In response to Gov. Herbert’s desire to raise sales taxes (“Sales tax hike looms large,” Nov. 30), help me with the math here.
If inflation makes what the government does cost more, it also makes everything consumers buy cost more, which raises sales tax revenue by the level of inflation. If economic growth means the state has to spend more, the definition of economic growth is that consumers are spending more, which raises sales tax revenue by the level of economic growth.
If there are more Utahns and we have to spend more to serve them, each one of those new Utahns is spending about the same as other Utahns and, once again, sales tax revenue grows by the same amount as the number of Utahns grows.
I am a math and business expert. Please explain again why you need a higher percentage of the economy to run the state? Just do what businesses and families do and find ways to reduce unnecessary spending. Did you not understand the message from the voters when they soundly defeated a proposition to raise the gas tax last month?
Alan K. Jones, Salt Lake City
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