§ 59-12-202. Purpose and intent.

(1) It is the purpose of this part to provide the counties, cities, and towns of the state with an added source of revenue and to thereby assist them to meet their growing financial needs. It is the legislative intent that this added revenue be used to the greatest possible extent by the counties, cities, and towns to finance their capital outlay requirements and to service their bonded indebtedness.

(2) It is the purpose of this part to provide an orderly and efficient system of administering, operating, and enforcing the state and local option sales and use tax. The Legislature finds that intervention by counties, cities, and towns into the administration, operation, and enforcement of the local sales and use tax, particularly in the hearing and appeal process, increases the cost of administering both the local option sales and use tax and the state sales and use tax proceedings, and substantially delays the receipt of revenues for counties, cities, towns, and the state. The Legislature finds that the interests and concerns of counties, cities, and towns can be adequately protected through the commission's enforcement efforts. It is therefore the Legislature's intent to grant the commission exclusive authority to administer, operate, and enforce the local option sales and use tax, without interference from counties, cities, and towns and to allow intervention by any county, city, or town only in the limited circumstances where a particular hearing or appeal may result in a significant lessening of the revenues of any single county, city, or town.

Amended by Chapter 259, 1994 General Session