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Show Thursday. Fibruaiy 1, 1979 THE SENTINEL being run the way an individual minks they should be run then we can simply not make that major purchase of a new car or something else. He can hold' onto his money until he can help make the changes or vote those who he feels are not serving his needs out of office. Just things Jm lun londn By The plan before the State Need for sharing Legislature to finance part of the public school program through sales taxes rather than property taxes Hie annexation Tuesday by the South to needs be looked at carefully. Jordan City Council of property east of the Presently the state requires that Jordan River points up once again for need of school districts levy 28 mills in local governments to get together and share property taxes. That money then information about their plans. The day is rapidly approaching when there goes into the state uniform school will be very little land in this end of the county fund and then is given back to the that will lie in the unincorporated county. The school districts according to a formula. This year in prospects are good that before the end of the complicated District because of the Jordan year we will see the incorporation of three the district in the revaluation county more cities in the end of the valley. Granite is to was allowed lower that part of considering incorporation as are Cottonwood also law mill their But the levy. Heights and Herriman. to school the the district get As this end of the county becomes "wall to requires few to in a back 28 mills up wall" cities the need for an exchange of ideas levy and plans among the various incorporations years. If the 28 mill levy is dropped and will become greater. Each will be making into the sales tax collection then tied decisions that will have an effect on their the school district's budgets could neighbors. Their neighbors need to be told of these be tied directly into the state of the decisions so that their own planning can be economy. And the ups and downs of economy would be reflected in the carried out. Sewer districts, water districts, the school amount of money that schools would district and a lot of other agencies can use the be able to spend. The plan' before the state advance information of what is going on in other communities without interfering with legislature calls for ltt percent of the four percent currently being the local decisions. in sales taxes to be given collected The need exists for our local government to and the 28 mill levy to schools the agencies to get together and exchange information. Without it we are going to have a DeoToppea. And then too people would have mini-waseries of local between some control over how much of their governments and frustration on the part of the school districts would money the citizens of the communities. have to spend. If the schools are not I can't help but like the attitude of the Wyoming state legislature in throwing out the 55 mile per hour speed limit. It's about time that more state governments told the federal government where to get off on dictating regulations that the state should be making. The feds claim that they will cut off money due to Wyoming if they change the speed limit law. But the state says that the money is due to them anyway and that they will fight to get it. More power to them. The Utah legislature has the same opportunity this year to tell the feds what they can do with their regulations. The feds have told the state that if a pollution control law isn't passed this year that to the federal acceptable of some then the government money to develop sewage systems in the state will be cut off. The legislature should pass a law that is acceptable to the people of Utah and then tell the feds that they want their money any way. The only way to whip the federal bureaucracy is to stand up to and fight mem down. ' . . rs Editor: I have just finished reading your Issue dated Jan. 4, 1979 and I must say I was very impressed with your apparent knowledge and interest that was displayed in various articles that expressed concern in regards to the people of this area ie, housing, quality of; neighborhoods, physical appearance of the environment and etc. I was also very surprised to discover (to my dismay) that 84.8 percent of the people do not know of any community or neighborhood councils in their area of the city. It is my pleasure and concern to discharge the information to 100 percent of the people in this area that there is a South County Community Action (CAP) program complete with neighborhood council located at 43 East Center Street in Midvale. While this particular program is aimed directly at attempting to alleviate poverty I would like all citizens to become aware of our mission and the services that we do provide. Resp'y Yours s Blaine Bowden Director South County State Government Erp!oyr::nt in Uteh Swells Utah State Government employment rolls are 6th largest in the nation when compared to state population, according to Jack