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Show 2 The Magna Times, Thursday, April 23, 1992 Letters to the Editor at Stewarts performance record Look Dear Editor: I wonder if the people of Utah are aware of the fact that Salt Lake County, under the leadership of Mike Stewart during the past 11 years, is possibly the most efficiently run county in the entire United States. Mike Stewart is now a Republican candidate for governor, and I know Utah will lead the nation as Mikes expertise is put to work in our state government. Today Salt Lake County is one of only 14 counties of the 3,200 counties g in America to enjoy the benefits of a AAA bond rating. This is only accomplished by very sound fiscal management and has been done without raising the taxes over which he has controlled for the past six years. It is especially remarkable because the county is now serving 130,000 more residents than when he cost-savin- took office and demanding several hundred fewer employees. How is this possible! Through the use of volunteers and sensitive privatization the county has saved millions of dollars. The county has over 12,000 volunteers, more than double any other county in America. The county has turned to the private sector the performance of many services they are able to do more efficiently: ambulance service, mental health, alcohol and drugs, conventions and visitors bureau, custodial services, senior meals, etc. Mike Stewart is the only candidate for governor with public administration experience who can say with justifiable pride, Examine my not prorecord of performance mises. Carl B. Paulsen Salt Lake City MAGNA TIMES USPS 325-58- 0 8980 West 2700 South Magna, Utah 84044 J. HOWARD STAHLE Publisher BONNIE STAHLE Advertising Manager - Office Manager NECIA PALMER Editor KENT GOBLE Sports Editor - Feature Writer DEANNA JONES Arts & Entertainment Editor Typesetter LINSCHOTEN Staff Writer SHARON Perhaps, just perhaps, that is the kind of leadership we are getting. Leaders who have no need to pray. Maybe too many of us are listening to those scoundrels who would lead us away from the virtues we have once esteemed so highly. There are many leaders who will not be intimidated by the nonsensical idea that prayer is not necessary; that prayer is not for government leaders who would lead others to greatness. Great honored leaders throughout the ages have always recognized the strength to be gained through supplicating powers higher than their own. Perhaps it will become necessary to dp. es.mfdiy havehPfttQ da before. That ,is to, meet, secretly, or privately, to seek the strengthsto lead, guide, and direct ones constituents on pathways toward greatness. AMAZING, ISNT IT? Jack D. Palmer Fruit Heights Get out and vote! Dear Editor: April 27th is every citizens opportunity to really determine who will represent them. Monday, April 27, at 7 p.m., concerned and involved citizens will gather at homes and other meeting places in their immediate neighborhood to begin the process of selecting candidates for local and state-wid- e elected government offices at these party caucuses (formerly known as mass meetings) . Citizens, registered voters or not, select not only the local political party leaders for the next two years, but also the delegates who will represent them at the political party conventions. At these conventions the candidates who appear on the primary and general election ballots are determined. Each voting district can elect those delegates who agree to support the candidates each neighborhood desires. If your personal choice for a candidate is not on the ballot and you didnt attend your local caucus, who is really to blame? Certainly not your neighbor who did attend and got his candidate on the ballot. Assert your right and choice. Attend your party caucus April 27 at 7 p.m. If you dont know the location, ask your neighbor or call the county party of your choice or the county clerk. Norm Fitzgerald Magna STACEY T. CASE Staff Writer DALE SIMONS BEN CLARK Sports Photographer - Send letters to the editor! in your Sports Columnist Writer DANA JONES Layout Published each Thursday $15 per year $18 per year out of state Subscription Second class postage paid at Magna, Utah 84044 Dear Editor: Women veterans will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the proclamation signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt which allowed women to enlist in the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, Army, and Air Force. Our organization, WAVES National, is interested in locating former Navy women veterans in your state. WAVES National members are celebrating the occasion in Anaheim, 1992. California, July For further information, they can get in touch with me. Dottie Fulton Artevich WAVES National 1st V.P. 1902 Dartmouth Street Camp Hill, PA 17011 13-1- 8, Volunteers recognized Dear Editor: In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 2, 1 would like to recognize the dedication of some outstanding volunteers in your community. Dan and Annette Ellis are international exchange coordinators for EF Educational Foundation for Foreign it Study, a organization that 26-M- ay Prayer is a part of life Amazing! Astonishing! Flabbergasting! What can you say? The United States, the state of Utah, and almost without exception every community within the bounds of our great state were dreamed of, were planned, were settled, were governed, and have been governed by strength and influence sought by prayer. Humble individuals beseeching a power beyond their own abilities to give guidance and support needed for seemingly unsurmountable tasks. People who were stalwart within themselves, who recognized the need for inspiration to perform their duties in ways that benefitted all concerned. Somehow, for hundreds of years it has been effective. Somehow prayer , has helped ( atle&st hi the Aiiids of those who have prayed) to found a great nation, a great state, and great communities. It is amazing that so many people have come to live in valleys of the mountains because of the great lifestyle, because its a great place to raise children, because of the unparalleled work ethic, and to live among good neighbors. Yet to some, there seems to be no apparent reason for these significant community values. And seeking for justifiable reasons, there are those who have decided that a prayerful heart should no longer be an attribute of those who would serve their fellow citizens. There are those who would want us to believe that after all of these years we no longer need humble men to guide and direct and lead citizens to a better way of life. They would want us to believe that our leaders can do it all on their own. They would have us believe that great leaders need no one other than themselves to accomplish the seemingly unsurmountable. Former WAVES sought Send letters to: 8980 West 2700 South Magna, UT 84044 non-prof- promotes global understanding through student exchange. Through the efforts of volunteers like Dan and Annette, students from around the world have the opportunity to spend a year living with an American family. They also provide our hgh school students with die opportunity to spend a year studying abroad. In addition to these fine individuals, I would like to pay tribute to the other Magna citizens who have also made a significant contribution to furthering understanding between nations