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As a sign of how deep the Great Recession has been, new census data show that Utah's overall state government tax receipts dropped by 17 percent during the past two years.
That means the state received a sixth less in tax revenue as residents earned less, bought less and paid less in tax, which is why the Legislature was busy cutting spending and programs to balance its budget.
Utah is not alone, according to an annual survey of state government tax collections released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
It said 39 of the 50 states received less in taxes in fiscal 2010, which ended June 30, compared with 2009. Overall, it said their combined tax collections decreased by $14.3 billion, to $704.6 billion, in 2010. That came after a $65.8 billion decrease in 2009.
In Utah, overall state tax collections were $5.09 billion in fiscal 2010. That was down 6.1 percent from $5.42 billion in 2009, and down 16.6 percent from $6.11 billion in 2008.
Some states did much worse last year.
Wyoming's overall tax collections were down 23.4 percent in fiscal 2010, Louisiana's fell 14.2 percent, Oklahoma's dropped 13.5 percent and Montana's, 11 percent.
The census said drops in most states were caused by decreases in sales and income taxes. But it said Wyoming and Oklahoma were exceptions. Decreases in those states came mainly from a drop-off in collections of severance taxes for extraction of such things as gas and oil.
On the other end of the scale, North Dakota saw an increase in taxes of 9.6 percent in 2010, North Carolina was up 4.8 percent, Nevada rose 4 percent and California increased by 3.8 percent.
The census said North Dakota's increases came mainly from higher severance tax revenues. Increases in the other states came largely from higher sales tax collections.
The census said about a third of all tax revenue for states come from individual income tax, and just under a third is derived from sales taxes. The rest came from a mix of license fees, corporate income taxes, selective sales taxes (such as on alcohol) and a variety of other taxes.
State income tax revenues in Utah dropped by 21.3 percent from fiscal 2008 to 2010, according to the census data. They dropped from $2.99 billion in 2008 to $2.57 billion in 2009 and $2.35 billion in 2010. It said Utah state sales tax revenue dropped 14.4 percent during that time. The drop was from $2.64 billion in 2008 to $2.4 billion in 2009 and $2.26 billion in 2010.