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Show Revenue Tops Expenditures in Utah For Fourth Consecutive Year tor the fourth consecutive consec-utive year, state revenues in Utah have exceeded expenditures. According to an analysis of state finances just completed by the Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization, state revenues reve-nues in Utah totaled $634 million compared with expenditures of $574 million mil-lion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1973. The study emphasized that the $60 million in excess funds collected last year does not necessarily nec-essarily represent an addition ad-dition to surplus since some of these funds were committed to projects for which expenditures were not actually made in fiscal fis-cal 1973. As an example, the general fund alone listed unexpended appropriations appro-priations of $19.4 million mil-lion for building projects and $3.0 million for the Provo - Jordan River Parkway Authority at the end of the 1973 fiscal year1. The excess of revenues over expenditures during the past four years represents re-presents a reversal of the situation that existed throughout the. 1960 decade de-cade when expenditures in Utah consistently were greater than revenue collections. col-lections. According to the Foundation study, the factors fac-tors a counting for this condition during the 1960's included (1) the large amount of capital outlay financed during this period from borrowed bor-rowed funds, (2) the consolidation con-solidation of accounting funds which made more money other than new revenue re-venue available for expenditure ex-penditure purposes, and (3) the spending of balances balan-ces and surpluses accumulated accum-ulated in earlier years. During the past several years, however, Utah has been repaying the debt incurred in-curred in earlier periods and has been accumulating accumu-lating new balances and surpluses. State revenues in Utah rose by $67.1 million or 12 last year. Increased Federal aid, continued inflation, in-flation, and economic growth were the major elements in this strong revenue gain. No increase was made in any of the Utah tax rates. In fact, the Foundation notes that the state property tax levy was reduced from 7.2 mills to 4.6 mills last year. A further reduction to 1.6 mills was made this year. Complete elimination el-imination of the state levy is scheduled for 1974. The major revenue gains were recorded by the sales tax (up $18.2 million), the individual income tax (up $14.5 million) mil-lion) and the corporate income tax (up $16. 9 million). mil-lion). Approximately $11.7 million of the increase in-crease in corporate income in-come tax revenues, however, how-ever, was a one-time collection col-lection of taxes for prior years resulting from a court decision. In addition to these major ma-jor gains in tax collections, collec-tions, Utah received$12.9 million in Federal revenue reve-nue sharing funds for the first time last year. This was offset somewhat by reductions in Federal aid for highway purposes. The overall gain in Federal Fed-eral aid to the state last year was $8.4 million. On the expenditure side, education continues as the number one item of expenditure in Utah according to the Foundation Founda-tion analysis. During fiscal fis-cal 1973, state expendi-1 expendi-1 tures for education amounted am-ounted to $254 million or 44.2 of all state spending. spen-ding. Included in this state education expenditure expendi-ture total are $92 million mil-lion for higher education, $144 million for state aid to local school districts, and $18 million for other educational purposes. These expenditure figures for education did not include amounts raised rai-sed by the local school districts. When all funds are included, state and local expenditures for education ed-ucation exceeded $360 J million last year. C Other major areas of 5 state spending in the 1973 J fiscal year were high- ways - $111 million i (19.4), public welfare, $80 million (14.0), em- I ployment security and un- employment benefits - $33 million (5.8), health 2 and hospitals - $19 mil- G lion (3.4), and natural V resources - $16 mil- ' lion (2.8). Foundation analysts i warn that comparisons of V total expenditure and re- 1 venue figures from year ( to year are not always meaningful because of j, carry-over in recording P and reporting procedures I in state cash accounting , methods. For this reason, rea-son, the Foundation ana- lysis was directed pri- marily to the proportion ) of total state financing represented by the respective res-pective expenditure func- I tions or income sources. ' |