thieyearv.Voiuflteer hosWaraiJiesas well as local high schools which have enthusiastically welcomed foreign exchange students, deserve to be commended, as do many other community members who have shown these teenagers what it means to be a Diagnosis and cure: The Social Security Notch by Martha McSteen President, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare With at least 273 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 42 in the Senate, support to correct the Social Security Notch has reached its highest level ever in Congress. Yet the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee continues to block a vote on it. And other opponents of a Notch correction have taken to the news media in attempts to convince the public there is no problem. Well, try telling that to the nearly 12 million Americans who are affected by the Notch. Their benefit checks tell the true story. The facts, based on Social Security Administration estimates, are that the retiree born between 1917 and 1926 will receive average-earninin an average of $916 a year less Social Security benefits than the same average worker born between 1912 and 1916, and $480 a year less than the same worker born between 1927 to 1931. Opponents of the Notch consensus bill pending in Congress say its a mistake thats too costly to correct. But, analysis shows that reducing the Notch inefinancial integrity quity can be done without harming the current or long-terNotch. costs would Benefit another of the Social Security system, or creating Social is which Security projected to peak at $4.8 billion in 1995 a year in have an $88.7 billion annual surplus! cost In fact, the Social Security Administration (SSA) projects a about five percent of the misleading $860 billion possible of $46.1 billion costs cited by opponents. Even after deducting the costs of correcting the Notch, the Social Security Trust Fund reserves are expected to increase by e more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Over the entire d forecasting period, SSA projects that costs will be increased by less than of one percent. Finally, no offseting tax or spending adjustments in federal programs are required under the 1990 Budget Agreement since the Social Security program finally has been set aside in its own accounting category. Legislation to correct the Notch simply would provide Notch victims with cash benefits more comparable to benefits of persons born in the late 1920s, but still less than paid to persons born in the The bottom line, however, may lie in the fact that Social Security trust fund surpluses are currently combined with general fund deficits, enabling almost d of government deficit spending to be hidden in the 1992 federal If budget. this accounting gimmick were eliminated, perhaps there would be less resistance to correcting the Social Security Notch. Its time to give the folks affected by this law a break. After all, Social Security recipients would put any increase in their monthly check back into the marketplace. This in turn would help breathe some life into our struggling economy. m 10-ye- ar long-rang- one-thir- mid-teen- s. one-thir- wr burden. 'fom real American. Thank you, Dan and Annette! You are a credit to your community for helping Magna to share the American spirit and to become part of a lifelong international friendship. Sincerely, Asa Rangne President EF Foundation S9W, The tax by Senator Orrin G. Hatch The Democratic-controlle- d Con- gress has taken its best shot and has sent the President a tax bill designed to make our taxes fair for middle class families and restore growth to our economy. Unfortunately, somewhere in the morass of political debate, Congress has mixed up the concepts of tax fairness and economic growth. The tax bill the President vetoed will neither promote fairness nor increase economic growth. Indeed to achieve tax fairness, we need to first achieve economic growth. In viewing the economy today, I am reminded of the situation confronting the nation during the inflation and stagnation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. That was a time of falling real incomes, rising unemployment, and diminished economic opportunities. While todays inflation rate is much lower, we are again faced with falling real incomes and rising unemployment, compounded by an inadequate rate of investment in new production capability. It is clear that the politics of income redistribution and class warfare are not going to show us the way out of this mess. Congress needs to put these aside and do what we did in 1981 work together to craft a bipartisan bill aimed squarely at promoting economic growth 'to benefit all Americans. In the late 1970s, the economy was bill: Fairness or folly?: brought to its knees by sharply higher marginal tax rates on work effort, saving, and investment. Inflation was driving taxpayers into higher tax brackets, reducing the incentive to save, work overtime, or invest in a small business. Inflation also drove the cost of capital higher, causing productivity, real wages, and employment to slump. Two great policy shifts overcame these difficulties. The Federal Reserve curbed inflation by restraining money supply growth, and the Tax Act of 1981 was passed. The tax act lowered individual marginal income tax rates across the board, which in turn reduced the tax on labor, saving, and investment. The act also contained provisions that lowered the cost of capital. The twin reductions in inflation and tax rates ushered in the longest peacetime economic expansion in history and created 20 million new jobs. Wages and family incomes, which fell between 1979 and 1982, turn- ed it around at all income levels, and rose across the board during the recovery. We can learn some great lessons from the 1981 tax cuts. The cuts demonstrated that reducing tax rates on labor and capital does result in more growth and new jobs. The 1981 tax act also shows that increasing productivity and economic growth are the keys to raising incomes and living standards. Higher incomes and new jobs go a lot farther in promoting tax fairness than does a small reduction of income taxes for a relatively few of our families. Some inequity does exist in our tax system today. The payroll tax is regressive and places an onerous burden on the American worker. In fact, many low- - to middle-incom- e workers pay more in payroll tax than in income tax. The biggest inequity of all, however, is to choke off growth and limit the economys ability to create new jobs. This is exactly what the tax bill just vetoed would have done. The economy would have fared no better under the new taxes of the vetoed bill than it has under the luxury taxes passed in 1990. These taxes were also designed to soak the rich and make the system more fair. The have been if one could I doubt and disastrous, find more than a handful of members of Congress who would not vote to repeal at least one of these taxes. Time and again, efforts to redistribute income through the tax code have backfired. Taxes on the rich injure the poor and middle class by eliminating jobs. Now that this bill is behind us, I hope Congress can put aside election year politics and pull together to craft a tax bill that will create increase jobs, living standards, and our propel economy into the competitive position it needs to be for the 1990s and beyond. effects, pro-grow- th however, |