Dec 31

Your Overall Tax BURDEN–Fees Included

2006 at 10:54 am  |  posted by Rep. Craig Frank 1 comment

Saturday the Daily Herald published an Opinion piece from Mike Jerman, VP of the Utah Taxpayers Association.  In his surgically accurate thesis on why fees like Higher Ed tuition should be included in the computation of Utah Taxpayers’ overall tax burden, Jerman expresses his conviction that “fees should be included in tax burden analysis since governments frequently increase fees in order to avoid increasing taxes.”  Jerman’s thoughts on this topic were prompted by some misrepresentations and inaccuracies published in THIS recent article in the Herald.

Just A Thought:  Has the Utah Taxpayer’s Association also included Constitutionally approved Secondary Education Fees (grades 7 through 12) as part of the overall Tax/Fee burden computation?  Remember this POST?!  Just try to get your students’ grades if you haven’t paid those fees!


This entry was posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 10:54 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Your Overall Tax BURDEN–Fees Included”

  1. Bradley Ross Says:
    January 1st, 2007 at 3:38 pm

    I was going to disagree with you, but I decided to read the piece that you linked. I think I’ve been convinced to the argument (with a few caveats). This bit was especially persuasive.

    Most fees are voluntary to a degree. Impact fees could be argued as “non-mandatory” since people could buy an old house instead of a new one. The same could be said of gas taxes, which are really a fee, since taxpayers could significantly reduce their payment of gas taxes by driving less or by driving a fuel-efficient car. Excluding “voluntary” fees is just an attempt to understate the real size of government burdens. Fees, including tuition, are real fees and should be included.

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