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Show Utah Foundation Utah Welfare Spending below National Average The relative impact of Federal spending for social welfare in Utah is considerably con-siderably less than it is for the nation as a whole. This conclusion was voiced in a recent research study prepared by Utah Foundation, Foun-dation, the private research organization. According to the analysis, Federal expenditures made for public assistance and other income supplements r in Utah last your averaged $45.58 per capita, an amount 47 percent below the U. S. average of $85.41 per person. per-son. In the case of the food stamp program, the per capita outlays in Utah were more than 60 percent below the national average. The study attributes Utah's lower than average reliance on Federal social welfare programs to the following: 1. While Utah's per capita income is somewhat below average, it has relatively few families in the poverty class. Most families in Utah are in the Middle-income range, and Utah has fewer of the income extremes found . in many of the other states. 2. Religious and social traditions in the state cause many individuals to shun public assistance. 3. Many individuals and families in need receive assistance from the welfare program operated by the L.D.S. Church rather than from government-sponsored public assistnace programs. 4. A substantial number of social programs instituted by the Federal Government during the past few years have been geared to increased in-creased spending in large metropolitan cities. Thus, Utah and other rural states are reciving a smaller proportion of Federal participation under many of the new social programs. The Foundation study points out the Federal spending Utah is enlarged somewhat by the extensive Federal defense installations within the state. If defense spending is excluded from the totals, per capita Federal outlays in Utah for all other purposes would be 14 percent below the U.S. average. Inaddition to defense, Federal spending in Utah is well above the national average in the general areas of transportation and natural resources. The study points out, however, that more than 70 percent of the land area in the state is , either owned or controlled by the Federal Government. Thus, the above-average Federal expenditures in Utah for these purposes are primarily a reflection of the large Federal land holdings in the state. Foundation analysts observe that a substantial part of Federal spending in Utah for natural resources and transportation is for capital facilities (highways, airports, water development projects, recreatio and wildlife development, ect.). Some of these programs, such as water projects, may be wholly or largely liquidating. Other outlays for capital projects often represent long-term Federal investments which will benefit citizens throughout the nation rather than residents of Utah exclusively. ex-clusively. Finally, the study observes ob-serves that the propriety of government spending depends on what the sspending is for, compared with what the private spending it replaces would be tor. If government used its tax-raised money to develop facilities or provide services that could not otherwise be provided with private capital, benefits could accrue to the whole. The study emphasizes, however, that government espen-necessary espen-necessary items often can become excessive. All government spending, therefore, should be subjected sub-jected to the same cost-benefit cost-benefit analysis that is used by most private concerns in deterniming the economic feasibility of a new project or espenditure. |