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Show Utahns Paid $600 per Person in Federal Taxes in 1961 Utahns paid a total of $543 million in Federal, state, and local taxes in 1961, according to a year-end review of government gov-ernment activities' by Utah Foundation, the private tax research re-search organization. The 1961 tax load was equal to slightly more than $600 per person or $2,425 for an average aver-age family of four persons. These tax load computations include all taxes - both direct and hidden. ' Approximately 32 of all personal income received by individuals in Utah is now going for taxes according to the report. This percentage compares with 30 in 1955, 26 in 1940, and 12 in 1930. War-time highs were reached during the World-War II year of 1944 when taxes took 30 of Utah's personal income, and during the Korean-War year of 1952 when the relative tax burden was 32 . Foundation analysts observe that while government takes the largest slice of Utah's personal per-sonal income, it is also the largest single contributor to the State's economy. In 1960, 24 of total personal income to individuals in Utah was derived de-rived directly from government govern-ment sources. In addition to these direct government payments, pay-ments, a significant part of Utah's private spending is geared to government policy and actions. The missile is-dustry, is-dustry, which employs more than one-fourth of the manufacturing manu-facturing labor force in Utah, for example, is largely dependent depend-ent upon government orders and contracts. The Foundation study shows that nearly one out of every four (23.3) non-agricultural employees in Utah works for some unit of government. Government Gov-ernment employment in Utah during June, 1961, totaled 64,911, of which 28,976 were Federal employees, 12,760 were state employes, and 23,175 were local (including city, county, and school) government govern-ment employees. As of October Oct-ober 1, 1960, Utah had a larger number of government employees employ-ees in relation to population than any other state in continental con-tinental United States. Utah ranks eleventh among the fifty states in the percentage percent-age of its personal income going go-ing for state and local taxes. The report observes, however, that the broad base of the State's tax structure teri'ds to moderate the -impact of the tax burden. Utah is one of the few states to employ all of the major kinds of taxes in its tax system. The Utah Foundation reports summarizes the important de-velopements de-velopements in the major state and local government activities of education, highways, and Continued on Back Page HERE'S MORE ABOUT Utah Foundation Contiued from Page One welfare during 1961. The study points out that Utah makes a greater effort to support public schools (in terms of personal income devoted to school taxes) than does any other state in the nation. Utah also has consistently provided public welfare grants that are above the national average for most categories of public assistance. |