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Show Utah Foundation Revenues, expenitureson rise Although state and local taxes, expenditures, and debt in Utah have all risen markedly during the past ten years, the increases generally have been less than those recorded in other states. This was the conclusion con-clusion reached by Utah Foundation, the private research organization, in their analysis of state and local finances in Utah. According to the report, the relative restraint exhibited by state and local units in the past decade will be difficult to continue in the period ahead. Public school enrollments in Utah during the next ten years are expected ex-pected to increase at nearly six times the rate experienced ex-perienced over the past ten years. Moreover, rising costs for public retirement programs and other incurred in-curred obligations will be placing an increased burden on the financial resources and capabilties of state and local units in Utah. A factor that tended to moderate the rise in state and local spending in Utah during recent years was the leveling off in school enrollments. The Foundation Foun-dation study notes that school enrollments in Utah rose by an average of only 0.6 percent per year between 1967 and 1977. This slow rate of growth, however, will not continue in the period ahead Foundation analysts project the average rate of growth in Utah school enrollments over the next decade at 3.5 percent per year. This expected growth rate will be comparable to that experienced during the 1957-1967 period when school enrollments in Utah climbed at an average rate of 3.6 percent per year. Currently, education accounts for more than half of all state and local expenditures in Utah. State and local expenditures ex-penditures in Utah totaled $1,373,000,000 during the 1976 fiscal year. This sum was equal to $1,141 for every man, woman, and child residing in the state at the beginning of the year. According to the analysis, expenditures for education (public schools, higher education and other education) amounted to $700 million, or 51 percent of the total. This percentage is considerably greater than the proportion going for education in the Mountain States (43 percent) and in the nation as a whole (30 percent). The Foundation concludes that the emphasis on education in Utah has forced state and local authorities to place lower priorities on other government services. Utah, for example, allocates a smaller proportion of total state and local expenditures for such activities as health and hospitals, police protection, fire protection, sewerage and sanitation, etc. than do most other states. General revenues received by all state and local governmental units in Utah during the 1976 fiscal year totaled $1,360,700,000. About 53.5 percent of this sum came from taxes imposed, im-posed, 28.0 percent from Federal aid, and 18.5 percen from charges ani. miscellaneous receipts. State and local tax collections in Utah during fiscal 1976 were equal to 12.5 percent of total personal income received by individuals in-dividuals during the preceding calendar year. The Foundation points out that this percentage is slightly below the U.S. average of 12.6 percent and the Mountain States average of 13.0 percent. The Foundation study observes that Utah's broad-based broad-based tax system generally has been lauded by most tax authorities. In comparisons with other states, Utah appears to derive a somewhat higher proportion of its total tax revenue from the sales tax and the individual in-dividual income tax than is the case regionally or in the nation as a whole. On the other hand, the proportion obtained from the property tax and other minor taxes in Utah is somewhat below regional and national averages. Finally, the Foundation study indicates total indebtedness in-debtedness of state and local governments in Utah totaled $653.6 million at the close of the 1975-76 fiscal year. This obligation was equal to $532 per capita, but was well below the average state and local indebtedness of $789 per capita in the Mountain States and $1,122 per capita ' throughout the United States. |