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Show (Revenues 9 Could Drop 20 One of the tax initiatives now being checked in Utah would cut j property tax revenues for Garfield A County by $78,227, or 20.1 per-J per-J cent. This would be equal to 2. f percent of the total operating budget of Garfield County, according to a 1 report just released by Utah I Foundation, the private tax research organization. In addition to the reduction resulting re-sulting from the property tax initiative, state aid to counues also would be reduced if the tax rollback initiative is eventually approved. Counties and cities receive a portion por-tion of the net revenue from highway-user taxes for local road purposes. pur-poses. The tax rollback initiative 'would reduce the motor fuel tax and the special fuel tax rates from Vf cents to 14 cents per gallon. The counties' share of these cuts wouia 1 amount to more than $5 million ' per year. The study points out that the effects ef-fects of the property tax limitation , proposal would vary widely among the several counties of the state. Salt Lake County, for example, would be required to reduce its county revenues by $29.7 million. This reduction would be equal to 46.1 percent of total non-debt property tax revenues and 20.3 pcr-(See pcr-(See REVENUES Page 2-A) REVENUES Continued From Page 1-A cent of the total county operating budget. On the other hand, the proposed pro-posed initiative would have no direct effect on county operations in Wayne County. According to the Foundation study, the operating budget of Garfield County for 1988 calls for total expenditures of $2,438,877 and total revenue of $2,438,877. The expenditures are equal to $602 per capita, compared with a statewide average of $164 per capita. capi-ta. The report indicates that there is a wide range in per capita spending among Utah counties, and that this is accounted for by the fact that certain basic services must be provided pro-vided in all counties of the state. Per capita costs for these basic services ser-vices tend to be high in counties with small populations. The budget reveals that Garfield County will expend $606,453 on general government, gov-ernment, $165,637 on law enforcement, en-forcement, and $1,074,445 on streets and public improvements during 1988. Foundation analysts point out that Garfield County expects to receive re-ceive $375,000 in property taxes, $722,966 in state aid, and $277,691 in federal funds during the year. The county property tax rate last year was 0.3462 percent, compared with an overall statewide average of 0.3692 percent. At one time, federal funds were much more important to the counties coun-ties than they are today. Because of the elimination of federal revenue sharing several years ago, federal aid to counties has been declining. It is expected that $20.6 million in federal funds will be allocated to all 29 Utah counties this year, compared com-pared with $46.9 million in 1984 and $38.1 million in 1986. The negative job news according to the report was in contract construction con-struction with a net loss of 200 positions. Once again the job market mar-ket was depressed by the slowdown in new home construction for the area as a whole. |
