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Show V ,. , 1 j By Jack Walhs L ' J Famous declarations such as "The ower to tax is the power to destroy" nd "Taxation without representation i unconstitutional", have a ring of ruth after the announcement last week nat the Utah Tax Commission ordered n increase in Uintah County's proper-I proper-I valuation of 144.06 percent. ( This kind of an order would double veryone's property taxes from last ear in one grand sweep. Even though le local governments lowered their lill levies, the reduction is small com-ared com-ared to the fixed school levy the state sts. In Uintah County only 16.63 mills o for county income and 3.29 mills for upporting Vernal City, and 43.73 mills f set by the state of school income. . Somehow ' our local representatives lust convince the Tax Commission Ciat the fair market value of property Uintah County has not increased 144 sreent between 1973, when the last yappraisal was made by the state, and ! 978,. the baseline for equalization, lome property may have increased this , luch, but others have not. In Utah County a restraining order I 'as issued in the district court to pre-ent pre-ent a 98.16 increase. Utah County of-cials of-cials questioned the Tax Commis-on's Commis-on's indexing that indicated property alues in Utah County doubled between 976 and 1978. A 32 percent increase is aid to be more realistic for Utah Coun- Anyway we look at it, there has to be i omething wrong in our free enterprise ystem when property owners are forc-d forc-d to "double their tribute to the king". If real property is doubled in valua-on valua-on why do not the state assessed pro- erty such as the utilities, mineral 'sources and state and federal lands Jouble in tax contributions? Uintah younty is already one of the highest ntributors to the state funds from her - lineral resources, and with oil shale it 'ill probably become the greatest Contibutor. Con-tibutor. If the State Tax Commission jantinues to use its indexing factor of jiir market value on property, and if lme adjustment is not made it will 1 ecome prohibitive to own property. It is hard to believe that someone would deliberately steal three dinosaurs out of the dinosaur collection in the state Dinosaur Garden Museum outdoor display. If this can happen in our community, nothing is safe and security will become one of the most expensive ex-pensive elements in our society. Must we build higher fences, install alarm systems and maintain round-the-clock security guards to insure our possessions against theft? The missing dinosaurs must be restored to their home quickly. We do not like to think that someone in Vernal would do such an act. We hope the case can be solved and a reasonable explanation can be given for such actions. Monday we received a 15 pound box of books from the Air Force. Upon opening open-ing the box we found nine volumes, over six inches thick, with the statement, "Attached for your review and comments, com-ments, in compliance with the regulations regula-tions of the President's Council on Environmental En-vironmental Quality, is the Draft Environmental En-vironmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the M-X Deployment Area Selection and Land WithdrawalAcquisition." The introductory letter went on to say "This DEIS analyzes the environmental environmen-tal impacts of deployment of the M-X missile system in areas identified as suitable in Nevada, Utah, Texas, and New Mexico. The elements of the system include two operating bases, 4,600 shelters, approximately 8,500 miles of roads, and related support facilities, operated and maintained by about 13,000 persons." We thumbed through the volumes and tried to comprehend the impact of such a project. One picture, a drawing of a special transport vehicle, had 144 tires with 75 psi tire pressure. Another transporter has 10 drive motors, is 201 feet long, 31 feet high, 25 feet wide and weighs 1.6 million pounds loaded. Think of 200 of these vehicles moving at 10 miles an hour from shelter to shelter loaded either with an M-X missile or a simulator. All this in name of national security. Sounds impossible? Well, we've got the books to prove it. Thanks to the U.S. Air Force. |