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Incrementalism, part 3: Bryan Gray of the Davis County Clipper

Bryan Gray of the Davis County Clipper gives us an opportunity to revisit the issue of incrementalism. We've previously written two posts on incrementalism. You can view those here and here....

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Current system for electing state board of education members is too easily...

Rep. Carl Wimmer is proposing partisan elections for the state board of education. Opponents criticize this as “politicizing” education.Reform opponents, however, don’t want voters to know how their...

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Are massive local sales tax increases for transportation “real” taxes?

Are massive local sales tax increases for transportation “real” taxes or just “pretend” taxes?To most people, this sounds like a strange question. “Of course, local sales taxes for transportation are...

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Congestion pricing and the environment

Congestion pricing is an issue that taxpayer advocates and environmentalists can rally behind. Environmentalists in other states and countries have been advocating for congestion pricing, and it's only...

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Utah School District Spending Report for FY2006

How does your school district spend your tax dollars compared to other Utah school districts?The Utah Taxpayers Association has just released its annual school district spending report. Click here to...

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Mike's Top Twenty Political Songs

Later this week, we'll have the results of a report we've done on the disparity between charter school and district school funding.In the mean time, inspired by Rep. Urquhart's top ten movies list, we...

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Congestion Pricing and Maximizing Freeway Throughput

Transportation experts have demonstrated that congestion pricing can maximize highway throughput. Throughput is defined as the number of cars that cross a certain point on a freeway over a given amount...

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Explaining your property taxes

If you own property in Utah, you have most likely received a "notice of property valuation and tax change" from your county. Nearly everyone's property has increased dramatically. (Don't get too giddy...

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Property Taxes, Part 1: How Truth-in-Taxation Works

Truth-in-Taxation is Utah’s most taxpayer-friendly law. It’s even better than California’s Prop 13 (more about that in a later post).How does Truth-in-Taxation (TNT) work?TNT is a revenue-driven...

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Property Taxes, Part 2: why did my taxes go up?

Generally, when property valuations increase, property tax rates decrease to maintain revenue neutrality (excluding new growth). This revenue-neutral rate is called the certified tax rate. This rate is...

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What is Hogle Zoo Hiding?

Hogle Zoo is asking the Salt Lake County Council to place a $65 million bond before the voters this November. Although the Zoo’s bond is nearly TWICE the size of the $35 million Real S.L. stadium...

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Throwing kids together?

Kim Burningham is turning to the age-old canard of “diversity,” a common theme among voucher opponents. As he notes in yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune, “We are best served by schools that throw children...

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$7,500 per Utah K-12 student in FY2008?

The Utah Taxpayers Association estimates that taxpayers will be spending more than $7,500 per student in FY2008. This figure includes operations, facility construction, and interest. It does not...

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Property Taxes, Part 3: Truth-in-Taxation Results

We’ve discussed the theory and mechanics behind Truth-in-Taxation in parts 1 and 2. Now we’ll talk about the results.Property tax revenue growth before and after Truth-in-TaxationIn the six years (1980...

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Property taxes, part 4: is Truth-in-Taxation harmful to local governments?

Opponents of Truth-in-Taxation (TNT) argue that TNT harms local governments because the calculation of the certified tax rate does not include inflationary adjustments. To offset inflationary losses,...

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Following up on $7,500 per student in FY2008

We’ve received some questions about our $7,500 per Utah K-12 student spending estimate for FY2008. Click here to see the original post. Here are our answers to the questions we’ve received.Does your...

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Utah's Toothless Spending Limit

The Utah Taxpayers Association's August newsletter has an article on pages 3 and 4 that explains Utah's spending limit and why it is ineffective at slowing government spending growth. In FY2008, total...

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Fees + Taxes = Double Taxation?

Today's Deseret Morning Newsreports on the increased reliance on entrance fees to fund national and state parks. One of the persons quoted in the article suggested that having to pay taxes and fees is...

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Charter Schools Still Receive Less Funding Per Student than District Schools

In its September 2007 newsletter, the Utah Taxpayers Association has released an analysis of per student spending for district schools and charter schools for FY2006. After excluding lunch service and...

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State employee retirement: 30% or 100% taxpayer funded?

Utah state and local government employees, including school district employees, receive generous retirement benefits. Utah taxpayers cover 100% of the cost of state/local government employee retirement...

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UTOPIA'S FINANCIALS

Rep. Urquhart and Jesse Harris have recently been discussing questions regarding the financial position of UTOPIA on their respective blogs, www.steveu.com and www.freeutopia.org. Jesse Harris has...

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If all goes as planned . . .

Holladay is proposing to subsidize retail activity and residential construction that will occur on its own in Salt Lake County even without a subsidy. Using tax dollars to stimulate this type of...

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Why the Cottonwood Mall RDA is just plain wrong

In our last post, we noted why the Cottonwood Mall RDA is such a risky gamble. In this post, we’ll describe why the Cottonwood Mall RDA isn’t just risky—it’s just plain bad policy.The proposed...

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The cost of smaller class sizes

Since the Legislative Auditor General released his report on the funds the Legislature appropriated to reduce the average class size in Utah, the pundits have been wringing their hands. Apparently to...

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Founding staff skipping out on iProvo, UTOPIA

Utah’s 2 largest municipal telecom systems are struggling to maintain their senior staff. UTOPIA’s founding executives—Paul Morris (Executive Director), Roger Black (COO) and David Shaw (General...

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