Top Winners of 2003: Guy Hobbs/Jeremy Aguero

December 1, 2003 - They began the year as the technical foundation for that controversial tax task force report, from whence sprouted Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan and especially the gross-receipts tax. By the end of the year, Hobbs had become a credible and forceful salesman for the package and Aguero was being used as a numbers maven, even by those opposed to the billion-dollar baby.

Whether it was the regular session or either of the subsequent not-so-special sessions, whenever anyone needed someone to credibly present the case for a new plan, they dialed Aguero and Hobbs' phone numbers. It's a miracle neither one keeled over - or killed - by mid-July.

Hobbs, as the chairman of that tax panel who was tasked with presenting the findings to lawmakers, underwent an interesting transformation to a passionate advocate for fixing the structural deficit. It was Hobbs who memorably summed up the session on "Face to Face" when he spontaneously looked into the camera and said it was "a missed opportunity." Before that happened, though, he had become known as THE authority on taxes, all but surpassing Carole Vilardo, and he had clearly seen his stock rise with both sides in the tax debate.

Aguero, less well-known than Hobbs at the beginning of the year, earned his stripes in 2003 as someone who could be relied on to crunch numbers on demand and provide simultaneous analysis. He could debate the finer points of any plan with any legislator or lobbyist and he rarely lost an argument. By year's end, he was perhaps the most respected technical tax man in the state and surely will get a lot of business in the future with the foundation he built in '03.

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Article Copyright ©: J. Ralston, The Ralston Report