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Show Opini SUNDAY, March31, 1996 Che Salt Lake NEWSOF THE WEIRD Page AA-7 ~~ PAGEAAI RUSSIAN VIEW Page AA-3 The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Resolve County Conflict It can be healthy when a government newcomer questions the status quo, even if it disrupts business-as-usual. But Salt Lake County Attorney Doug Short has carried his shake-up of “the countyofficials have strayed from their ownpolicies for donating to community causes. Perhaps they need to disperse and track the money moredeliberately. Short’s battle with Salt Lake County commissioners has gone so far beyond reason that a respected, neutral party mayhave to cut through the tangle of conflicting opinions, interests and emotions. But even the involvementof an arbiter depends on cooperation from antagonists competing for authority over county government Sparksignited between commissioners and their elected legal counsellast December, when hetried to stop them from giving $75,000 in start-up money to Taylorsville-Bennion. Then, as now, he asked the legitimate question: Are commissionersfollowing their ownpoli- Some“donations” may bebetter treated as county expendituresor contracts requiring bids, and all funding requests should be regularly reviewed. But when Short overrules the commissioners’ decisions to finance specific causes, he elevates himself to the position of policy-maker. The commissioners, not Short, were elected to decide what public services to provide. And whenhe anoints himself public watchdog and threatensto prosecute commissionersfor rejecting his advice, he puts the elected policy-makersin the untenable position of asking their accuser to defend them in court. In a government system like Salt Lake County’s, where elected commissioners serve both as the makers and administrators of policy, the system of checks and balancesis strained. Voters cy, and is it legal? need someone to protect their interest system” to extremes, creating a power struggle thatis distorting lines of authority and punishing worthy community programs. Butinstead of then telling commissioners howbetterto satisfy the law, as he was elected to do, he publicly accused them of being lawbreakers, threatened to sue and put spending on extended hold. In thelatest dispute, he has held up nearly $1 million in funds for months, forcing 17 non-profit groups and agencies like Traveler's Aid Society and the Salt Lake County Fair Boardto slice their budgets. After going along with the process last year, he now claims commissioners are handing out money without getting something of comparable value Short may be right when he says in efficient, honest government. The countyattorney andotherelected officials could help serve that function without obstructing county operations and hurting recipients of county services. But first a common understanding of their respective roles and a willingness to cooperate must replace the hostility between commissioners and their attorney. An analysis of county government, by the Utah Attorney General's Office or other outside legal expert, could clarify those roles and offer guidance on spending policy. The catch is that Doug Short may have to invite outside involvement, which would require the concession that he could be wrong The Phantom Is Nigh “Hy ~ADVANCE. Me ANOTHERFEWBILLION CN MY ALLOWANCE OR LL NetoSORRING OLD PEOPLE ABOUT MEDICARE ard SACL SECURITY RA Free Trade Is Good for the American Economy JAMES K. GLASSMAN THE WASHINGTONPOST WASHINGTON — RossPerotis a decent bet to run for president again, Pat Buchanan shows no signs of slinking away, and Ralph Nader may even be a candidate. These noisy neo-protectionists, along with others in Congress, will ensure that trade — especially the for the next 16 weeks, the most eagerly anticipated ghost everto visit Utah The modernincarnation of Leroux’s novel, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical “The Phantom ofthe Opera,” stagedits gala opening last night at the Capitol Theater, whichis decorated with a radiant, new marquee to trumpet the masked tenant who will skulk around the premises from nowuntil mid-July. Of course, Utahns hardly needed a mar- quee to know this phantom was coming; they ponied up $12 million in advance ticket sales. { For manypatrons,this is a chance to be part of a happening, to experience the stage spectacular that has drawn so muchattentionsince its opening in London a decade ago. And, if they are touchedbythis sad tale aboutthe grotesque and pitiable “Operaghost,” perhaps they will be inspired to partake even moreofthe fine theater produced regularly by local companies. The “Phantom” hasfinally alighted in Utah. He and his compatriots are warmly welcomed. U.S. School Standards Best Republican state governors and business executives, gathered for an education summitin upstate NewYork this week, havegivenin to politics and given up on national academic standards. Because Americansreject federal involvementin local affairs, they said, the states must take the lead in upgrading public schools byraising education standards within two years. First, most people probably do not oppose national standardsas a concept. A recent U.S. News & World Report survey shows 75 percent of Americans wanthigher academic standards and 