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Show Foundation reports on tax study Utah ranks 17th among the fifty states in the proportion of personal Income going for state and local taxes. This fact was ipointed out by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization in their latest comparison of tax systems sys-tems and expenditure patterns in Utah, the Mountain States, and the Nation. According to the Foundation Founda-tion analysis, state and local governments in Utah collect- come levels, second in the burden at the $5,000 level, and third in the tax burden at the $20,000 gross income level. Except for gambling taxes, Utah levies all of the major taxes imposed by other states The Foundation concludes that this broad-tytpe tax coverage cover-age requires nearly everyone to participate in the financing financ-ing of governmental services without placing a penalty burden on any one group. This amount was ibelow the Mountain States average of $743 per capita and the U. S. average of $753 iper capita. Foundation analysts note that approximately 59 of the expenditures ex-penditures In Utah came from state and local taxes. The remaining re-maining funds were derived from Federal aid, from fees and charges, and from other miscellaneous sources. ' Utah devotes a larger proportion pro-portion of its total state and local spending to education than most other states. This reflection of the extremely large number of children to be educated in the state. Utah has one of the largest overall educational loads in the nation. na-tion. The report observes that the stress placed on education in Utah has forced state and local units to place lower priorities pri-orities on some of the other governmental services. For example, Utah allocates a smaller proportion of total state and local spending for ' such activities as health and hospitals, police protection, fire protection, sanitation, etc. than do most other states. Total state and local spend- ed $446 million in taxes during dur-ing the 1970-71 fiscal year. This sum was equal bo 12.95 of personal income, a sum identical to the Mountain States average and approximately approxi-mately 6 above the U. S. average of 12.21. In comparing specific taxes with other states, the study indicates that Utah appears to be moderate in the property prop-erty tax and most of the other major taxes, but somewhat high in the individual income in-come tax, especially for mid. die-income taxpayers. For example, ex-ample, Utah ranks first among the eight Mountain states in the state income tax burden for families at the $10,000 and 15,000 gross in- segment of the economy, or tax source. Utah approximates the Mountain States average in the proportion of its total state and local tax load coming com-ing from each of the three main sources production, wealth, and consumption. Between 1961 and 1971 total state and local tax collections in Utah rose by 120. This increase, however, was not as great as the rise for the United States as a whole (136) or the growth in the Mountain States (139) during the ten-year ten-year period. In 1970-71 state and local expenditures in Utah were equal to $758 million or $709 for every man, woman, and child residing in the state. Ing rose by 14170 between iwm. and 1971. By comparison, stat and local expenditures increased in-creased by 147 in the eight Mountain States and by 160 throughout the United States in the ten year period. |