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Show 2 Vernal Exprett Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1993 ' SV M JB ft by Jack R. Wallis "No new taxes"? Utah's 1993 Legislature is now in its fourth week with only three more to go. It will be a relief to many and a disappointment to others when the March 3rd midnight gavel rings out the adjournment The frightening aspects of the Legislature session is the uncertainty of all the bills that are presented before the legislators. Governor Leavitt has campaigned cam-paigned on the pledge of "no new taxes" but there are over $353 million in new taxes already proposed. This is why we have an uneasy feeling during the Legislature session and give a sigh of relief when the final adjournment takes place. Some of the tax increases proposed include a one-tenth one-tenth of a cent local option sales tax for the arts. This would amount to about $18 million annually, if imposed im-posed statewide, and be used for funding Utah's cultural cul-tural institutions. Another bill is proposed to double the cigarette tax to provide $25 million to fund a variety of social programs. pro-grams. The Central Utah Water Project is in need of up to $300 million to pay its share of federal participation for the CUP completion phase of the project. It is proposed the current CUP property tax be increased from .0004 to .0010 which would mean an increase of from $40 to $60 for property owners for $100,000 worth of property. This would be a $20 million annual annu-al tax hike. The Utah Hospital Association has proposed a temporary tem-porary two-year "bed tax" to generate $9 million in revenue to qualify for $27 million in federal medicaid medi-caid funds. A bill to remove the sales tax from food is again proposed. But the lost revenue would be made up through a special tax on luxury items such as planes, boats, vacation homes, expensive furs, jewelry, and luxury cars. Another bill has been proposed to add an additional 30 cents per gallon to the gas tax to raise $281 million mil-lion per year for road construction and repairs in Utah. A tax of 4 cents per quart of oil has been proposed to raise approximately one-half million dollars annually annu-ally to provide incentives for proper disposal of used oil. Utah is already the highest taxed state in the inter-mountain inter-mountain west and the 11th highest taxed in the nation, na-tion, according to Money Magazine. The "no new taxes' pledge is a tough one to keep when everyone is clamoring for more money. Education, social services, welfare, medical, law enforcement, en-forcement, infrastructures, state employees all need more money to keep up with the growth of the state. Taxation has been the easiest way to raise new money for the state. But now it has reached a point of diminishing returns, the power to tax is the power to destroy. It has been proven that taxing luxury items hurts most those industries that provide jobs and income in-come for those involved in the manufacture of these items. Undue taxation in the oil and gas exploration industry in-dustry has proven to take away the incentive to spend money to search and produce this natural resource. When taxation takes away the incentive to expand and develop oneself it is a destructive force and should be avoided. Hopefully, the Utah Legislature can successfully adjourn March 3 with "no new taxes". PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning con-cerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions as to contents, if not libelous or vindictive and of reasonable length. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Express and bear the writer's full name, signature, phone number and address. The name or name of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily nec-essarily the opinion of the Express Editor. CUP costsr Dear Editor: Senator Alarik Myrin left off a major part of the Central Utah Project Completion Act when he was quoted in the February 3rd edition edi-tion of the Vernal Express. He felt compelled to mention costs of "recreational, wildlife and environmental benefits," but completely com-pletely left off a major part of the completion costs that will provide long distance transport of subsidized subsi-dized irrigation water to central Utah agricultural interests. He neglected ne-glected the cost of this enormous subsidy as well as who should assume as-sume the local cost share, even as he mused about whether nearly everyone ev-eryone else in the state should pay some fair share! This omission, given giv-en his direct connection with ranching ranch-ing and agriculture, probably isn't accidental. For all those property owners upon whom Senator Myrin intends to raise taxes even more, he needs to be forthright and honest about all aspects of what he will be asking them to pay for, and for whom. As a taxpayer who believes she pays enough now, that's the least I expect from my elected representative. rep-resentative. ROBERTA SINTON Vernal Vernal Express (ISSN 0892-1091) Published every Wednesday lor $17.50 per year in shopping area and $28 per year out of shopping area within state and $31 per year out of state within USA by the Vernal Express Publishing Company, 54 North Vernal Avenue, Vernal, Utah 84078. Second class postage paid at Vernal, Utah 84078. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VERNAL EXPRESS, P.O. Box 1000, Vernal Utah 84078. Jack R. Wallis Publisher Steven R. Wallis Editor Melanie Morrison Staff Writer Kathleen Irving Staff Writer Eric F. Pye Sports Writer Janet D. Wallis Advertising Marcia Henry Advertising Judy McCarley Circulation & Classified Ads Cherl McCurdy Legal Notices Phone 789-3511 FAX 789-8690 Member of Utah Press Association and National Newspaper Association Area cormpondantt Tridell Loma McKee. 