Lawmaker Says Bill Would Stop Taxation Without Representation

(KCPW News) A mistake in legislative boundaries could lead to a tax break for some Utah County residents. State Representative John Dougall’s district includes thousands of residents who thought they lived in former Representative Craig Frank’s district. Frank was just disqualified from office after he discovered he lived outside his own boundaries.  Now, Dougall says those voters have been disenfranchised.

“They did not have an opportunity to vote in the election for House District 27, nor are they going to have an opportunity to participate in the mid-term appointment process in their old legislative district 57, where they had been participating erroneously for many years,” he told KCPW.

Dougall is sponsoring a bill that would prevent residents who voted in the wrong election from having to pay their state income tax for the next two years.

That’s because they won’t have the opportunity to vote for another legislator to represent them in the Utah House until November 2012.

“If you look at the history of the country, we have no taxation without representation,” said Rep. Dougall.  “If they can’t participate in the process of choosing representation, we should not require them to pay their income tax.”

The boundary mishap occurred because of a mistake in the Utah County Clerk’s map. Former Representative Frank discovered last week that when he moved to Cedar Hills two years ago, he was no longer within the boundaries of the district he had represented since 2003.