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Show I 'age Two - The Springville Herald - February 1 , 1989 EDITORIAL Where are Change always brings frustration and a period of time to get used to the change. Sometimes that takes a long time. After noting a few citizens still driving up to the nonexistent non-existent mail drops on 3rd South where the old ones used to be, and after another member of the community came into the newspaper office with a very frustrated letter-to-the-editor about "why we have a new post office without any mail drops for drivers," we decided it was time to mention that along with the new post office on Center Street came two new drive-up mail drops on 1st North. The new drive-through is a 500 percent improvement from the old, wrong side of the street drop-off at the old post office site, but it seems that many citizens do not know that they exist. Maybe a sign located in the front of the new building would help to direct those puzzled citizens to the rear of the new facility to the drop-off boxes. The spacious new post office is a fine addition to Springville and we are fortunate to have been selected to receive this facility. But with up-to-date convenience also came frustration frustra-tion for the postal workers in our community. The workers have a lot more room to do their work, but it takes more time to move around in that larger building. The new features are spread out and it takes more time to wait on customers than in the old building where everything was right there at one point. It seems that hiring of more employees at this time is at a standstill and so customers are impatient because they have to wait in lines and the employees are battled as to what to do about the new problems they have encountered. We will all get used to the big change eventually and the postal workers will get more efficient at their jobs. In the meantime, we all need to adjust to the changes and tell our friends about the new, convenient, drive-up mail-drop a block north of the new building! Health fi::' j. r'jp forms By Dennis Ilinkamp Consumer Information VYriter Utah State University Utah, untight Jy so, has been labeled la-beled "investment fraud capital' and "seam capital" of the U.S. Utahns have fallen victim to many chain reaction scams because of the established church and community com-munity networks. People have a tendency to buy things on the recommendation of a friend or neighbor rather than an established expert on the subject. The chain reaction of friends selling sell-ing to friends just seems to work a little faster in Utah. Health fraud is even more difficult diffi-cult to track than investment fraud. It thrives on a mixture of fact, fiction fic-tion and vishful thinking. Investment Invest-ment fraud is often full of bald-faced bald-faced lies. Health fraud promoters often religiously believe their own claims. Tragically, some of them Springville Police decide how to upright a vehicle Saturday night after an apparent drunkdriver ran it oft the road at 200 South 200 Kast and overturned. Photo by Walter Jex. 0 gprtngutlk (UPS 513 Published Weekly by Art City Publishing Co., Inc. 161 South Main Street Springville, Utah 84663 Phone 489-5651 Publisher Martin W. Conover Editor Patricia Conover Managing Editor Betty Lou Bailey POSTMASTER: Pl.ai. tend chong. of oddr.tt to Th. Springvlll. Herald. 161 South Main St., Sprirgvill., UT 84663. S.cond class postage paid at Springville, UT 84663. Subscriptions in Advance per year $15.00 Out of County Subscriptions per yeor $18.00 Per copy 50'. Delivered by carrier, per month, $1.50 Member Utah Press Association fhe boxes? have died believing their o n seams. Another reason health fraud nourishes nour-ishes is that many people mistrust hospitals and medical doctors. Thev believe that doctors are keeping people sick so the medical establishment estab-lishment can keep making money. I had a call last week from a man v ho said his cancer was cured by a man w ho had since been run out of the country. He now runs a cancer clinic in Mexico. It is amazing that people who won't drink the water in Mexico, go there loKancer cures. Utaji has recenilyuiirmed a local chapter of the National Council Against Health Fraud. The Utah Council Against Health Fraud (UCAHF) was formed to help consumers decipher the difference dif-ference between health fact, fiction and w ishful thinking. The UCAHF will help monitor national and local health fraud problems and monitor legislation Jteralii - 060) Legislative rePrt by Don Strong The 3rd week of the legislative session is now over. We now approach ap-proach the mythical halfway point of the session. However the real accomplishments of the session take place in the last few weeks of the session. It requires great effort to get a session going, but once it gets going it is a marvel to behold. I gel a lot of satisfaction just being part of the process. Personally, I'm having a wonderful wonder-ful time. Thedoing again of things and events I was very fond of has been satisfying. For example, I got to act as Speaker of the House one day this week. There were lots of memories of other times I've got to shepherd the legislature but I suppose sup-pose the feeling of being able to participate in our chosen form ol government continues to overwhelm me. I find the committee meetings, the functions, and the process of legislature to be overw helming and satisfying. I feci wonderful to be such a part of an important process. proc-ess. The meetings on the budget and appropriation process are moving along and are probably half done. The actual floor lime of the body secmsalitileslow toget going. The committees are not as active in getting the