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Show Utah Foundation Studies State. Local Tax Rate Utah ranks 10th among the 48 states in Its relative state and local tax burden. This was the conclusion reached by Utah Foundation, the private, nonprofit non-profit tax research organization. According to the Foundation estimates, 10.54 of all personal person-al Income earned by Utahns last year went for state and local taxes. This figure compares with 8.78 for the nation as a whole, whole. The study notes that the relative rela-tive tax burdens In all of the 11 Western States are higher than the average for the entire na-itlon. na-itlon. For all 11 Western States, state and local taxes amounted to 9.94 of total personal income. in-come. The corresponding figure for the eight Mountain States was 10.33 Principal reason for the higher state and local tax burden In Utah and other Western States, according to the Utah Foundation report, is the relatively greater ?mphasis placed on public education edu-cation in the West. Five (Utah. New Mexico, Arizona, Montana and Wyoming) or tne w siaies in the nation making the greatest great-est relative effort to support pub. lie education were Mountain states. Two of the other Moun. tain states (Idaho and Colorado) were ranked 11th and 14th. re-spectively, re-spectively, in relative effort. The report states that total expenditures ex-penditures for education as a per cent of personal income payments pay-ments was 6.10 In the Moun-tain Moun-tain states and 5.11 in the 11 Western states last year. Total educational expenditures in the entire United States were equal to 4.25 of personal income. Foundation analysts observe that "Utah ranks first among all 48 states in the per cent of personal income spent for education." edu-cation." Total educational expenditures expen-ditures (local schools, higher education ed-ucation and other) was equal to 7.79 of personal Income earned by Utahns last year. This percentage per-centage is nearly 80 higher than the relative educational expenditure ex-penditure for the entire nation. The Utah Foundation study points out that "the relatively greater expenditures for education educa-tion in Utah are due primarly to the high proportion of the pop-ulatlon pop-ulatlon enrolled in the public schools and colleges, the relatively relative-ly low personal income status, and the emphasis placed on education ed-ucation by the citizenry of the State." |