A. Utah Olson, Executive Association. Taxpayers Olson said that during 1977 Utah had 208 Vice-Preside- full-tim- . e 2 ULiVJULLA- - Li s Pag equivalent (FTE) state government employees per 10,000 population while the average was 134. Hawaii was high with 380 PTE employees per 10,000 population while Ohio was low at 102. The five states which had a greater number of employes per 10,000 population were Hawaii, New Mexico and Alaska, Delaware, Vermont. Olson's rankings were based on information taken from the Census Bureau 50-sta- te publication, Public Employment in 1977. "This high employe-populatio- n ratio is we realize when that disturbing, particularly Utah State Government had only 158 employes per 10,000 population back in 1970," Olson explained. "This is a much different picture than many politicians are painting. The public has been led to believe that state government in not so," Olson said. Utah is Utah is lean estimated to have an average of 32,200 state employes in 1979 according to the Utah Department of Employment Security. In 1970 we had 23,510. This is an increase of 8,690 employes or 37 percent. During this same period state population has grown only 23 percent, he said. While the Beehive State ranked 6th in 1977 with 208 PTE employes per 10,000 population, Arizona ranked 34th at 146, Colorado 26th at 159, Nevada 22nd at 167, Idaho 14th at 176 and Wyoming 8th at 202. e PTE: The number of plus an e of the estimate equivalent of part-tim- e employes. full-tim- full-tim- Full-tim- per e equivalent state employes population: October 1977 10,000 "Alaska 3 Delaware 4 5 New Mexico Vermont 6 7 8 9 Utah II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 . 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Inflation and not the reappraisal program is the chief culprit in raising property taxes and destroying uniformity among the counties in Utah. This was the conclusion reached by Utah Foundation, a private tax research organization, in its analysis of the first cycle of Utah's reappraisal program. The foundation found that the reappraisal program has been very successful in reducing the inequities that existed among individual properties and property classes. Uniformity of assessments within the 28 counties that completed the first cycle of the reappraisal program improved dramatically. The program, however, has failed to reduce inequities among the counties. The average variation in assessment ratios among counties actually has risen from 16 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 1978. When counties are first reappraised, the foundation notes that they come reasonably dose to meeting the 20 percent assessment objective of the reassessment program. Inflation and rapidly changing property values soon cause a deterioration in assessment ratios and a lack of uniformity among the counties. The average assessment ratio in the ten counties that were reassessed in 1972, for example, had declined to 7.84 percent of current market value by 1978. Salt Lake County, which was reappraised last year, had an average assessment ratio of 19.35 percent in 1978. This lack of uniformity among counties creates serious inequities in the distribution of state aid to schools. The foundation study shows that eleven Utah school districts currently contribute $3,926,000 more in local taxes and receive that much less in state school aid than would be the case if there were uniformity in local assessments among of the forty school the counties. Twenty-nin- e districts, on the other hand, contribute $3,823,000 less than their "fair share" in local taxes and consequently receive that much more in state aid than would be the case if there were assessment uniformity. Foundation analysts conclude that of property assessments is equalization essential if Utah is ever to achieve any semblance of fairness in its school aid program. Allocation of state aid for school operations is based mainly on the number of weighted pupil units and the relative wealth of the respective school districts as measured by assessed valuations. The report suggests that many of the present inequities among counties could be eliminated if annual adjustments are made to . assessments in the intervening years between reappraisals. Such annual adjustments not only would reduce the discrepancies that exist among the various counties of the state, but also would spread the total tax adjustment over a longer period, thus reducing the trauma that usually follows revaluation after long intervals. When the reappraisal program was adopted in 1969, the law provided for tax rate reductions to minimize overall tax increases following revaluation. The study points out, however, that these mill rate reductions, usually do not completely offset the higher valuations received by most owners of real property. Property tax bills for individual taxpayers therefore will rise in most instances. locally-assesse- d Last year, the reappraisal program resulted in an overall property tax increase of $22.5 million, or 15.2 percent in Salt Lake