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Show A-10 f7e Par Record Saturday, January 26, 200$ Budget compromise leaves rainy-day fund untapped Legislative agreement restores $18 million to public education budget for 2002 by Jason Reade OF THE RECORD STAFF In the end. leadership in the stiitc House an J Senate did not buy tile slate education lobby's argument that the current dire budget straits qualified as a rainy-day. Nonetheless, schools fared far better than any other state entity, ;is lawmakers reached a budget agreement Wednesday afternoon, after-noon, restoring $IX.5 million to public education funding for 2002 - without tapping the rainy-day fund, the $122 million emergency savings account. Instead, legislators are planning plan-ning to dip into the Centennial Highway Fund, the state's reserves from the ahead-of-schcdulc and below-budget completion com-pletion of 1-15 reconstruction. 'ITius. $32.5 million will be cut from the public education budget.! budg-et.! far short of an earlier Republican proposal to slash $51 million. Legislators were charged with balancing a state budget with a $202 million shortfall compared to last year. Local schools will likely fare better than earlier feared, as the effect on the I'ark City .School District will fall short of the anticipated $135,975 reduction, according to district Business Administrator Von Hortin. " That's a lot better than what they were talking about doing. Hortin said. Park City Board of Education member mem-ber Carol Murphy, who serves as a legislative leg-islative liaison for the district, was also pleased lawmakers were able to compromise. com-promise. But she is crossing her fingers for the 2003 budget. "1 am a little relieved for this year, and apprehensive for next year," Murphy said. "Education I no Legislature Murphy advances in USBA ranks Nine-year board veteran elected organization's second vice president by Jason Reade OF THE RECORD STAFF The I'ark City Board of Education's legislative bigwig is poised to become president of the Utah School Boards Association. Carol Murphy, who has served on the board since 1993 and has since immersed herself in policy issues, was recently elected the second vice president of the organization, putting her on track to become president in two years. Murphy has been actively involved in the USBA - the statewide association that represents repre-sents all school boards and lobbies lob-bies for pro-public education legislation leg-islation - for a number of years. She has served on the USBA Legislative Committee for six years, and joined the Board of Directors three years ago. f Leqisiat WW ure Murphy said she originally got involved with the USBA as a way to learn from varied school districts dis-tricts throughout Utah. "I think that for a lot of years," Murphy said, "Park City thought that it had nothing to learn from the rest of the state. But there really are a lot of issues from the rest of the state we can learn from." She said one of the most important functions of the USBA is to educate school board members. mem-bers. Murphy described having "well-trained and well informed school board members" as critical criti-cal to the future of public education. educa-tion. The USBA Legislative Committee met at the State Capitol Thursday afternoon to discuss and endorse legislation affecting public education. Among other actions, the committee voted to support House Bill 262, sponsored by Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, which would revert the Student Education Plan and Student Education and Occupation Plan meetings mandated man-dated by the state back to local school district authority. Utah's cancer rate among lowest Utah has one of the lowest cancer can-cer rales in the United States. Utah's overall cancer incidence rale for females is the fourth lowest in the nation and fifth lowest for males. Utah has the lowest incidence rate for lung cancer for both males and females. 'Iliese findings are in the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts & Figure 2(X)2. released just this week. Hie good news is that nationwide and in Utah, the five-year five-year relative survival rate for all cancers can-cers combined is 62 percent for cancer can-cer survivors. For all major cancers excluding one, Utah was ranked sixth and below for incidence. "In general. Utah is a healthy state," said Rose Defa, Utah Executive Director, American Cancer Society. "Utah's cancer rankings rank-ings continue to prove what other studies have shown, that Utah is one of the healthiest states in the nation. However. 1.3IX) men will die from prostate cancer."T.K)0 Women will die from breast cancer, and 7(X) Utahns will die from colon cancer in 2002. We still have room for improvement." 