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Show that's Happening In Utah Tax Field? i" I r,iil.r'sN't,:TI,ofoIIO"i"Sr fl rr,n 11.0 rt..n r.v- r,'l" .ss,Milliill, !'- ''rtTt-U study organization, profit , the years there have been 0Ul,iftsamU-haiiSes in the tns , "".Mm of UtBlf. Taxes have bo-! bo-! ,he major item in both eov- , and private budgets. Tnsoa. Pl"'att 'voie'-ate, take around 35 ! m.reevery dollar of our con We must work over one-;S,Uof one-;S,Uof our time to fill public tr"rnver-all picture: Since 1030 T" i nl state and local tax f 'Pcd from 3j-525-281 bl" no ire nearly ten times as t0 nr to $373,840,000 in 1952. pea v wonder that we feel hted'down by the impact of rden? Bureaucracy resists effort at curtailment.Oiit- unoded and wasteful procedures ieontinue. Patronage politics and pork-barrel public works flourish. Such activities squander billions. Property taxes, once the keystone key-stone of all public revenues, have now become a rather small stone in the tax structure. In 1930 property pro-perty taxes were responsible for more than half of all federal, state and local public revenues in Utah. Now, however, they represent but llr;. In 22 years such taxes increased in-creased from $21,470,736 to $42,-62S,752. $42,-62S,752. But the non-property load has jumped from $17,053,000 to $331, 212,000 or $314,000,000. Since 1930 various lush and luc-.rative luc-.rative tax sources have been tapped. tap-ped. The biggest revenue producer is the sales and use tax which yields around $17,000,000 annually. Then personal income and corporation corpor-ation franchise revenues total nearly $10,000,000. Unemployment taxes take about $3,500,000 and the mine occupation tax gives $1,500,-000. $1,500,-000. We might as well count liquor profits also for they total over $4,400,000. In 1930 state revenues totaled $6,980,000 of which amount $1,-748,000 $1,-748,000 was derived from the property pro-perty tax. The property tax has virtually gone out of the picture in state fiscal affairs. Since 1936, state levies have been imposed but 4 years. All property taxes are locally spent. At the same time, non-property state revenues have increased from $5,232,820 in 1930 to $59,745,079 in 1952 or $54,500 -000. The state is also siphoning into school, county and city treasuries vast sums to supplement the property pro-perty tax. The annual diversion of sales and use taxes to local governments gov-ernments amounts to nearly $7,-000,000. $7,-000,000. Besides this, all income' and corporation franchise taxes, I 1 totaling around $10,000,000 are now earmarked for the uniform school fund. Shared liquor profits of $1,000,000 given to cities and counties and $500,000 given the school lunch fund add to the total. Government is being moved to State Capitols. Federal Take: Federal taxes have become big league and dominate dom-inate the tax field. In 1930 federal taxes were but 27 of the total with an over-all take of but $3,-479,000,000. $3,-479,000,000. Utah's share of this, based on her income payment ratio, was $11,821,725. By 1952 federal taxes have jumped to $66.-200,000,000 $66.-200,000,000 or to 78 percent of ail taxes of $90,500,000,000. Utah's share of this staggering sum, also based on her income payment ratio, ra-tio, is $271,466,000 or an amount 6 times as much as the property tax. This means more centralization. centraliza-tion. Every taxpayer feels aggrieved at the burden placed on his back. The total is oppressive. The seed-corn seed-corn of industry is being consumed. The tax trend must be reversed. Yes, property taxes are too high. So, ' also, are other taxes. Other taxes now dominate the field. 1o cut taxes we must cut public expenditures, ex-penditures, decrease services, eliminate eli-minate unessentials, do the work more efficiently, slash waste, avoid duplications. This is everybody's business. We must make it such or be crushed in our own folly. |