As a Utah Foundation report said last year, these exemptions come with good arguments, but “exemptions can create economic distortions and unfairly benefit specific industries over others.”
Would they undo the many earmarks, such as for roads and transportation, that eat away at the state’s general fund?
That Utah Foundation report laid out the argument for why Utah may have a sales tax problem. Over the past 45 years, it said, only one other state has seen sales tax collections decline more in relation to how much people are buying. The state collects about as much per capita in sales taxes today as it did in 1978, meaning, “as costs climb, the state is losing purchasing power. …”
The report argues people are spending more on services, especially medical services, than in the past.
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