As Utah’s Republican state leaders prepare to overhaul the state’s taxing system, here is an interesting poll result: Utahns don’t trust their state government as much as they do their local governments to spend tax dollars wisely.
A new UtahPolicy.com/Y2 Analytics survey asked a number of questions comparing how citizens felt about the federal government, state government, and local governments, like cities and counties.
Asked which level of government they trusted most to spend their tax dollars wisely, Y2 found:
— Only 5 percent picked the national federal government was most trusted to spend tax dollars wisely.
— 34 percent said state government.
— And 61 percent said local government, or cities, counties and school districts.
Ok. So maybe, since the Utah state government is run by elected Republicans — and statewide offices like governor and attorney general, with super-majorities in the Utah House and Senate — then if you break out the respondents by political party Republicans would feel better about their state government spending?
Nope.
Y2 finds:
— Among “strong” Republicans, 2 percent trusted the federal government most in spending; 37 percent said state government; and 61 percent said local governments.
— Political independents are about the same; 5 percent said federal government, 36 percent said state government, and 60 percent said local.
— Only “strong” Democrats were slightly different; 12 percent picked the federal government as best place to spend tax dollars wisely; 29 percent said state government (controlled by Republicans), while 59 percent said local governments.
While social media postings are not the best place to judge voter feelings statistically — as Y2 does — on about every story UtahPolicy.com writes about the workings of the Tax Reform Task Force, run by the Legislature, most decry the planned tax reform, especially putting the full state sales tax back on unprepared food.
Y2 polling also shows that most Utahns are against putting the food tax back on.
But this latest poll shows that Utah voters are wary of how well Utah state government spends their tax dollars — which amounts to more than $10 billion annually.
While county government officials — mayors and city council people and mayors — are elected in partisan elections, with Democrats facing Republicans in the general election, most city and school district elections are non-partisan.
While voters may know the candidates’ party connections through social media, the ballot itself doesn’t list a candidate’s party affiliation in city and school district races.
Still, most Utahns say local governments — which are not partisan — do the best job of wisely spending tax dollars.
