1 00:00:04,170 --> 00:00:32,790 Okay, thank you. Welcome to the Utah State Tax Commission meeting. It is 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 12th, 2026. We are located at 210 North 1950 West in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have three of us who are here in person as well as Shantay. And we'll go ahead and announce the folks in the room first. 2 00:00:32,790 --> 00:00:37,830 I'm Commissioner Rebecca Rockwell, starting with Commissioner Deeds. 3 00:00:38,090 --> 00:00:39,730 Commissioner Johnny Deeds. 4 00:00:40,530 --> 00:00:42,110 Diana Haring, Executive Director. 5 00:00:42,790 --> 00:00:44,250 Sean Danesburg, Executive Assistant. 6 00:00:44,870 --> 00:00:48,470 Thank you, and now we have half of the commission, 7 00:00:48,710 --> 00:00:53,530 and several others who are appearing remotely today for various reasons. 8 00:00:53,810 --> 00:00:56,390 So we will start with Commissioner Chair Valentine. 9 00:00:57,230 --> 00:00:58,170 Thank you, Madam Chair. 10 00:00:58,170 --> 00:01:05,050 I am John Valentine and I'm the commission chair and I appreciate Commissioner Rockwell 11 00:01:05,050 --> 00:01:08,130 sort of been as the chair this morning. 12 00:01:09,770 --> 00:01:11,350 Commissioner Jennifer Frascus. 13 00:01:13,420 --> 00:01:13,980 Cleed. 14 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:15,280 He the executive director. 15 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:23,900 John Nielsen, director of property tax. 16 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:25,640 Sure. 17 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:26,020 I'll speak. 18 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:27,480 Tax commission economist. 19 00:01:29,770 --> 00:01:29,970 Okay. 20 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:31,930 It looks like that is everybody. 21 00:01:33,710 --> 00:01:35,950 Thank you for being here today. 22 00:01:36,650 --> 00:01:42,790 We are going to start with the first item on the agenda, and that is public comment. 23 00:01:43,550 --> 00:01:48,630 Are there any individuals or groups wishing to address the commissioners for up to three 24 00:01:48,630 --> 00:01:54,390 minutes on matters not related to appending a reasonably imminent appeal to the tax commission? 25 00:01:57,740 --> 00:02:00,880 Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item. 26 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:07,080 The next item is consider approving the commission meeting minutes of February 12th, 27 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,760 2026, and I will look to Commissioner Frescus for a motion. 28 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:18,480 Thank you. I move to approve the open and closed commission meeting minutes of February 12th, 2026. 29 00:02:19,540 --> 00:02:21,860 Thank you. All those in favor? 30 00:02:23,260 --> 00:02:23,940 Aye. 31 00:02:27,510 --> 00:02:37,070 The next item is consider approving a settlement agreement for Walgreens company versus Salt Lake County Board of Equalization. 32 00:02:37,570 --> 00:02:48,650 This is case number 1909-02349-TX in the 3rd Judicial District Court, state of Utah. 33 00:02:48,650 --> 00:02:59,300 And I am looking for a motion from Commissioner Valentine, unless we have any discussion. 34 00:02:59,580 --> 00:03:00,380 Commissioner D. 35 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:10,000 Yes, if I may interrupt briefly, I need to recuse myself on this matter as I represented one of the parties previous to joining the commission. 36 00:03:10,220 --> 00:03:14,200 So I will step out while this act I was handled. 37 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,340 Okay, thank you, Commissioner Deeds. 38 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,300 We will come and retrieve you after the vote. 39 00:03:29,750 --> 00:03:36,310 Okay, Commissioner Deeds has exited the meeting, so unless there are any questions, we will 40 00:03:36,310 --> 00:03:38,770 look to a vote from Commissioner Valentine. 41 00:03:39,810 --> 00:03:41,310 Thank you, Madam Chairprutem. 42 00:03:41,570 --> 00:03:46,970 I move that we approve the settlement and authorize our Council to sign on behalf of the commission. 43 00:03:51,220 --> 00:03:52,880 Okay, thank you. 44 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:59,420 This is an action item, so this will be a roll call vote, starting with Commission Chair Valentine. 45 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:00,920 Aye. 46 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:02,960 Commissioner Fresquez. 47 00:04:03,820 --> 00:04:04,380 Aye. 48 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,340 And Commissioner Rockwell votes aye. 49 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:09,460 That motion passes. 50 00:04:12,590 --> 00:04:17,870 The next item on the agenda is to consider publication revisions. 51 00:04:18,150 --> 00:04:21,490 And before we do that, we will retreat Commissioner Deeds. 52 00:04:21,490 --> 00:04:22,830 Okay, thank you. 53 00:04:25,430 --> 00:04:26,070 You're done. 54 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:33,640 Okay. 55 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:41,860 We're now back to our full forum, so we will move on to the next item, which is Consider 56 00:04:41,860 --> 00:04:43,300 Publication Revisions. 57 00:04:44,060 --> 00:04:52,440 We have Publication 20, Business Personal Property Taxes, and Publication 25, Sales and Use 58 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:54,260 Tax General Information. 