new laws moving as I have seen in other sessions. However, How-ever, a calm legislature taking a slower route is probably just fine. There isn't the same atmosphcreof tight budgets and trying to make ends meet that was so common for the last few years. This year seems more like a "business as usual" type session. In fact, there aren't too many changes that seem to be out of the ordinary. There even appears to be a small surplus that could reduce taxes. Perhaps the most interesting discussions dis-cussions have lo do with a possible lax reduction. We won't really know until the budget is closer to conclusion, conclu-sion, but (he bills to reduce the laxes are already being considered. The bill which would reduce the amount of sales tax appears to be favored. The sales tax was increased lo pay forthisilcslidc. It never was reduced. It might get reduced now. but it is too early in I lie session to know. Those decisions haw to wait until very close lo the finish of ihc session and in the lisihl ol the other demands on the budget. The sessions will start lo focus in the next few weeks and until then the foundation work is being done with all speed and effort. It really is something to be a pari of this process proc-ess of making laws for the future. My l e le p ho ne n u in be i w h i c h rings directly lo my desk at the legislature legisla-ture is 538-1268. Also, there is another number you can call, it is the number foi bills which is l-XOO-637-3270. You can leav e your name and a message, and I will call you back. that pertains to health fraud. The organization can also act as a clearinghouse for information either ei-ther supplying answers directly or fi ndi ng a resou ice perso n w ho ca n . A part of the national organia lion, UCAHF has access to the library of information al the national na-tional office in Loma Linda, Calif. You can join or gel more information infor-mation about the UCAHFbywril-ing UCAHFbywril-ing UCAHF, 22 North 12(H) West No. 172, Orem.UT 84057. Tea or coffee stains in a cop? Wei with vinegar. Rub with a damp cloth dipped in salt. The largest eyes of all land animals ani-mals are those of the horse and osirich-about one and a hall limes the size of human eves. ; For the first lime on modern history, his-tory, ihe world population growth rale is declining reports the United Nations. COMMENT PAGE Why ue don't need more fanes by James C. Miller III Despite George Bush's impressive impres-sive ride to victory on a "No new taxes" pledge, the Washington Beltway Crowd is gearing up to show the rest of the country that they know better. Already, we're being deluged with commentaries asserting that President Bush and Congress must raise laxes. The numbers you'll hear from the tax-increase fellas will sound something some-thing like this: The deficit is about S 150 billion. Spending on defense, Social Security and interest on the national debt will account for about S700 billion of next year's budget, and either economic realities or political promises make them impossible to restrain. That means that the rest of the budget, about S450 billion, will have to fall by S50 billion to meet next year's Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit target. Since this part of the budget includes such things as welfare, education, farm subsidies, the interstate highways and Medicare, Medi-care, it can't possible absorb that Utah ranks high in personal tax harden Utah ranks high among the states of the nation in the direct state and local taxes paid by a typical family al all income lev's This v-conclusion v-conclusion of a study show ing the common taxes paid by a family of four persons in the largest city of each state released by Utah Foun-dalion, Foun-dalion, the private nonprofit tax research organization. The foundation reported that the overall family tax burden in Salt Lake City was 16 lo 22 above the U.S. median al all income levels. lev-els. Salt Lake City's tax burden ranked either 15th or 17th among the 5 1 cities included inl he survey at income levels ranging between S20,()()0and SI00,(XX) per year. - According to the study, the direct stale and local lax burden for an average family of four persons in Salt Lake Ciiy with an annual income in-come of S35.OO0 was S3,304. This amount was aboul 22' above the U.S. median of S2.709, and Salt Lake Ciiy ranked 15lh among the 5 1 cities in the survey. The average lax burden for a family of four w ith an annual income of S35,()(X) ranged from a high of S4.71 1 in Newark, New Jersey lo a low of SI, 223 in Anchorage, Alaska. This wide variance in family tax burdens in different parts of the nation is the result of a number of factors. Government needs and serv ices can vary widely. The extremely ex-tremely high ratio of school-age children to working-age adults in Utah, for example, results in a large demand for governmental services (especially educational services) and a low financial ability to support such services. Moreover, some states arc able lo transfer pari of their governmental govern-mental costs to taxpayers in other stales. This is especially true in the case of energy-rich states (such as Alaska and Wyoming) which can pass on severance taxes to nonresidents nonre-sidents and tourist states (such as Nevada and Florida) w hich collect a sizable port ion of their taxes from visitors lo the slate. The study was based on the four major taxes collected from individuals: indi-viduals: 1. the individual income tax, 2. the real properly tax, 3. the sales and use lax, and 4. automobile taxes (gasoline lax, registration fees, excise taxes, and personal properly laxes on motor vehicles). These four tax sources account for more than 75 of all slate and local