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Show by Harry Marlowe City officials from all over Utah will be watching with great interest in-terest the efforts of Salt Lake City to get the 1955 Utah Legislature Leg-islature to approve a measure j which will permit cities, if they !tax. j There are few Utah cities who i do not badly need a source of ad - ditional revenue. There are also few who can go any further into the property tax source than they have already gone. The idea of a municipal sales! tax is not new. Many cities' j throughout the United States, have used the device in the past. ! Nearly every conference of municipal mu-nicipal officers on a national level le-vel brings the subject out for discussion. . Considered in Past It is not a new idea in Utah, 'either. Members of the Utah Municipal Mu-nicipal League have toyed with .the idea many times in the past. As yet, however, nothing has come ot the proposal. Now, Salt Lake City has reached reach-ed the end of its fiscal rope. It cannot go further into property tax sources for revenue. The 22.5 mill levy for city government is already high. Neither can the city fathers figure fig-ure out any other plan which will bring in revenue for badly needed improvements. So, they plan to ask the legislature for permissive legislation to levy a sales tax of one cent on the dollar. dol-lar. If the legislature approves this! method of raising revenue, it will open the door for any city wheih wishes to take the same step. It will still require a local city ordinance to put the sales tax into effect. Validity Questioned There are still a good many people who wonder if the idea will work. A good many people in Salt Lake City who do not live in the city, but work there, contribute very little to the economy eco-nomy of the city except through purchases. I But, would these people still buy most of their goods in the city if they had to pay an extra one per cent for them? It could lead to a boon for merchants in Murray, Holladay, Midvale and other incorporated areas of the county. A city sales tax in Salt Lake City might also have some effect on the sales of merchants in other Utah cities. Recent Buying Habits uver me pasi years, a gooa many people have formed the habit of buying a large share of their purchases in Salt Lake City since the stores are larger i and there is perhaps a larger selection. A sales tax in Salt Lake City might well result in a pick up of purchase in I'rovo, Vernal. Ile-ber Ile-ber City, Bountiful, Logan, Brig-ham Brig-ham City, Nephi and other such cities. Whatever the effect of the tax is, city officials in every city and town will be closely watching the Legislature and Salt Lake City in the coming months. If the tax works in Salt Lake, it might work elsewhere. And, if it does not work in the big city, then some of the officials in smaller areas might well look to some other untapped source of revenue, if they can find one. |