'Hie report estimates that there will be 5,900 new cancers diagnosed in Utah in the coming year. The one glaring Utah statistic in the report is that Utah has the seventh highest rate of prostate cancer in the nation. And. that more men will lose their lives to prostate cancer than women will to breast cancer in Utah. Durado Brooks. M.D., MPH, director direc-tor prostate and colorectal cancer control at the American Cancer Society says, "Men should' (Mow their individual prostate cancer risk factors, learn what's known about diet and prostate cancer risk, and consider screening for the disease. CHKMB 3JtP (DC? EWECW KME 17 GBLFLF ticketed price OPEN SUNDAYS OPEN SUNDAYS . T l 'A Established 1939 v size mm now 2x3 279 5x8 1840 6x9 2450 7x10 DESCRIPTION 1) Fino Indian Kashan 2) Decorative Indo Persian 3) Fino Pakistani Bokhara 4) Persian Heriz 89 400 640 6250 10S0 ThM mrm Jut a aampl of our low, low prlcM. IRM6 YOUR COLOR SAMPLES, YOUR MEASUREMENTS. YOUR PARTNER YOUR CHECKBOOK! Bug mtnm pproaclmt, ch rug subject to prior solo mm t mum O II M I I ! ( I 4 f I f I did as well as could be expected in that environment." She said she is a bit worried, though, about the amount of time House and Senate members spent finalizing a 2002 budget in an already shortened legislative session. ses-sion. "I didn't think it would take as long as it did," Murphy said. Leadership in both the House and Senate said using rainy-day funds to shore up public education was simply unwise. During a Wednesday afternoon after-noon press conference,' Senate President Al Mansell, R-Sandy, and House Speaker Marty Stephens. R-Farr West, said the state should save rainy-day money for a real emergency situation. situ-ation. "It's difficult because we're trying to not go into those reserves," Mansell said. "We're very cautious about spending those reserves." "Why use it just to say we've used it?" Stephens said. "We havent determined we have to use it in '02." Mansell said it was not sound fiscal policy to tap the emergency savings without knowing the "length and depth" of the current economic slowdown. Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, the House Majority Whip whose district includes Park City and Summit County, said a potential crisis during next month's Olympics is the very kind of event the rainy day fund is intended for. ; Lawmakers were quick to point out that even with the $32.5 million cut. the public education budget will increase from last year. ; , "I think we've been very generous gen-erous with our education funding in the last few years," said Rep, Marda Dillree, R-Farmington. a member of the Enhancement of Public Education Task Force; during a Wednesday press conference. con-ference. Dillree pointed to the $13l million public education increase "even after the cuts." ' Remaining student Olympic tickets to become available next week Cross-country, biathlorl events still left for Summit County students, chaperones by Jason Reade OF THE RECORD STAFF The last phase of Park City student Olympic ticket distribution distribu-tion gets underway next week. A limited number of free tickets remains from the pool of 3.000 event passes provided by the Summit County Board of Commissioners and the Visa Corporation, according to Park City School District Community Education Director Judy Tukuafu. These tickets - which are all for Soldier Hollow events - will be available starting Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the district dis-trict office, located at 2700 Kearns Blvd. Office hours are . from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are still available for biathlon competitions Feb. 11, 13, 18 and 20, and men's crosscountry cross-country Feb. 14. Tukuafu said the parents should complete their ticket requests in a one-step process. "People who want tickets can come in, fill out a form, and receive tickets to remaining events on a first-come basis, she said. "There is no wait-list process." The only requirement for ticket-applicants is that they are Summit County residents taking school-age children to the event. Tukuafu said. Students may be enrolled in public schools, private schools, or may be home-schooled. Locals who applied for the Summit CountyVisa student tickets by the Jan. 12 deadline will contacted, and will be able to claim tickets starting Tuesday. Jan. 29. For more information, call the district office at 645-5600. . Bill contingent upon federal law Continued from A-9 bill. He detailed his arguments in a letter published in Wednesday's Park Record. "First, higher education will be available to a greater percentage percent-age of our population, which will result in a more educated workforce work-force in the State of Utah," Ure wrote. "Second, statistics show that those who receive a higher education degree are much.tkssj likely to need future government subsidies.. .1 believe in the old adage that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish." ' While still a strong supporter of tougher immigration policies, Ure said undocumented residents resi-dents already in Utah deserve more opportunities. "These people are here, and they're going to stay here. Let's try and raise them to a- higher level," he said Tuesday. s Raising undocumented stu-j dents "to a higher level," though, is contingent upon proposed" changes in federal law. j Legislation currently being, pushed by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-! Utah, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R4 Utah, would overturn the 1996. federal restrictions and allow' states to classify undocumented high school graduates as resident students. The last day of school in the Park City School District before the Olympic break is Friday, Feb. 1 . i J ft i 3,200 acres of terrain mean lots and lots of elbow room. The three-day weekend is fast approaching, giving you an extra day to enjoy all the room on the mountain not to mention incredible snow conditions and Utah's finest terrain. High speed gondolas are waiting to quickly and comfortably whisk you to the top of one cf cur 53 runs. After a day on th6 slopes, discover first-class dining and elegant ambiance in our magnificent new log and rock base lodge. This weekend, rediscover the magic of Snowbasin. snowbasin SALT LAKE 2002 A SUN VALLEY RESORT Q$S 11-44 !). Mf i tf-- !'1lfr''' Hill j UOR CO |