Show what the tax money Is spent for f the difficulties which beset the taxpayer in his attempts to control the amount of tax money to be collected in his community were discussed in our last article andee indicated that alii a proper understanding of the procedure the taxpayers of any community could assist in determining in advance what the public expenditures for any local purpose should ie the tax notice which each taxpayer receives does not show the action of any one tax spending body but is the combined result of the levies of each branch of government under which the property of the taxpayer is subject to taxation thus is the property is located in a city it is is subject to taxation for state county school district dis erict and city purposes we shall examine the situation iii duchesne for the year 1931 to illustrate how the tax bill Is formulated and to show the proportion ir n of 0 the total tax which is 13 levied lavir tor for each purpose in order that the various purposes can be grouped under the heads with which we are familiar we shall use the following distribution state general fund county roads schools and finally city purposes we find that each dollar which is paid ia 11 taxes on property in the city of duchesne is distributed as follows state general fund scents 5 cents district ghighi schools 38 cents county purposes 6 11 cents roads 11 cents city purposes 35 cents total the above proportions are not uniform throughout the state but vary in accordance with tha levies in ia different localities we shall now briefly analyze each of the above purposes the state slate general fund levy is applied upon the valuation of all property throughout the entire state the le from this source is used for cor tire operation of the state government tilts this includes the university or of utah the utah A C the branch A C at cedar city the state prison the school for the deat deaf and blind and vatious various other state institutions the levy for district and high ich schools includes the state levy for these purposes as well as the local levies in 1930 tha tate levied a tax of 47 mills for state district school pui poses wad a id 2 of a mill for taie high chool purposes the revenue which la Is secured from these levies Is distributed back to i the various school districts the state district school levy Is dis tribu tad on a basis of approximately 2500 per capita school population while the state high school levy Is ia paid back to the school districts on oil a basis it the attendance in the high ech schools for the school year 1930 1931 2414 per der capita was distributed for or the district school fund ond and per capita tor for the high school fund under this arrangement a coir county lity which is above the average in per capita wealth contributes to the aid of the schools sell s in ili a county which Is under th the e average in per capita wealth last las it year the total state school t tax ax charged in duchesne county wa was 6 while the hotl total amount of aid which duchesne county received from the state tax for district and high schools was so that the duchesne chesne county school district received more from the state school tax than was charged against duchesne c county property for this tax this total does not include duchesne countes coun tys receipts from the state land interest and cental fund in the amount of the levy tor for county purposes pui poses is made up from the following items general fund poor and indigent dependent mothers fairs and advertising interest and shaking fund and old age pension the road levy consists of 3 mills tor for county purposes and A levy of 3 mills for the maintenance and repair of the state highway within duchesne county the municipal levy for the city of Duc duchesne besne shows a total of 19 mills this total ij ia made up tip as follows general fund 45 mills vater works 2 mills streets and sidewalks 5 mills interest and c sinking inking fund 10 mills electric lights 2 mills the high levy for state and sinking fund purposes indicates that duchesne city must have a large beaded bo aided debt in the above we have briefly analyzed the tax levied on property situated in duchesne this an analysis alyss shows the general purpose for which taxes are now being raised and provides a basis for the faither study of the problem the taxpayer is ia probably interested te in the total amount of his tax bill more than in any one item but the total bill is made up or of many items each lev led for different purposes it if tax es are to be reduced the reduction roust must be applied directly to the individual items which make up the total tax bill are determined d upon and will point the way to the taxpayer wiio w ao is interested in the effective control of 0 public expenditures |