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Show Utahns Exceed $1000 Each In Taxes Jfor the First Time More than $1 ,0'j0 apiece was paid in by Utahns in ItKit), the first time the per capita figure has ever exceeded ex-ceeded Hi-' thousand dollar mark for one year, according accord-ing to Utah Foundation, a ptivate, nun profit public service Institution. The Be hive State's ') total (Federal, state, and local tax b'll exceeded $1-'hillion, $1-'hillion, also for the first time. ti-me. The $1,038 average was for every man, woman, and child in the state, not merely mere-ly for adult taxpayers. Total tax ocllections in Utah Ut-ah in 19 were 17 per cent above those recorded for 1903, the Foundation noted in its regular year-end review. rev-iew. This was far more than Ihe inflationary advance in the same period, indicating a substantial increase in real re-al dollars paid in taxes. While the inflationary spiral spi-ral did not match the increase incre-ase in lax collections (a 1-ptr 1-ptr cent increase in the state sta-te sales lax rate, 1-cent-a-gallon increase in the state motor fuels tax after July 1, and the year-long imposition cf the Federal surtax on incomes in-comes all were factors in the above-normal increase in tax collections) the cost of living did advance considerably consid-erably in 19C9. The Consumers' Consum-ers' Price (cost of living) Index stood at 129.3 (1957-59 base period equals 109) in October of the year. This compared to an index of 122.-9 122.-9 for October, 1963. Some items it-ems included in the over-all index advanced more rapidly rap-idly than others, and the October, 19C9 figures for hea ?th and recreation was 133.6, and that for medical care, 156.9. At the end of the ye-i-s it appeared that the average aver-age cost of living rise for the 12-month period would be between 5per cent and 6 per cent, as compared to a yearly year-ly average ranging from 1-per 1-per cent to 2 per cent through thro-ugh the first half of the 60's ...... The rapid advance of inflation infla-tion was one of the factors which brought state revenue collections to unexpectedly high levels, the Foundation pointed out, substantially improving the immediate fiscal picture. However, the same factors may be expected to have some negative nega-tive effects - - future goods and services will cost the state more than comparable items in the past - -and the long - range picture is co.n- siderably different. A proj-tion proj-tion of revenue and expend- lure trends of the past f i v- ye. o'-; over the decade ahead iedi'-.'ilt s that th y micht re .nit. in an operating deficit of more than $3') in the-tt the-tt n-year f's'-al p'-riod. Total per.'ional income in U'ah resell' d an all -time high of $2.9 billion In ? but the gain over 1907 was below the national average. Pt r capita personal income in Utah was $2.79') in ViW, compan d to an average of $3,019 in the eight Mountain States, $3. 070 in the eleven Wrsten States, and $3,421 for the nation as a whole. For the first time since 1951, Utahns receiving public pub-lic assistance in 19C9 (June count) exceeded 4 per cent of the population, and the total number of welfare recipients, 45,213, was greater gre-ater than for any -other year since 1941. Rapid expansions ex-pansions in the Aid to Families Fam-ilies with Dependent Children Child-ren and Medicaid programs were lar gely responsible tor the increases, the Foundation plated. Education continued to take ta-ke the largest share of the total state expenditure dollar. dol-lar. 47.8 per cent, followed by h:ghways (22 per cent) and welfare (10.4 per cent) The percentage of total expenditures ex-penditures going to education and to highways in 1969 was c&wn slightly from 1963, but welfare's percentage was 0.4 per cent up from ihe previous year. Federal grants-in-aid totalled to-talled about $14D million in of income for state and loc-1903, loc-1903, largest, single source al government in Utah, ihe Foundation noted. |
