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Show In 8 Years Utah Taites Double In eight years the total taxes paid by Utah taxpayers for state and local government govern-ment have doubled. WHEN TOTALS are in for next year, the increase may even be more dramatic. We then will have what appears to be a substantial increase in property taxes and all the state taxes will reflect inflationary infla-tionary growth. The upcoming legislative budget session will also be considering a $15 million hike in Unemployment Compensation Compensa-tion Taxes, according to a Utah Taxpayer bulletin. IN 1966-67 the total taxes paid in the beehive state for state and local government, including Unemployment Insurance In-surance Taxes, was $306.7 million. In 1974-75 this had climbed to $624 million. During that time there was a $63 million or 53 percent increase in property taxes. In the same period state sales taxes went up 211 percent, from $56 million to $174 million. State taxes based on income since 1967 have skyrocketed 141 percent or $72 million, it said. SOME OF the increase in these taxes in the past eight years are due to changes in the rate structure, but most of the eight-year climb has been due to inflationary growth. In 1967 the state sales tax rate was 3 percent, it is now 4 percent. Individual income tax rates have also climbed. The 1975 motor fuel tax is 7 cents a gallon, in 1967 it was 6 cents. THE MAJOR issue affecting affect-ing the public view of government has been the total tax bill of individuals. If the federal bill is added to the amount paid for state and local government, the effect becomes clearer. Generally, Utahns pay .42 percent of the total federal taxes. Because the federal government can budget without having to pay funds, it is difficult to give an exact amount Utah taxpayers will pay, but according to a formula for-mula devised by the Tax Foundation of New York, the 1975 total Utah federal tax burden was $1,133,000,000. THIS MEANS that the total bill paid by Utahns in fiscal 1975 for all government was about $1,756,894,000, or $1,497 for every man, woman and child in the beehive state. The real shocker-on a per capita basis we pay total taxes, to one level of government govern-ment or another, of $1,497 from an average income of $4,072, according to a late Bureau of the Census publication. This amounts to 37 percent of our income taken to support government, the bulletin pointed out. THIS ALSO means that the total tax load in the beehive state for an average family of four is now $5,988. On top of this, the federal government has spent $245 billion since 1961 in excess of revenues. In the past sixteen years there have been fifteen red-ink budgets. The total federal deficit is now $441 billion. Deficits are the same as expenditures that must be charged against future taxpayers. tax-payers. EVERY TIME our government, govern-ment, at one level or another, spends one million dollars, it taxes the average Utah family another $3.40. Conversely, every million dollars which our government saves (every million "less" that it spends) decreases the tax load for the average Utah family by the same figure. |