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Legislative action that proposed this amendment: HJR3 1945 Regular Session
Disposition: This amendment took effect following voter ratification. You may read the resulting 1947 Utah Constitution here.
Amends article 13 section 2
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 this state, counties, cities, towns, schools districts, municipal corporations and public libraries, lots with the buildings thereon used exclusively for either religious worship or charitable purposes, and places of burial not held or used for private corporate benefit, shall be exempt from taxation. Water rights, ditches, canals, reservoirs, power plants, pumping plants, transmission lines, pipes, and flumes owned and used by individuals or corporations for irrigating lands within the state owned by such individuals or corporations, or individual members thereof, shall not be separately taxed as long as they shall be 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 provided by law. The legislature may provide for the exemption from taxation of homes, homesteads, and personal property, not to exceed $2,000 in value for homes and homesteads, and $300 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 person 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 purpose of paying the state debt, if any there may 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 debt.
