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Show Utah Taxpayers Assn. Comments on Our Tax Load and Who Imposes It """USUALLY PEOPLE AUK very conscious and ' lVentt'ul, too, of tho direct taxes they pay and at the ,110 timo indifioront or apathetic to the burdensome ' , not particularly amivnnd ffiltSot1.Ulv.MbMholriu.lKh. N Ms This thought is expressed in inf "A pood tax is the one tho !X, follow pays" and from tho K t Si of view of tho oftielnl, "The f , feathers win the least nwk " Thw hve taken nil tho " fl'iiliors and part of the skin as TI1FRE ARK MANY among us .-h aw vohihle ii 'heir eritieism 1 or that tax. All too often Ui-v 'ire not informed ns to the s n-litive quantity or quality of their t it'll tivx l'1;ul- Sequent ly these Lie noisv tax cvities are the sumo heard shouting for more and mure public services of one kind or ILther. They, like Senator Sorghum Sorg-hum are for bigger projects, public pub-lic spfmiins and, at the same time, for lower and fewer taxes. Right now we 1W candidates for office promulgate such contradictory rrosrains. WE SHOULD ALL KNOW what taxes we pay and what we got for our money. Some taxes hit us hard - in the face while others we largely disreq-ard hit us hard in the pocket book'" Our total tax bill federal, state and local altogether is mislity heavy. Last year- it totaled JP5.6 billions. This is a lot of money. mon-ey. On a per capita basis, it is 600 or 53,000 for a family of five. Whether we like it or not we are reallv up to our necks in taxes. It is noteworthy that 73 r'c of all federal revenues come from income taxes (personal 531.8 billions, corporate cor-porate 519.8 billions). This is also an important state tax. It provides $2 billion or 159o of state totals, though used in only 32 states of which Utah is one. The collections in Utah last year reached 59,483, 501. There has developed a recent : movement on the local level to-1 to-1 ward income taxes. Last year over j $100,000,000 was raised in 360 tax- ing units, largely in Pennsylvania 5 (280), Ohio (20). PROPERTY TAXES remain the mainstay of local revenues. They provide $9.8 billions or 80 of the total of ?12 billions. Property taxes, tax-es, once important on the state level, now provide only 3 of the total of $400,000,000. The federal does not impose property taxes. This means that property taxes are largely local taxes. This has become the case in Utah in practice. prac-tice. Collections last year totaled $59,554,000. SALES TAXES since 1930 have come to play almost a major role in state fiscal affairs. Though utilized util-ized by but 32 states, they produce 21 of all state revenues with collections of $2.7 billions. It has been a life-saver to state treasuries. treasur-ies. This is certainly the case in Utah, where $19,000,000 is obtained. ob-tained. Then, more than 1,000 local governments have turned to this revenue source with $800,000,000 collected. State and local general sales and gross receipts taxes total to-tal $3.5 billions. GAS, OIL AND MOTOR LI- CENSES put a lot of money in the till, around $3.6 billions or an amount equal to total federal expenditures ex-penditures 20 years ago. Utah collects col-lects around $17,500,000 annually from these sources. During: ,the past 10 years motor vehicle registration reg-istration increased from 31,035,000 to 62,760,000. During. the decade ahead, we may expect tax revenues reven-ues on the highway users to double, dou-ble, at least. |