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Show Foundation Lauds Welfare Policies Legislative changes made in 1947 and 1948 coupled with the business like administration of the. Public Welfare Department have been key factors in insuring insur-ing state fiscal solvency in Utah during the past decade. This is the conclusion reached by Utah Foundation, the private, nonprofit non-profit governmental research organization, or-ganization, in their latest report on welfare trends in Utah. The report states that the legislative legis-lative and administrative welfare wel-fare policies followed by Utah have resulted in savings ranging upward from $38 million during the past decade. In addition, this policy of limiting public welfare to persons who are genuinely in need has allowed Utah to maintain main-tain individual assistance grants at a high level for those persons who must rely on public welfare. wel-fare. According to the study, legislative legis-lative and administrative reform adopted since 1947 have, for the most part, been planned to encourage en-courage and assist welfare recipients re-cipients to become self-support ing. This practice which resulted in substantial savings in tax dollars dol-lars has permitted the state to meet rapidly rising costs in education, edu-cation, health, state building re- Orements, etc., without major isions in the state tax structure struc-ture and without incurring any state indebtedness. The report also notes that although al-though the total public assistance assist-ance caseload in the U. S.' increased in-creased 27 per cent between 1947 and 1957, it declined 8 per cent in Utah during this same period. This experience is in direct contrast con-trast to that of the 1947-47 decade dec-ade when public assistance costs in Utah rose at a rate more than twice that of the entire nation. The study recalls that during one period all sales tax revenue after administrative expense was earmarked and spent for welfare purposes in Utah. If this practice prac-tice had continued, Utah would have spent an additional $10.6 Ofion in state funds for public fare last year. The Foundation Founda-tion points out this amount exceeds ex-ceeds the total yield from the state individual income tax for the year and is equivalent to an 8.5 mill state wide property tax levy. o ' |