87 percent want high school students to pass an exam to graduate. Second, states will have a tough timesolving this issue without federal leadership. After the ‘‘Nation at Risk” report in 1983, states demanded that most students take more difficult subjects to graduate from high schoolor enter college. But it was apparent in 1989, when governors met fortheir first education summit, that too many American students still were leaving school with too manygapsin their education Recommendations from that first summit became Goals 2000 and were written into federal law. A council was established to create guidelinesfor core subjects. Unfortunately, educational, ideological andpolitical problems have frustrated thateffort Some of the guides are too detailed, cal schools have blocked progressby accusing Washington of secularizing education and encroachingontheir territory. Meantime, more U.S. businesses are looking harder for qualified employees or teaching new workers basic academicskills. If fine-tuned and usedasa basis for graduation, national standards could ensure that no matter wheretheylive, American students would leave high school ready for work or further training. Graduates would beable to speak and write clearly in standard English, solve complex mathematics problems and understand computers, skills essential for most jobs. They also would understand the structure and forces at work in the U.S. political system and their responsibilityas citizens. Having specific national guidelines and local graduation exams would let teachers, students and parents know whatis expected of them withoutdictating the way classes are taught. Local schools could choose their own teaching materials, additional subject matter and evaluation methods. As coordinator of this effort, the federal government could offer incentives to states to participate, draw upon national expertise, avoid duplication of effort and handle various interests all at once. Tossing the issue back to the states will send the issue, controversy andall, back to square oneandwill re- vague or emphasize new concepts at the quire a commitment to student compe- expenseof traditional approaches. Con- tencythat states have been unwilling to servative groupsvying for controloflo- makein the past. TheSalt Lake Tribune UTAH’S INDEPENDENTVOICE SINCE 1871 ST PUBLIS PUBLISHER John F. Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) Dominic Welch EDITOR James E. Shelledy EDITORIALPAGE EDITOR HarryE. Fuller, Jr KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION, 143 S. MAIN ST. SALT LAKECITY, 84111 Mexican goods nowaccount for 8.3 percent ofall the imports U.S. citizens buy. That's up from 6.8 percent but it's still a small number. Bycontrast, U.S. goods account for 74 percent ofall imports that Mexicans buy, up from 69 per- cent hot issue through the election. muster the guts, they can bury forever the uninformed, emotional arguments against free trade that have swept this country. ing for imports from other countries.” In other words, we're importing goods from Mexico that, in the past, we imported from, say, Korea. So NAFTA might in- NAFTAdeal with Mexico — remains a Good!If Bill Clinton and Bob Dole can facts on their side. Begin with the North American Free Trade Agreement itself. By agreeing to lower its tariffs, Mexico made U.S. goods cheaper and moreaffordable to Mexicancitizens. So the United States sold more of them thanit did before NAFTA In 1993, U.S. exports to Mexico were $42 billion. In 1994, the first year of NAFTA, they jumped to $51 billion. In 1995, when the pesocrisis hit and Mexico fell into a near-depression, exports from the U.S. dropped (since Mexicans didn’t have the money to buy them), but they werestill $47 billion. The pesocrisis itself was unrelated to NAFTA. It was the result of a string of violent political events, an unstable currency and the over-enthusiasmof foreign investors for Mexican bonds. But, says the U.S. Commerce Department, There isno doubt that NAFTAhelpedlimit U.S, export losses, preserving U.S. jobs.”” What about imports? As part of the NAFTAbargain, the United Statescut its owntariffs, thus making Mexican goods data that Mexicanimportsare substitut- crease imports from Mexico but not increase imports overall Still, I don't want to get carried away by the typical politician's argument that denigrates imports as job killers and glorifies exports as job creators, That approach misses the point about trade. The purposeof trade is to import. Exports are simply the price we pay Asindividuals, we understandthis simple truth. We work so wecan buythings. Wedon’t buy things so we can work. By lowering tariff barriers and encouraging imports, we can buy good things more cheaply. In other words, with free trade, it will take fewer hours of our work to work fewer hours, enriching their lives through moreleisure. Even if free trade doesn't create jobs, it allows the United States to concentrate on high-skill sectors where we have our comparative advantage” over other countries. For example, a recent study by the Institute for International Economics and the Manufacturing Institute found that production workers at exporting plants earned 6.5 percent more than other production workers. Another myth is that the balance of trade between two countries has any meaning. Critics of NAFTA, for instance, notethat last year Mexico sold more to us than we sold to Mexico. But look at how we conduct our ownlives: As a corporate lawyer, you maysend your shirts to a laundry that doesn't buy legal services from you. Therefore, you run a massive trade deficit with the laundry. Big deal. The laundry can clean your shirts far more cheaply (in time and dollars) than you can. This savings lets you invest more time and moneyin selling your legal services to completely different clients. That's why we trade. While the new Economic Report of the Presidentcontains an excellent section on the value offree trade, the White House is ambivalent about pushing the issue forcefully, Dole, too, has balked ona bill that buy a Mexican-made shirt than a U.S.