now only qualifying dependents count for the exemption.  The exemption is now $545 per qualfiying dependent, last year it was $3,038 per exemption (which included parents and an extra exemption for dependents with a disablity).

My take is the State of Utah is trying to get those with large number of dependents to pay more into the system since their kids are in the schools.  Historically, generally speaking the more kids you had the less you paid in Utah income taxes; however, the more kids you had meant you were using more of the education resources funded by Utah income taxes.

A few years ago, the legistlature tried to limit the number of kids you could claim as an exemption for Utah income taxes, all the crazies came out of the woodworks and cried Utah was anti-family so they backed off.

So this year they take away the parents from the exemption pool and only allow qualifying dependents, this way they did not limit the number of kids; additionlly, they reduced the exemption amount which in turn reduces the Taxpayer Tax Credit.  They must have realized that with the change in Federal taxes this was a great time to grab more money.

Just like real property taxes, it does not matter what they value your home at, what matters is the tax rate applied.  The State of Utah just reduced the exemption amount to what made their math work.