State Senator Ira C. Huggins, of Ogden, knew that only one-third of Utahns could pay state taxes, and thus a new revenue source must be found. An LDS bishop as well as a legislator, Huggins telephoned McKay -- then a counselor in the LDS First Presidency. Huggins suggested a 3.05 percent tax on beer brewed in Utah and sold in states where beer had been legalized as Prohibition ended. Huggins then maneuvered the controversial bill through the end of the legislative session, and Weber became a state college on July 1, 1933.
