A recent UtahPolicy.com poll found broad support — 67 percent — among voters for an income tax increase to fund schools. The poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, included 812 Utahns and had a margin of error of 3.43 percent.
Additional results from that poll showed 30 percent of Utahns responding that they, personally, pay too little in income taxes.
Utah’s income tax rate was lowered from 7 percent to 5 percent in 2007. That change, as well as other policy adjustments over the last 20 years, eliminated $1.2 billion in annual funding that would have otherwise gone to schools, according to a recent Utah Foundation report.
UEA President Heidi Matthews said she was encouraged by the support of the business community at a time when issues like school staff shortages and turnover have reached the public’s attention.
“I feel like the time is right,” she said. “Right now we simply do not have adequate funding.”
