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Show Under The Capitol Dome 5 By Harry Marlowe X The more you look at governmental govern-mental operations, the more you become impressed by the fact that government and individuals are mostly alike thy all could use more money. N And that quest for money will be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, headaches of a 1955 Utah Legislature which is likely to run into several pressing problems before be-fore its 60-day session is over. Whatever actions the legislators legisla-tors take this session, the property owners of the state will watch closely. For, even more than usual, us-ual, it is clear that the property owner is in the direct line of fire if the Legislature should resort to increased taxes to operate government. gov-ernment. And, since legislators for the most part are property owners too, there will be some strenuous efforts ef-forts made to either cut state spending or find new revenue or both. The men who have long experience exper-ience with legislating and who have kept an eye on state revenues reve-nues and expenditures over the years, seemingly are more alarmed alarm-ed this year than ever. Not only is the state's departmentalized depart-mentalized government asking for some $8,000,000 more than anti- I cipated revenue, there are alarm-j alarm-j ing indications that the sales tax j "cure all fund" is beginning to j show signs of strain. The sales tax revenue has been tapped by every legislature to make up deficits in the general fund after appropriations have been made. It has met that test without too much trouble in the past, and has still held up to welfare costs, building funds and other uses set by law. In the last couple of sessions, however, the sales tax money well has been tapped for education first a million or so for emergency emer-gency building aid, and last session, ses-sion, by a whooping $6,500,000 bite per year for the minimum school fund. If there is to be any building out of the state building fund, if there is to be much of an increase in-crease in the welfare program, etc., the sales tax revenue is going go-ing to be hard-put to produce that $13,000,000 per biennium for the schools. And, if the sales tax can't come up with money for schools, there must either be a cut in education funds or the money must come from income, corporation and property taxes. There is another alternative. If another source of revenue can be found, there will still be some money for the schools and other governmental units. With no property pro-perty tax hike. The catch is where is the revenue coming from? Anyone having the answer will get an open-armed welcome on Capitol Hill. |