- would make it easier for Chile to join because of lower tariffs? Perhaps, But, since Americans will spend less money overall on shirts, they'll have more mon- cial of Caterpillar Inc., at a Heritage Foundation symposium. made one Will U.S. shirt-makers lose their jobs ey left to buy domestic products and ser- vices, like computers or meals in restaurants, creating jobs in those sectors. Or they can save the money, creating more jobs through investment. Or they can NAFTA. “There's a lack ofpolitical will among bothparties to take on the issue of free trade," said William C.-Lane, an offiThat’s a shame. Stripped of myth and cant, free trade has a powerful case to make. The question now is: In an election year, who has the couragetodothe stripping? Beware Demagogues Bashing Courts and Judges ROBERT RENO NewsDAY NEW YORK — Between 1980 and 1990, the prison population in the United States rose 134 percent. The death row population was up 256 percent and the number of people arrested increased 88 percent. The number of criminal cases commencedin federal courts alone rose 66 percent. The drug arrest rate rose 70 percent This is an astonishing achievement Figures since 1990 indicate the trend is accelerating. But it is even moreastonishing considering that during the same dec- ade, the numberof law enforcementoffi- cers increased only about 20 percent, the number of lawyers rose but 48 percent. the number of trial judges increased at an even lower rate, and the number of cops killed in the line of duty fell 20 percent. Total employment in the entire criminal justice sector — prisons, courts, public defenders, cops, probation, the works — rose just 46 percent to put 184 percent morepeople in jail What can we conclude? Well, we might worry that we are fast on the way to becoming a police state and that on our present course, some time in the next century, long beforethe Social Security system goes broke, more than half the popula- tion will be in jail The percentage of Americansin jail already exceeds the incarceration rate of anyother nation. But the more immediate lesson is that the criminal justice system — huge, flawed and occasionally inefficient — has achieved miracles of productivity. If General Motorscould fig- ure out how to make brake shoesaseffi- ciently as we are incarcerating people, it wouldn't have to go throughthese nasty labor disputes And so it is particularly disturbing that PO market Also, the Commerce Department reports, “there are some indications in the Clinton and Dole certainly have the “The Opera ghost really existed,” declared French author Gaston Leroux in the prologue to his 1911 novel The Phantom of the Opera. Yes, and he is taking up residence in Salt Lake City cheaper here. And, indeed, Mexico is exporting more to the United States than it did before. But it's hardly flooding our a numberofpoliticians who know better — joined by some media hyenas along for the ride — are engaging in an hysterical and unprincipled outbreak of judge- bashing. We have cometo expect New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani to shamelessly inject themselves into individual York Citydrug case. The merits of the decision are hardly important. At the rate we're sending people uptheriver, thereis little danger of the oddstilting in favor of defendants Whatis important is the mentality of these critics, which, at its most shrill, is indistinguishable from the howling of a lynching party in 1920. McCurry’s witless decisionto join this high-profile criminal cases, often to the detriment of either the integrity of the judicial process, the prosecution case or yapping pack is explained, I guess, by a Noris there anything new about Pat- career as a prosecutor, will become the the defendant's rights rick Buchanan ranting about the perfidy of the federal bench. But now the goon squad has expandedtoinclude Sen. Dan. iel P. Moynihan, Newt Gingrich and White House press secretary Michael McCurry. who are standing in line to trash U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer becausethey disagreewith his deci. sion to excludeevidence in a single New fear that Baer, who was appointed by President Clinton after a distinguished Willie Horton of the coming campaign Moynihan’s crude posturing is more inex- plicable, given his lordlypretenseofdisdainfor such political vulgarities. The an- ecdotal exploitation of the crime issue is the mischief of people who would set us on a path toward plebiscitory justice, which is to real justice what a braying mob is to truth |