Early Intervention Funding

The D-News has an article on my bill to increase early intervention funding $2.5 million. Initially, I proposed to fund the increase with a penny-per-beer tax increase. Now it would be funded by creating a restricted account to capture revenue that already is being generated by the existing tax and is simply falling into the general fund.

The article says, "The bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, said he got rid of the tax increase when he discovered the already existing surplus." We can run with that; however, it might be more accurate to say that I decided to go with the restricted account when I realized the increased tax was dead in the water.