Utahns should be disturbed by the news that their tax burden has risen during the past three years despite a robust economy and droves of new residents.
A healthy construction industry, new businesses moving in, low unemployment rates: These things are supposed to spread the tax burden and make everyone's load lighter.Instead, a state Tax Commission study released Tuesday shows the tax burden on the average Utah household rose from 7.7 percent of personal income to 8.2 percent between 1991 and 1994. That makes the state's residents the most heavily taxed in a seven-state region. Even if the $90 million property-tax cut lawmakers passed this year was figured in, Utah still would lead the pack.
During the three-year period, each household paid an average of 30 percent more in sales and income taxes while enjoying salary increases of only 24 percent.
Disturbing, indeed. But the culprits aren't hard to find.
On the average, Utahns still earn less than people in surrounding states. Californians pay more in actual taxes, but their $63,184 average household income makes that burden less onerous than the taxes Utahns face with their average pay of $51,699.
Incomes will rise as businesses continue to come. That is the promise of a strong economy. Utahns, whose households tend to include more people than those in other states, can hope better raises are in their future.
But the state's high tax burden also can be blamed on the fact it continues to levy a sales tax on food purchases, and that is one factor the state can change with little pain.
In the past, this page has opposed efforts to remove the tax on food, noting the state was in no position to absorb the estimated loss of $90 million to $100 million in revenue. The 1980s were years of economic uncertainty in Utah, with more people moving out than in. Voters underscored the soundness of that argument by defeating a ballot initiative to remove the tax in 1990.
But times have changed. Since 1989, the state has experienced annual budget surpluses adding to nearly $700 million. The fiscal year will end later this month, and once again the state is expected to have about $100 million left over. This despite the property-tax cut.
If ever the time was right to eliminate a tax that places a burden on life's most basic necessity - a tax that hurts the poor more than any other segment of society - this is it.
At the very least, lawmakers ought to begin seriously studying whether to stop taxing food. Perhaps then Utah can join Arizona as the only state in the region where household tax burdens are declining.