taxes kind of reduction. Therefore, more taxes are inevitable. Sounds convincing, doesn't it? But the tax-raisers cleverly forgot to tell you one other important fact: Both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Con-gressional Budget Office predict that federal revenues will rise by as much as S80 billion in each of the next four years. All the talk about "tax increases" has obscured the fact that the federal fed-eral government will already receive re-ceive whopping revenue increases. Revenues will rise because more people will be working and paying taxes, people already working will get raises and pay higher taxes, and businesses will pay higher laxes on profits and payrolls. The Washington Beltway Crowd doesn't call this revenue increase an increase. In Washington language, lan-guage, the only thing that qualifies as a revenue increase is any new tax increase that isn't already on the books. But the American family knows collected in a typical year. Foundation analysts point out that the income tax, the sales tax, and the automobile taxes in Salt Lake City are all substantially higher than the U.S. average, while only the property tax burden is below the average for the nation. At the S35.000 income level, for example, the income in-come tax is 47 above the U.S. median, the sales tax is 29 above, and the automobile taxes are 23 above. The property taxburden, on the other hand, is 19 under the U.S. average. The state and local tax system for residents appears to be mildly progressive. pro-gressive. A progressive tax or tax system is one in which the percentage percent-age of tax paid rises as the income level increases. The proportion of income going for state and local taxes for Salt Lake families at the S1(X),(XX) income level is about 10 greater than il is for families at ihe S2(),(XX) income level. The degree of progressive ty in Utah roughly parallels that of the nation as a whole. PBS show to feature tax answers Aspecial television show , encourages encour-ages taxpayers to file now will be presented by the IRS on KUED Channel 7. "Tax Break '89", a special spe-cial two-hour program, will air February 5 at 1 p.m. MST. Former NBC-TV newsman Edwin Ed-win Newman will host the program which will include five panels composed of IRS executives, tax technicians, and private lax-relurn preparers. The two-hour special will high-lightchanges high-lightchanges in the lax Iavvand how they affect the treatment of capital gains, the deductibility of medical expenses, catastrophic health insurance, in-surance, payment of quarterly estimated esti-mated laxes and the needs of older pcRofix Professional Eloctronic Repair 238 South Main Springville 409-9521 Computers Fined We also repair TV's, Stereos andVCR's All VJorh Guaranteed For 90 Daysth Charge Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily Saturdays by appointment better. Larry Lunchpailand Louise Lawyer know thai if they make more money next year than they did this year, that'san increase. They might use that extra income to buy a new ( car, or they might use it to pay off some old debts, but they don't pretend pre-tend that they're making the same amount of money that they made last year. We should expect the same from our government. An S80 billion revenue increase. " With S150 billion deficit and tax revenues rising by &80 billion each year, the government could eliminate elimi-nate the deficit in just two years by holding spending at this year's level. Or, Congress and the president could meet all of the Gramm-Rudmari-Hollings deficit targets and balance the budget by 1993 if ihcy devoted just half of the new revenues to deficit reduction. ' :. So the next time your congressman congress-man says that the budget can't be balanced without further tax increases, in-creases, ask him whether he's fudging fudg-ing the numbers or if he just hasnt looked at them. Police report Springville Police feel that the suspect that has been in the area trying to get children to get in his car may have been picked up in another community for the same offense. However, Monday there was another report of this happening happen-ing to several girls. The girls said that three high school age males tried to get them into their vehicle after the girls got off the school bus. Police responded lo 25 animal related incidents including five car-deer car-deer accidents and one dog bite, during the week. Scott W. Johnson, 339 West KM) South No. 2, Springville was arrested ar-rested on a warrant oulof Springville: Gary A. Moffitt, 1010 South 4X). East, Springville, was arrested for driving without a valid driver's license. li-cense. ' Two possible drugoverdoses were handled, and a young girl was transported trans-ported to ihe hospital after being injured while diving off the high dive at ihe ciiy swimming pool. Thefts included gas from a truck parked at Maca Supply, theft of a purse stolen from a vehicle parked at the high school, theft of hubcaps, theft of copper wire cable valued at S2(X), and ihefl of a drive line, battery and battery charger from a farm. There was one report of possible sexual abuse on a three year old girl. Father of invention Many of modern life's luxuries and necessities might not be were it not for Thomas Edison. Born Feb. 1 1 , 1847, Edison is considered one of America's greatest inventive geniuses. He held more than 1,200 palenis in his lifetime, including those for the incandescent electric lamp, the phonograph and ihe motion picture projector. Edison's birthday is now w idely observed as Inventor's Dav. taxpayers. Viewers w ill be able lo phone in questions on a toll-free telephone line lo IRS specialists throughout ihe program and for one hour afterward. i |