247-2350 Lapoint Marlene McClure, 247-2552 Whiierocks Virginia Ferguson, 353-4584 Manila Clara Robinson, 784-3436 Deadline News Monday Sp.m. Display Advertising Tuesday 11 a.m. Classified Advertising Tuesday 11 a.m. Country's problems Dear Editor, In two separate letters to the editor edi-tor last week, both Shirl Atwood and Jerry Kloeppel correctly pointed point-ed out that something is terribly wrong in our country. Each attributed attribut-ed these problems to the decline of religious faith among our citizens. Each also suggested all we need is a rejuvenated faith in God to solve these problems. I believe their viewpoint is wrong. Contrary to popular opinion, religion reli-gion itself had little to do with the writing of the Constitution. Our founding fathers were very much a product of the Enlightenment, and consequently, so was the Constitution. Its unique conception of individual rights was in direct opposition to every other political system in history and was made possible only by the ideals of the Enlightenment. The framers of the Constitution were careful to preserve all liberties. liber-ties. Out of necessity, then, they rejected re-jected government supported religion. reli-gion. The Bill of Rights explicitly separates Church from State. It prevents pre-vents the government from advocating advocat-ing religious beliefs; instead, it allows al-lows each person in society to think independently. America was once a Christian nation; na-tion; the early Puritans lived in theocratic dictatorships, societies as close to the Christian ideal as is possible on earth. Religious leaders imposed the will of God on the people peo-ple and forced them to live selfless-ly. selfless-ly. The Bible was their Constitution. Fortunately, our founding fathers wrote their own and liberated a new land. Although many of our founding fathers did believe in God, most of them believed in a Supreme Being who was distant and uninvolved in human affairs. Their religion, deism, was a secularized theology that had been significantly altered by the ideas of the Enlightenment; hence, if anything inspired the Constituuon, it was not superstition or blind faith, but rather the conviction convic-tion that reason and its corollary, freedom are essential rights among mankind. America has slowly, yet persistently, persis-tently, violated its original stance on the importance of freedom. Today the trend in politics is to place restrictions re-strictions on liberty. From the military mili-tary draft to nationalized industries, contemporary governmental policies poli-cies are leading us away from individual indi-vidual rights and more into tyranny. Many people, like Mr. Atwood and Mr. Kloeppel, try to blame communism for Americas declining morals and efficacy. In part, their position is accurate; however, something larger is destroying . America. It is a principle supported not only by communism, but by Judeo-Christianity as well. This destroyer de-stroyer is collectivism. The essence of Judeo-Christian philosophy and communism is altruism, al-truism, the doctrine that an individual individ-ual is bound by duty to sacrifice himself for others. When a society puts altruism into practice, it becomes be-comes collectivism. Collectivism is the doctrine that the good of society is more important than the good of the individual. The most conspicuous conspicu-ous example of collectivisms corrupting cor-rupting influence in America is welfare wel-fare statism. Entitlement programs make up fifty-one percent of the annual an-nual budget. These programs have bred dependency among the destitute desti-tute and have punished the capable for being strong. Quite simply, welfare wel-fare statism is consuming our country's coun-try's prosperity. It is revealing to note that welfare is the country's prosperity. It is revealing to note that welfare is the political expression expres-sion of altruism, the fundamental tenet in Christian and communist ethics. Like Christianity and communism, com-munism, welfare supports unconditional uncondi-tional love and universal equality. If nothing else, one thing is certain: cer-tain: deliverance from our problems does not lie in the heavens. Mr. Atwood and Mr. Kloeppel implied that the mere belief in God can suffice suf-fice as a comprehensive system of ethics. They also insinuated that the atheist has no standards or integrity; personally, I can say this notion is false, but beyond that, I need only point out that White Supremacists are among the most zealous Christians in American and that they also justify murder through God. Obviously, just believing or not believing in God does not tell man what is moral and immoral; the answer an-swer to this question depends upon his consummate vision of life. The Christian and the communist both renounce reason and individuality, instead endorsing dogmatic superstition super-stition and collectivism. I am convinced con-vinced that these last two things, blind faith and collectivism, are the destroyers of America. Anyone who wishes to save his country would do well to repudiate them. BLAKE STEVENS Vernal Temperatures Dale High Um Prec. Feb. 2 39 5 Feb. 3 27 11 Feb. 4 22 10 Feb. 5 24 6 Feb. 6 18 -9 Feb. 7 27 3 .02 Feb. 8 32 12 .02 Courtesy of Sky West Airlines SNOWIN' o o o o o " O o oo COULD IT BE THAT HE DRIVES A SKOVJ PLOW FOR. THECOUKTY ROAD DEPARTMENT HE DRIVES A KOW PLOW FOR THE DEPARTMENT OP PUBLIC TRAKSROFOATIONf HE LIVES IN A FLAT ROOFED HOUSE.4 ANYOF THE , ABOVE:.' Pop Survey finds small firms oppose hike in gas taxes Utah's largest small-business advocacy ad-vocacy group today announced it stands "firmly opposed" to funding a 10-year, $1 -billion highway construction con-struction and improvement plan through sharply higher state motor fuel taxes. More than four of every five small-business owners (81) surveyed sur-veyed by the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business opposed an immediate 15-cent 15-cent per gallon hike in the state's gas tax. The idea of phasing in the tax hike over a three-year period did not win many converts among the small-business owners. Sixty percent per-cent of those who opposed an immediate im-mediate 15-cent increase also rejected re-jected the phase-in proposal. Glade