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Show Taxes Take Big Bite from Utah Pay Checks Utahns paid an estimated $379 million in Federal, state and local lo-cal taxes in 1962 according to a research study just completed by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization. This tax total, which includes "hidden" as well as direct taxes, is equal to $616 for every man, woman and child residing In the state or $2,464 for an average family of four persons. Nearly 32c out of every dollar of personal per-sonal Income earned by individuals individ-uals in the state last year went for taxes. Foundation analysts observe that Government is the largest single force in the Utah economy. Although it takes the largest slice of personal income, it is also the biggest contributor to the state's economy. In 1961, almost al-most 2i'c of all personal income received by individuals in Utah was derived directly from government gov-ernment sources. In addition to these direct government payments pay-ments in the form of wages, benefits, ben-efits, subsidies, etc., a significant part of Utah's private spending is based on government contracts con-tracts with private firms. According to the Foundation report nearly one out of every four persons employed in non-agricultural non-agricultural jobs in 1902 was working for some unit of government. govern-ment. Of the 292,352 persons employed em-ployed in non-agricultural Jobs in Utah during June, 1962. a total to-tal of 58,102 were working fn government. This Include 30,822 civilian employees of the Federal Feder-al government, 13.214 state employees, em-ployees, and 24,066 local employees employ-ees Including the schools. The study also observes that in addition addi-tion to these government workers, work-ers, approximately 31 of Utah's private manufacturing work force ih employed In the missile and defense industries. The year-end summary of Government Gov-ernment prepared by the Foundation Foun-dation observes that Utah makes a greater effort to support public pub-lic education than does any other state in the United States. But Utah also leads the nation in the proportion of its population enrolled en-rolled in the public schools and colleges. As a result, despite Utah's high tax effort to support education, the amount of funds available per student is below the national average. In analyzing other aspects o( state and local Rovernment during dur-ing 1962, the Foundation points out that Utah continues to provide pro-vide monthly public assistance grants that are slightly above the national averages for most categories of public assistance. In the highway field, the report notes that Utah has spent over a quarter of a billion for new state highway construction during dur-ing the past ten years. This sum is almost twice the amount expended ex-pended for roads during the previous pre-vious 57-year history of the state. |
