Show I 1 THE CHANGING UTAH ECONOMY while the average real estate tax load per family in salt lake city has more than doubled during the past ten years the load still is only about 20 per cent higher than it was dur ing the years 1921 through 1924 A report just released by utah foundation the private nonprofit tax research organization points out that the average property tax load has risen sharply during the past ten years however 1944 was a low year in salt lake city and came at the end of a long general down ard trend which began during the early 1920 s foundation analysts mention that salt lake city was ranked a mong 94 major U S cities in average real estate tax load by a recent na tion wide study by roy wenzlick company real estate economists appraisers and counselors couns lors accord mg ing to the wenzlick study salt lake city had an average real estate tax of 12 per family f in 1954 combar ed with a nat national tonal median of 49 for ane 94 cities utah foundation points out that this tax load was computed by divid ing the total real estate taxes chang ed by the number of families living in the city some caution therefore should be exercised in making corn jansons pari sons between cities since the tax load would be shown to be combar actively higher in industrialized cities than in those with less industrial and business property other factors such as state and city sales and income tax provisions may also affect the extent to which a governmental unit will rely on the property tax if federal civilian employment could be reduced to the pre korean IM level the annual savings in sal ary costs alone would more than bal ance the federal budget this point was emphasized in a study by utah foundation the private nonprofit tax research organization foundation analysts point out that federal civilian employment cereas ed in august 1955 for the seventh consecutive month the august st fed eral employment total of 2 was only about below the kor ean can war peak and was nearly above the post war II 11 low of 1 in 1950 during the fiscal year ended june 30 1955 salaries of federal employ ees totaled 9 96 6 billion the study continues this amount is equal to about one third of the total income tax bill of all individuals in the na tion nearly one dollar of every six spent by uncle sam goes for pay moreover it is likely that salary co ats will be even higher in 1956 be cause of the recent 8 per cent pay hike approved by congress for postal a workers and other federal employ ees the foundation reports that a con gressional subcommittee on man power has set out to reduce federal payroll costs several members 0 of f this subcommittee have anno announced u need a goal of reducing the auml number er of federal jobs by 10 per cent if such sue h a reduction can be achieved the r re e suiting savings would be equal to all of the federal individual income tax es paid by the people living in the eight mountain states the report cone concluded eluded such an accomplishment would also bring the nation close to a balanced budget |