Lawmakers introduced a flat tax to Utah on Tuesday and made other changes to the state income tax, estimated to provide a $50 tax cut to most families this year and reduce annual tax collections by $78 million.

"Finally we have closure on the business of the last legislative session," said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has made tax reform one of the key parts of his agenda. "Now it is time to continue, even redouble, our efforts to make education our single most important priority as a state."

Critics of the changes contended that the money would be better spent on bolstering public education. The measure completes work started in this year's general legislative session, when budget surpluses made it possible for lawmakers to trim 2 percent from the sales tax on food and ponder income tax cuts.

The Legislature also approved a new sales tax option that counties can levy to pay for transportation needs.

The income tax bill broadens the tax brackets so that less of a person's income is taxed at the highest rate. The top rate was lowered to 6.98 percent from 7 percent, and those changes are retroactive to the beginning of this year.

The bill also enacts a flat tax option that takes effect in the next tax year. Once in place, taxpayers will figure the tax owed under the existing system, with its credits and deductions, as well as using a 5.35 percent rate without deductions, and pay the lower amount.

The tax brackets will also be indexed to inflation so that they don't become out of date.

"We really haven't adjusted those brackets for inflation or anything else since 1974," said Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan. "We are giving a tax break to every person who files a tax return in the state of Utah."

"Every taxpayer will be $50 better off," said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo -- that is, every taxpayer who is married and files a joint return.

Not all of the $78 million impact will be felt in this fiscal year because the flat tax option won't yet be in place.

The measure passed easily -- 23-6 in the Senate and 49-25 in the House of Representatives -- but it had its critics, too.

"We've been pushed into this as if it's, 'You've got to vote for this or the world's going to end,' " said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. "I'm going to hold my nose and vote for this, but I'm not going to vote for anything else that doesn't have the whole picture attached to it."

Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, voiced the same complaint.

"I'd like to think this is step one in tax reform, but I don't think so. It'll be the end of it," she said. "I have not had one person write to me or call me and say, 'Vote for this bill.' "

The main criticism was that reducing income taxes takes money away from public education when the state has a long list of needs.

"I want to be supportive of tax cuts. At the same time, living in the world I live in, it's difficult," said Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, who works for the Granite School District. "I cannot in good conscience vote for the bill realizing the crisis we have currently and coming down the pipe."

Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, was not swayed.

"I've got a great solution to class size reduction. It's called vouchers," he told his colleagues. "If you're willing to bite the bullet ... and really solve this problem, you're going to modernize public education. You're not going to pump money into an inefficient and stagnant system."

House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, said the tax cut was necessary.

"Sure, we can do more for education, but maybe more can be done at the local level," he said. "My constituents want their money back."

The other measure approved Tuesday allows counties, starting April 1, to impose a quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to light or commuter rail, roads of "regional significance," transit corridor preservation or airports. If counties want to impose the tax between April 1 and Dec. 31, 2007, the county must put the issue on the ballot in November.

"We don't want to give taxing authority to counties so they can build cul-de-sacs," said state Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo.

In counties with more than 125,000 residents, 25 percent of the funds raised by the levy must be used for corridor preservation.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.