County. Approximately $19.2 million, or 85 percent of this tax increase resulted from higher taxes imposed by the four school districts (Granite, Jordan, Salt Lake, and the in located county. Murray) Approximately $10 million, or more than half of this increase in school taxes was mandated by the required contribution to the basic school program. The increased collections from this basic levy contribution were offset by a reduced amount of state aid to the districts affected. Employes Hawaii '"2 10 h:i::rtaxcj:dfc::;:ifi:$ PTE Rank I Infl3t:nc!:::fc:r3cf ": v 330 374 " 248 234 223 206 204 202 201 200 194 -- J Rhode Island Wyoming West Virginia Montana South Carolina Washington Oklahoma .. .180 177 .176 Idaho North Dakota South Dakota 176 176 174 174 173 173 171 167 163 160 160 159 159 159 157 153 Maryland Virginia Louisiana Oregon Nebraska Nevada Kansas Alabama Kentucky Colorado Maine New Hampshire North Carolina Georgia Mississippi Tennessee . 151 150 149 146 144 138 130 128 128 127 122 117 115 115 113 108 106 103 103 102 134 Arkansas Arizona Iowa Connecticut Minnesota Michigan Missouri .1 ' Texas Massachusetts Wisconsin Florida Indiana Pennsylvania New York California Illinois New Jersey Ohio U.S. AVERAGE Source: U.S. Department Public Employment in 1977 . . of Commerce, State Employes Year 1970 23,510 1971 '24,695 1972 1973 28,002 27,059 27,629 28,847 29,751 30,605 31,300p 32,200f 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 '. , ; p preliminary f forecast Source : Utah Department of Employment Security, Research and Analysis Section V It had been quite a while since I'd ridden with the Utah Transit Authority, so I thought it might be fun to give "the Bus" another go 'round. I had a friend drop me off downtown, last Thursday about 10 minutes before scheduled departure and I hurried excitedly into the little glass enclosure to keep "warm" while 1 waited. I plopped myself on the bench beside a weathered old man who introduced himself as Ollie N. Free. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintence," I smiled. "What bus are you waiting for?" "Headed for Sandy," he replied, glancing at his watch. "Gotta be there by nightfall." There was a good hour of daylight left, so I was a bit puzzled at his seemingly excessive concern. "You bus gets here in ten minutes, Mr Free. You shouldn't have any trouble making your deadline at all." Ollie momentarily lifted his gaze to observe another building being torn down, then he turned toward me and raised an eyebrow. "What are you?" he smirked. "Some sort of politician or something? This bus ain't been on time for weeks." He looked back at the building. "And sometimes it don't even come at all." "Well, then what are you doing waiting here?" I inquired. "Don't you have a friend or relative who could give you a ride out?" "I come here every night . . , gotta take the bus . . ." he muttered. "Can't bother a friend . . . won't bother the kids . . . gotta take the bus ... gotta make it work mis time... gotta-- " "Hold it a second," I interrupted. "You don't 'gotta' do anything. Look, I can see you don't have much money; so, if the bus doesn't come I'll just call my girlfr . . . wait a second I don't have one . . . well, I'll call my dad and he'll give us both a ride to Sandy." Ollie looked at me again with a gaze that could've frozen Mt. Vesuvius, so I stopped chattering. I"," I tJ.. I sat there in silence for a few moments, with a number of other passengers who had gathered, until i couldn't stand the quiet any We longer. "You said the bus doesn't come at all sometimes," I ventured. "How long's that been going on?" He looked at his watch, then answered. "A long time, son. A longtime." "Have you called the authorities on this? I though we were paying taxes to support this thing?" "No, I haven't called the authorities, and yes, you are paying taxes to support this thing.' That's why we gotta make it work. You see Oooeee! Would you look at that wreck? They don't have narrow streets like that in Sandy..." . "That's our bus!" I gasped. "Look what happened to our bus!!" "Yup!" the old man giggled. "Did ya see how that Pinto ran smack-da- b into-- " 'The Pinto didn't hit the bus!" I blurted. "The engine just went 'ka-poo- m . . ." "Yessirree, Bob. Sometimes it and sometimes it and sometimes it just 'fizzles' like a balloon with a pin stuck in it! But it sure is worth waiting for!" I must have had an awful blank look on my face, because Ollie decided be needed to explain further. "Well an old man like me's gotta . . have some excitement, boy," he . . . just "ka-poom- s,' 'ka-poo- s,' chuckled, getting to his feet. "And watching these buses bomb every night is the most exciting thing I've done in a long time..." I sat there stunned as the old man hobbled to the curb. I was just regaining my composure when Ollie's voice again punctured my eardrums. "Hey, sonny," he yelled. "Here comes my taxi. Want a ride to Sandy?" I said yes. After all. UTA wouldn't miss me. And besides, how could I turn down a man with such an appropriately inviting name? .Ml |