildren,” he says. And Utah, and Heber City, provide he and his wife Heidi the lifestyle and values they believe in, and support.
Quinn considers himself a fiscal conservative who also wants to represent, and help, those less fortunate than himself and his family.
By sponsoring the huge sales tax reform/shift bill, Quinn says some may not see him as a small-government kind of guy. But he is, he says.
He just recognized that Utah state government couldn’t continue down the current tax structure road – the sales tax, mainly placed on physical purchases – was falling behind.
Quinn has been aided in the effort by Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, who is a former state economist and current economist for Zions Bank.
The Utah Constitution says income tax goes to higher and public education. And while growing well, so are funding demands of colleges and K-12 schools.
Sales tax money has been used to help pay for higher education, but in the current budget that source has shrunken to just $25 million. Soon – in fact 2020 – income tax money would have to pay for all higher education funding – thus constricting public school monies.
Studying how to expand the sales tax base to include most services has been fascinating, but also challenging, says Quinn.
“You open one door, and find 20 more doors to go through,” said Quinn.
HBB441 will give both sales and income tax cuts, and so is not an overall tax increase at all, although many folks lawmakers are hearing from now don’t want to see any sales tax due on servicers previously not taxed.
GOP leaders tell UtahPolicy that they have the needed 38 votes to pass HB441 inside of the 59-member House Republican caucus, and won’t need any Democratic votes.
It is expected to be debated in the House Thursday, approved, and moved to the Senate for consideration. The session ends next Thursday at midnight.
