Child tax deduction | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Republican state Rep. Jim Bird of West Jordan plans to introduce a bill in the Legislature to give more of the taxes from the sale of alcohol to the schools ("Utah lawmaker: Let's use booze profit for schools," Tribune, Jan. 10).

Liquor sales taxes already support school lunch programs. It makes no sense to pour even more liquor sales tax revenues into schools at the expense of every other tax-dependent program.

Putting liquor sales monies into schools is also not a logical funding stream. Monies from liquor sales should be directed only to liquor-related programs: substance abuse education, prevention and treatment; criminal investigation; DUI monitoring; prosecution of drug makers and dealers. That benefits the safety of us all, since so much of crime is related to substance abuse.

Lastly, Bird is not addressing the cause of the need for more school funding. Parents who chose to supersize their families place burdens on our already overcrowded schools and yet they receive tax deductions for each child.

If Bird wants to provide increased funding for our schools, eliminate the child tax deduction, and set aside that money for education.

Camille Pierce

Holladay