| Show f Higher Sales Tax Revenues Help to 1 Keep State Finances on Even Keel 1 While it may max not be be- considered good goodnews i 11 news that taxes are arc high it il is good i j. j news nc when n the the- theS S states state's tax revenues are holding up well vell enough to insure adeil adequate ade ade- il of state government i i I quate financing ii i II A report of the state tax commission I ia 11 shows that total tax income during b 1 t. I. I the past fiscal year which closed June Junei i 30 was slightly more than in the previous previous previous pre pre- year The exact totals were 35 35 7 compared to Higher state sales tax revenues more morel l i than made up all the increase Sales taxes were wre almost half a million dollars higher than in the previous year That increase offset substantial losses in some other tax brackets Biggest drop was inthe in inthe the mine occupation tax x which is based on a production formula Strikes andl andI and I l shutdowns so curtailed operations of mines that income from this tax dropped from to There were also declines in inheritance tax collections collections collections and in collections from the individual individual individual dual and corporation income taxes There is one point of considerable significance in this report on Utah tax collections for the 1950 fiscal year car It is the fact that income from the sales tax has offset falling revenues from other state tax sources to maintain Utah i finances on an even keel Had the sales tax been earmarked exclusively for welfare welfare welfare wel wel- fare purposes as some groups are now advocating there would have been an unbalanced picture in state finances Welfare would have had ample funds funds funds- undoubtedly considerably more than was really needed while needed while other divisions of state government would have suffered This would not nol make sense Welfare is certainly an important phase of or governmental governmental governmental gov gov- activity in Utah but it il is no nomore nomore nomore more important than our schools and colleges the state slate prison health supervision supervision supervision super super- vision or 01 a dozen and one other functions of state government The danger of earmarking of state tax revenues is that it may freeze state finances into an unbalanced and an Unwholesome unwholesome unwholesome un un- wholesome pattern We Ve may rob the schools of or needed support in order to pay higher old age pensions pensions pensions-or or vice versa Or we may rob such important but less governmental activities as assistance assistance assistance assist assist- health supervision agricultural ance state auditing and so on in order to give excessive support to both schools and nd welfare That doesn't make mal for sound governmental governmental governmental govern govern- mental administration And it isn't true representative government either For Forthe Forthe Forthe the basis of our system of government is that the people elect representatives to run their government for them them and and trust them to do the right kind of a job fob of apportioning available finances among the essential governmental functions If we cant can't trust our elected representatives representatives representatives to do that job for us then we have ha only ourselves es to blame for not electing the right kind of representatives |
