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Show Federal Expenditures Up 27.2 In Garfield Federal expenditures in Garfield County increased by $2,608,000, or 27.2 percent last year. This was pointed out in a study of federal spending in Utah counties prepared by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization. The report indicates that total federal outlays made in Garfield County during fiscal 1987 amounted to $12,202,000, compared com-pared with $9,594,000 in 1986. Of the 1987 Garfield County total, $170,000 was expenditures by the Defense Department, $1,540,000 was grant awards to state and local governments, individuals, and other institutions, $4,992,000 was federal fed-eral disbursements for Social Security and employee retirement and disability programs, $1,834 was outlays for nondefense procurement contracts, and $3,666 was for nondefense salaries and other federal expenditures made in the county. According to the report, federal outlays made in Garfield County during 1987 were equal to $2,978 per capita, or 30.3 percent of the total personal income of the county. This compares with a statewide average of $3,421 per capita, or 31.1 percent of the state total personal income. Foundation analysts point out that differences in defense spending is the major factor accounting for the wide variance in the impact of federal outlays among Utah's 29 counties. Last year, defense depart-ment depart-ment expenditures totaled $2,080,850,000 throughout Utah. More than 96 percent of these . defense outlays were concentrated in five counties: Davis County - $682 million, Salt Lake County - $590 million, Box Elder County - $417 million, Tooele County - $180 million, and Weber County - $136 million. For the state as a whole, federal outlays rose by $218 million, or 4 percent last year. Much of this gain was accounted for by an increase in social payments to individuals for retirement, disability, and other purposes. Although there was a substantial increase in defense department de-partment outlays, this was largely offset by a decline in nondefense contract awards. Total federal contract con-tract awards in Utah (defense and nondefense) actually changed very .little between 1986 and 1987. Federal outlays rose in 18 counties and declined in 1 1 counties last year. Nearly half of the increased in-creased federal spending in Utah is accounted for by added federal spending in Salt Lake County. Percentagewise, the largest gains were recorded in Emery County (76.8 percent) Beaver County (59.4 percent, Sevier County (56.8 per cent), and Summit County (55.6 percent). The Foundation report indicates that while federal spending may be very important to local economies, it can create some problems for local lo-cal governments. When an employer em-ployer (such as the federal government) govern-ment) pays no taxes, its employees actually can become a net financial liability to the community. Studies have shown that, on the average, about one-half of the cost of governmental gov-ernmental services provided to the general public is paid by direct taxes charged to families and individuals, indi-viduals, with the remaining portion of the tax borne by business and industry. Federal programs and activities that do not stimulate growth in the private sector, therefore, are likely to result in reduced local services or higher taxes to support the required services. Federal agencies and installations in-stallations generally are not subject to state and local taxation as are most private businesses and installations. |