Reconciling the Utah Tax Code with LDS Scripture: ‘Equality’ vs. the Income Gap Latter-day revelation states that ‘it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another” (D&C 49:20). And the Book of Mormon instructs us to freely impart of our substance to the poor (Mosiah 4:16-21), even to the extent that they are economically equal with us (Jacob 2:17). Despite all this, Utah’s majority LDS legislature maintains a tax code that is highly regressive, favoring big business and the rich over the poor. This paper takes a look at the political legacy that may have caused this economic policy, and at the viewpoints of LDS members and state legislators on the subject. It then makes a case for a critical look at Utah’s political establishment regarding economic policy and the phenomenon among LDS voters to support that establishment.

Nick Gorrell, John R. Sillito