Bankers Push For CU Tax

SALT LAKE CITY - (02/11/03) – Hundreds of Zions Bankemployees flooded the Statehouse corridors Monday lobbying forpassage of the credit union tax bill. The state’slargest and most profitable bank gathered 350 employees at an earlymorning breakfast rally to organize the anti-credit union lobby.“It’s a question of equity,” John Stilling, vicepresident of commercial lending, told The Credit Union Journal.“You have two or three credit unions exploiting loopholes inthe law when, quite frankly, they don’t need the subsidy (taxexemption) anymore,” he said of three large credit unionschallenging state laws on member business lending. Capitol Hillsources said Zions worked closely with the Utah Bankers Associationin drafting the credit union tax bill, which would cost AmericaFist CU, Mountain America CU, and Goldenwest CU, an estimated $15million a year. “If you live in Utah, this has been a hugeissue for years, the credit unions against the banks,” saidGreg Lewis, one of the hundreds of Zions workers given the day offto lobby for the bill.