Thompson v. Utah State Tax Commission

PARRISH, Justice:

¶ 1 In 1989, the United States Supreme Court decided Davis v. Michigan Department of the Treasury, in which it applied the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine to strike down a Michigan statute that exempted from taxation the retirement benefits of state, but not federal, employees. 489 U.S. 803, 817, 109 S.Ct. 1500, 103 L.Ed.2d 891 (1989). The Davis decision also rendered invalid similar tax exemptions in a number of other states, including Utah. In response, Utah eliminated its tax exemption for the retirement benefits of Utah state employees and simultaneously increased…