Federal, state, local taxes
rise 17% during 1976-77
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed
eral, state and local governments
raised 17 percent more in taxes in
the 1976-77 fiscal year than they
did the year before, the Com
merce Department said Wednes
day.
The $61.5 billion increase in
taxes was more than double the
$26.8 billion increase in 1975-76,
the department said.
“The large increases
reflected improved economic
conditions and, to some degree,
inflationary trends,” the report on
taxes said.
Most of the increases were in
individual and corporate income
taxes, it said.
At the end of the 1974-75 re
cession, more people had jobs
and they were pushed into higher
income brackets with a 6.6 per
cent inflation rate.
However, a report by the Tax
Foundation, a nonprofit research
group, showed that since 1977,
states at least may have been cut
ting back on their taxes.
For the first time in four years,
more states reduced taxes than
increased them, the foundation
said.
The foundation said Tuesday
that taxpayers in 21 states will pay
about $2.5 billion less each year
because of reductions in state in
come and sales levies. Eight
states increased taxes - mostly on
motor fuels - by a total of about
$200 million.
The Commerce Department
report showed that governments
collected a combined total of
$419.7 biilion in taxes in the
1976-77 fiscal year. That meant
the average adult and child paid
$1,907 in taxes.
The report covers all of the
money taken in at all levels of
government in the year ending
Sept. 30,1977, or, in some states,
June 30, 1977.
Of the 419.7 billion, $244 billion
went to the federal government,
$101 billion to state governments
and $$74.8 billion to local gov
ernments. That meant the aver
age person paid $1,907 in taxes
during the fiscal year. However, in
figuring average tax payemnts,
the government counts all U. S.
citizens, including children.
Governments collected 59.6
percent of their money from in
come taxes, 14.9 percent from
property taxes, 20 percent from
sales taxes, and the rest from
Country turning
to new paganism
claims Mormon
PROVO, Utah (AP) — A new
form of pagan imperialism is seek
ing to establish “irreligion” as the
state religion in America, says
Elder Neal A. Maxwell, an official
of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Later-Day Saints.
He told students at Brigham
Young University that "this new
irreligious imperialism seeks to
disallow certain people's opinions
simply because those opinions
grow out of religious convictions."
Under sway of the new im
perialism, he said “resistance to
abortion will be seen as primitive.
Concern over the institution of the
family will be viewed as ‘un
trendy’ and unenlightened.”
He said the new paganism uses
the cultivated freedoms of west
ern civilization to shrink religious
freedom while rejecting the value
essence of the Judeo-Christian
heritage.
other sources.
Corporations shelled out 31.6
percent more in taxes, while the
average citizen paid 19.1 percent
more in income taxes. Property
taxes went up 9.7 percent.
Administration economists
have said they fear that too much
of the nation’s wealth is being
channeled through governments.
They want to reduce the
government’s share of the gross
national product from 22 percent
to 21 percent.
The federal government ex
pects to spend $491.6 billion in the
1979 fiscal year after spending
$450.7 billion in 1978.
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