Sowards, director of the 3,275-member organization, noted that the NFIBUtah survey conducted conduct-ed in December, was well before U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and others in the Clinton Administration had expressed interest inter-est in raising federal gasoline taxes. "While Utah's small-business owners fully appreciate the need for good highways, most feel we just can't afford to launch major construction con-struction and improvement projects at this time," Sowards said. "Now, with higher federal taxes looming on the horizon, there is even less willingness to kick an extra $100 million into the state highway trust fund each year." "Small-business owners are willing will-ing to make do with the highways we already have," Sowards added. "We'd like the Transportation Department to concentrate on maintaining main-taining what we've got and forget about pushing for tax hikes to increase in-crease highway capacity...at least until Utah's taxpayers have a chance to develop their wallet capacity ca-pacity a little further." Predators Dear Editor, Utah Farm Bureau president Ken Ashby says the desire to prevent bear-baiting, coyote trapping, and big-cat killing is an effort to harass honest, hard-working ranchers. He further states that ranchers have suffered suf-fered unbearable losses to predators. As an ex-rancher I know that it is hard work with sometimes little gain. I do not know any rancher who has gone out of business due to losses by predatory animals. In seven sev-en years with a 200 mother-cow operation, op-eration, I never lost a calf to a predator that I am aware of. I do know ranchers who have gone out of business because of high interest rates charged by insurance insur-ance companies that were also in the money loaning business. I invite Mr. Ashby to prove that predatory animals in the entire state of Utah do more damage to ranchers , than the combined salaries of two or three insurance company , executives. execu-tives. Who pays these salaries? Who are the real predators in this scenario? sce-nario? I will cancel my Farm Bureau Insurance. There are companies compa-nies that do not advocate the murder of innocent animals to cover their own tracks. AMILQUAYLE St. Anthony, Idaho Abegglen nominated for recreation recognition by Steven Wallis Express Editor Last week the author of a book published by Prentice Hall, selected Vernal to be among the 50 best small towns in America. Norman Crampton made his selection se-lection without ever visiting Vernal. Not to discredit Crampton's selection, selec-tion, (Vernal was number 48) I think more can be said about a community com-munity by actually being in the place rather than just looking at the statistics. He looked at per capita income, proportion of black and other non-white non-white population, portion in the 24-34-year age group, number of physicians, number of serious crimes, percentage of local population popula-tion and public education spending. There are numerous other reason why Vernal is one of the best small town in American. Subsequent "Our Town" columns will attempt to enumerate these reasons. Reason number one: The area has a lot of people like Councilman Abegglen. Vernal realtor and city councilman, council-man, Jim Abegglen, has been nominated nomi-nated to receive the "Service to the Profession" award from the Utah Recreation and Parks Association. "Jim Abegglen has done more for Recreation in the Uintah Basin in the last two years than most people would have believed possible," said Shane McAffee, Uintah Recreation Association director. Abegglen is currently serving as a city councilman for Vernal City and is the appointed representative to the Uintah Recreation Association, where he serves as president of the association. In the last two years he has brought four distinct government govern-ment agencies together to pool their resources into one association for the sole purpose of improving recreation in Uintah County. 'This was no easy task as each entity had their own 'turf' and felt that they would lose control if they joined the association," McAffee said. OUR TOWN Not only was he able to convince them of the advantages of such a coalition, but was also able to convince con-vince them to contribute their tax dollars in support of the programs and facilities. Vernal City, Uintah County, Uintah School District, and Naples City formed the association in July of 1992. Each entity has given pools, parks, golf courses, programs, pro-grams, and resources to ensure the success of the Recreation Association. In doing this Abegglen has spent countless hours in council, coun-cil, School Board, commission and Recreation Board meetings. "Due to Jim's efforts the public (both private individuals and public, agencies) more fully recognizes the importance of recreation in their lives and community." Abegglen has also been instrumental instru-mental in bringing to realization an 18 hole golf course in Vernal. He has worked with the different agencies agen-cies to gain their support for the course. He worked with the committee com-mittee to apply and receive a grant and loan for the golf course. The construction is being done in house with equipment, man power, and materials from Uintah County and Vernal City. He has been instrumental instrumen-tal in securing these resources from the different departments. He is at the construction site on a daily basis ensuring that what is needed is available. He has helped solicit donations do-nations of equipment, materials, and money that has saved tens of thousands thou-sands of dollars on the project. His background in construction and real estate has been invaluable in keeping keep-ing the project moving and on schedule. "If anyone is deserving of the 'Service to the Profession Facility Award' it is Jim Abegglen for his dedication and service that demonstrates demon-strates his philosophy of recreation that can and should be followed by all," McAffee concludes. Only a phone call away. Subscribe to the Vernal Express 789-3511 |