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Show perpetuating the ineffective Atton.oy General Phil L. Hansen's remarks to the Moab R')t:n-y CHub this week wire entertaining to Ihoso atteiiHinK- His candid appraisal of the spectrum of subject,- he covered was enjoyable, whether or not we might have not agreed with them. The most rgret table set of comments he made, we feel, involved his opposition to streamlining government., gov-ernment., either on a local or state level, to make it adapt a little more adequately to today's problems than it does. In paiticular, Mr. Hansen's opposition to metropolitan metro-politan government, was disappointing, to say the least. To deny a community and county an attempt to eliminate duplication of services, which- in turn brings about economies, is to deny the citizenry any hope of ultimate reduction in the cost of government. Although this type of government (which would combine city and county' entities into one metropolitan governmental agency) is denied to counties such as Grind on the basis of population, it would appear to us to be workable even here. To combine law enforcement, road construction and maintenance, and other services would seem only to make good sense. Mr. Hansen's contention is that by combining these governmental units, we push government gov-ernment just that much further away from the people thus gnawing at the very foundations of the democratic demo-cratic system of government as we have traditionally known it. What his argument does not recognize, is that the founders of the State of Utah, who first outlined ' how counties and cities would be governed, could never nev-er in the wildest stretch of the imagination, have conceived con-ceived the burdens we as citizens would be carrying in taxatior in Utah today. Inefficient, old-fashioned governmental structure is costing us so much more money than our founders ever realized possible, that we are faced with the necessity nec-essity of innovating. We would agree that there are dangers in altering alter-ing our structure of government. We would not, how-eve, how-eve, be in opposition to attempting to find a more economical and efficient way of running our cities, counties and state. Our inefficient form of governing ourselves, may by virtue of its own inefficiency, be "safe." But unless we check it in some dramatic way and do it soon it's going to eat us alive. |