59 00:04:54,260 --> 00:05:09,920 These are information items only and now that they're announced we'll just go ahead and move on to the next item which is commissioners reports. Does anybody have a report they would like to make? 60 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:16,860 Sure, for just a moment, we've had a couple of others who joined us perhaps we had to just identify them quickly. 61 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,440 Oh, yes, okay. 62 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:28,720 It looks like we have Ms. or Bailey Ru, Bailey Royball. 63 00:05:29,700 --> 00:05:31,860 Could you please announce yourself? 64 00:05:58,210 --> 00:06:10,910 Thank you, Lauren. We're glad to have you here, and we'll give one more chance. It looks like we have a Bailey Roybal on the line from Twila County Board of Equalization. 65 00:06:11,750 --> 00:06:15,970 Bailey, could you please announce your presence for 66 00:06:23,260 --> 00:06:23,760 the record? 67 00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:38,220 Okay, well, the commission notes that we have Bailey Royball from Toilet County Board of Equalization, 68 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:40,360 appearing in our meeting. 69 00:06:41,940 --> 00:06:46,380 And now we'll go ahead and move back to the pending agenda item, 70 00:06:46,500 --> 00:06:48,000 and that is commissioners' reports. 71 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:51,640 Do any of the commissioners have a report to make? 72 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:55,680 Madam Chair, I've got a couple quick comments on a report if I may. 73 00:06:56,220 --> 00:06:57,400 Thank you. 74 00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:05,660 We've just finished the legislative session and it was difficult as most legislative sessions are. 75 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,440 Our team was outstanding, Madam Chair. 76 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:19,620 This team that we've developed to try to respond to the many, many, many bills that were filed and required us to review. 77 00:07:20,580 --> 00:07:28,320 It is just amazing to see how well that we have responded within the short time frames that we had to do. 78 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:37,740 I'll let you, Madam Chair, comment on the physical note process, but on the process of the bills themselves, we negotiated. 79 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:45,520 I cannot even tell you how many bills that we negotiated with sponsors to try to make them so that they could be administered. 80 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:49,880 We did not participate in any policy arguments or discussions. 81 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:57,860 But what we attempted to do is to make certain that the policies that the legislature was attempting to move forward 82 00:07:57,860 --> 00:08:02,420 were something that would actually be workable by taxpayers and by the tax commission. 83 00:08:03,220 --> 00:08:06,080 And so again a big shout out for the whole team. 84 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:14,160 I'll be probably forgetting somebody if I mentioned them all, but it was just amazing to see how well everybody worked together 85 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,440 to be able to respond to this last legislative session. 86 00:08:19,220 --> 00:08:20,060 Thank you. 87 00:08:20,420 --> 00:08:25,580 And yes, I would like to also give a big shout out to all 88 00:08:25,580 --> 00:08:31,180 of those involved in the fiscal note process, the office 89 00:08:31,180 --> 00:08:35,960 of the legislative fiscal analyst ultimately bears the responsibility 90 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,480 of issuing fiscal notes on bills, 91 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:45,840 But they could not do their job without the assistance of the state agencies. 92 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:53,360 And in particular, those involved in the fiscal noting teams here at the Tax Commission, 93 00:08:53,960 --> 00:09:00,800 we have on the administrative side, Heidi Riley and Jason Gardner, 94 00:09:01,020 --> 00:09:06,000 who work on fiscal impacts on the office of the commission side. 95 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:17,700 We have Eric Cropper, Jacoba Larson, Alex Jarosovic, and Kristina Langberg, and we also have 96 00:09:17,700 --> 00:09:26,040 been fortunate to have Tracy Nuddle and Bob Reese on our legislative team this year. 97 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:36,080 where an all of our folks have been a tremendous asset in ensuring that our bills are both 98 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:43,100 administerable and that the fiscal impacts are properly communicated to the office of 99 00:09:43,100 --> 00:09:45,160 the legislative fiscal analysts. 100 00:09:45,780 --> 00:09:53,880 We do know that we had several bills this year that passed through the legislature that 101 00:09:53,880 --> 00:10:02,360 we're not funded and we know that we have work left to do to ensure that we have the funding 102 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:08,760 to properly administer those bills. We have been working with the governor's office 103 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:19,000 of planning and budget as well as those on the legislative teams, legislative staff in communicating 104 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:26,140 those needs. And we will continue to work those bills and make sure that they get funded in the future. 