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Show Utah's Unemployment Compensation Program, Is Costly Salt Lake City "Utah's unemployment unem-ployment compensation program for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1946, became the fourth most costly cost-ly function of state government,' says a research report just released by Utah Foundation, the non-profit, tax-research organization. Only education, public welfare, md highway functions of Utah state government exceeded unemployment' unemploy-ment' compensation costs. Expenditures Expendi-tures for unemployment benefits totaled $3,120,838 during the fiscal fis-cal year, and administrative costs I were $203,881, excluding costs of the Veterans Readjustment Allowances Allow-ances which were also administered administer-ed by the Utah Employment Security Secur-ity Department. The employment security program in Utah Is the outgrowth of the Federal Social Security Act Which was approved In August. 1935. Provision Pro-vision was made In the Federal law for establishment of a nation-wide system of employment security, Including In-cluding unemployment compensation compensa-tion taxes and benefits, and gov ernment employment agencies. Option Op-tion was permitted the states to adopt their own employment security se-curity legislation as a substitute for the Federal plan, subject tc prior approval of the state plan by the Federal Social Security Board. 81nce 1937, all states have adopter! approved programs. The Federal law provides for a tax of 3 percent of the quarterly payrolls of all employers covered by the law. The states are permitted permit-ted to collect 2.7 per cent for payment pay-ment of unemployment benefits. The remaining J percent of the tax goes to the Federal government, govern-ment, which relmbruses the states for the administrative expense of the program. Taxes on employers subject to the law resulted In total assessments of more than $9,400,000 on Utah payrolls for the unemployment program pro-gram for the fiscal year 1948, of which $4,868,910 was collected by the Utah administering department, 1 and the remainder by the Federal government. The state sales and use tax was the only tax which Imposed Im-posed higher state levy on the Utah economy for the same period. |