In the face of all the objections, Facebook fled to the Land of Enchantment. But don’t cry. Instead, consider these two lessons:
The first is that people in Utah want taxes kept as low as possible. A recently released survey by the Utah Foundation showed the tax burden has been dropping here, but that doesn’t matter. People still want to pay less. The foundation reported that, of those who responded to its Utah Priorities Project survey, “Three-quarters of these respondents mentioned taxes, most stating that they were too high.”
How do we keep taxes low without hurting services? Not by giving money away.
Four years ago, a New York Times investigation found that states, counties and cities nationwide give away a combined $80 billion yearly in incentives to companies, or $696 per family. You can be sure the total has grown since then. Sooner or later, that adds up to real money, and it means local governments have to make up the difference somehow.
