| Show Utah Finances Do I I 1 About Face I g The year 1974 was marked by a number S of far-reaching some abrupt and some still to be completed and according to Utah the non-profit public service j SOME OF the changes were nations' and even in while others were peculiar to the Foundation noted In a review of the clos-nS released this 5 Utah's fiscal outlook did an almost e complete about-face in the tion At the close of the 1973 fis- cal and calendar the Beehive State S had a large surplus in its general fund ft and a major problem was the very availability of ready STATE GOVERNMENT leaders and fiscal analysts warned that an extended period of high prosperity was likely approaching its Warnings were is- g sued against starting new programs with the state programs which ig would have to be carried on in the future when money might be harder to come 6 Substantial portions of the surplus were invested in capital improvements and other one-time but even g. these entail continuing expenditures for operation and the tion pointed 8 AT THE close of 1974 Utah was not in an over-all deficit but the fiscal S outlook was It appeared that the 1975 Legislature would either have to curtail services or else raise taxes to g provide additional g One major cause of Utah's fiscal along with the general down- turn in the was a miscalculation in the rates of the individual income which was changed by the 1973 Legisla-j ture to more nearly parallel the Federal income tax As a returns from the source in fiscal 1974 were j approximately million below advance UTAH'S HIGHWAY program was hard hit from two sides by factors stemming I the world-wide petroleum Building costs shot steadily in subs- part due to the extremely rapid i rise in the cost of This substance is a basic factor in 5 highway building and maintenance and is a petroleum Federal allocations to the states for highway building were g curtailed in and Utah's own highway fund was hard hit by rising gasoline prices and conservation-inspired efforts to reduce automobile both of which tended to reduce returns from the state's motor fuels This tax is the major support of the state highway ADDITIONAL problems faced Utah highway officials in the fast-growing size of the highway maintenance operation as g more of the Interstate construction is States have full responsibility for maintenance of the system once it has i been Expenditures for public assistance in Utah were down in fiscal 1974 from fiscal half of the fiscal period followed a major change in welfare ad-ministration which took effect on THE FEDERAL Government took over g administration and full funding of three major adult public assistance the states retained for medical assistance under these for its own General Assistance and for their regular share of children's i-ij including Aid to Families with Dependent Children which is the largest of all public assistance In view of the sweeping administrative it was felt that no definite conclusions on public assistance costs could be drawn until more experience had been gained under the new A NOTED of 1974 was in the field of state and local For the first time state and local sales taxes passed the property tax as Utah's 1 producer of combined state and local tax j iS |