105 00:10:27,420 --> 00:10:39,300 But despite the challenges and difficulties, we performed very, very well. And our people are 106 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:56,560 just a testament that goodness and diligence and integrity exist in the process of state 107 00:10:56,560 --> 00:10:57,000 government. 108 00:10:57,560 --> 00:10:58,280 So thank you. 109 00:10:58,960 --> 00:10:59,640 Thank you. 110 00:10:59,820 --> 00:11:00,540 One final note. 111 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:06,660 I cannot, we could not do this with all of the members of the tax commission, the downstream 112 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,220 in the various different agencies responding timely. 113 00:11:11,560 --> 00:11:16,400 This was very, very, a very good response this year. 114 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,020 We had some very short time for anti-several times, 115 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:23,760 and people rose to the occasion to respond 116 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:25,480 and to determine agency impacts. 117 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:30,800 So, big cudo to the whole staff at the University of Utah State Tax Commission. 118 00:11:31,340 --> 00:11:33,920 Yes, and we also need to recognize 119 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:43,460 that Commissioner Frescus and Commissioner Deeds bear a heavier responsibility in the appeals process 120 00:11:43,460 --> 00:11:50,820 during the legislative session because they are down to members of the commission. 121 00:11:51,260 --> 00:11:56,580 And so all of the work that is done here is a team effort. 122 00:11:56,580 --> 00:12:23,600 and we also need to recognize our executive director, Diana Herring, who is at the helm of the ship on the admin, especially on the admin side in making sure that the process runs smoothly and well, both with regard to the legislative issues that come up during the session, as well as the overall performance of the agency. 123 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,700 So, thank you all all around to everybody. 124 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:33,160 That completes my comments, Madam Chair. 125 00:12:34,100 --> 00:12:35,220 Thank you so much. 126 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:40,540 Do any commissioners or executive director have a report to make? 127 00:12:41,220 --> 00:12:47,940 I was just going to add to the love fest of I'm going to provide a little bit of numbers 128 00:12:47,940 --> 00:12:57,100 that what did they pass just over 950 bills or something and over 500 bills have a direct 129 00:12:57,100 --> 00:13:04,060 impact on the agency and so I don't I could be wrong. I don't think any other agency deals 130 00:13:04,060 --> 00:13:12,260 with that type of impact but our group is just astounding and not only is it the legislative 131 00:13:12,820 --> 00:13:17,080 group that is generally involved in the session but it's everyone that catches the work 132 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:22,800 down stream that has the bigger workload or has to wait to get an issue resolved until the rest 133 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:29,140 of us can get our heads back into our real jobs. I guess this is a real job too, but yeah, 134 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,820 I just wanted to say thank you for everybody. The technical expertise, I don't think people 135 00:13:33,820 --> 00:13:41,060 realize how technically astute state employees are, little and tax commission employees, and how much 136 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:47,800 that institutional knowledge and that professionalism and expertise is absolutely essential to 137 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:51,920 to running state government, certainly in our agency 138 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:53,400 and every other one as well. 139 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:56,440 So I just wanted to say thank you for everyone 140 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,200 and all the work in the teamwork 141 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:02,300 that we have in working through the issues 142 00:14:02,300 --> 00:14:04,820 all during session, whether it be session related 143 00:14:04,820 --> 00:14:07,480 or not, that's all I have to say. 144 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,440 Yes, well said, well said, and with that, 145 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:14,360 we have also completed item number eight on our agenda, 146 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:16,680 which was the executive director's report. 147 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:24,760 So thank you, Deanna, for that, and yes, thanks all around for a job well done. 148 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:33,380 I see no other items on the agenda, and with that I will take a final motion from Commissioner 149 00:14:33,380 --> 00:14:34,020 Deeds. 150 00:14:34,420 --> 00:14:35,640 Motion to adjourn. 151 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:40,660 Motion to adjourn is non-debatable, all those in favor say aye. 152 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:41,620 Aye. 153 00:14:41,620 --> 00:14:41,940 Bye. 154 00:14:43,740 --> 00:14:46,440 Motion passes, meetings adjourned. 155 00:14:46,980 --> 00:14:48,300 Thank you so much, everyone. 156 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:49,040 Thank you.