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Legislative action that proposed this amendment: SJR2 1930 Special Section
Disposition: This amendment took effect following voter ratification. You may read the resulting 1931 Utah Constitution here.
Amends article 13 section 2,3
13:2
All tangible property in the State, not exempt under the laws of the United States, or under this constitution, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law. The property of the United States, of the State, counties, cities, towns, school districts, municipal corporations and public libraries, lots with the buildings thereon used exclusively for either religious worship or charitable purposes, and place of burial not held or used for private or corporate benefit, shall be exempt from taxation. Water rights, ditches, canals, reservoirs, power plants, pumping plants, transmission lines, pipes and flumes owned and used exclusively for such purposes. Power plants, power transmission lines and other property, used for generating and delivering electrical power, a portion of which is used for furnishing power for pumping water for irrigation purposes on lands in the State of Utah, may be exempted from taxation to the extent that such property is used for such purposes. These exemptions shall accrue to the benefit of the users of water so pumped under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe. The taxes of the indigent poor may be remitted or abated at such times and in such manner as may be provided by law. The legislature may provide for the exemption from taxation of homes, homesteads, and personal property, not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars in value for homes and homesteads, and one hundred dollars for personal property. Property not to exceed $3,000 in value, owned by disabled persons who served in any war in the military service of the United States or of the State of Utah and by the unmarried widows and minor orphans of such persons may be exempted as the legislature may provide.
The legislature shall provide by law for an annual tax sufficient, with other sources of revenue, to defray the estimated ordinary expenses of the State for each fiscal year. For the purposes of paying the State debt, if any there be, the legislature shall provide for levying a tax annually, sufficient to pay the annual interest and to pay the principal of such debt, within twenty years from the final passage of the law creating the debt.
13:3
The legislature shall provide by law a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation on all tangible property in the State, according to its value in money, and shall prescribe by law such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of such property, so that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her, or its tangible property, provided that the legislature may determine the manner and extent of taxing transient live stock and live stock being fed for slaughter to be used for human consummation. Intangible property may be exempted from taxation as property or it may be taxed in such manner and to such extent as the legislature may provide. Provided that if intangible property by taxed as property the rate thereof shall not exceed five mills on each dollar on valuation. When exempted from taxation as property, the taxable income therefrom shall be taxed under any tax based on incomes, but when taxed by the State of Utah as property, the income therefrom shall not also be taxed. The legislature may provide for deductions, exemptions, and/or offsets on any tax based upon income. The personal income tax rates shall be graduated but the maximum rate shall not exceed six per cent of net income. The rate limitations herein contained for taxes based on income and for taxes on intangible property shall be effective until January 1, 1937, and thereafter until changed by law by a vote of the majority of the members elected to each house of legislature. All revenue received from taxes on income or from taxes on intangible property shall be allocated as follows: 75 per cent thereof to the State district school fund and 25 per cent thereof to the State general fund and the State levies for such purposes shall be reduced annually in proportion to the revenues so allocated; provided that any surplus above the revenue required for the State district school fund as provided in Section 7 of this Article shall be paid into the State general fund.
