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Show Page A16 The Salt Lake Tribune PINION THURSDAY,JUNE 24, 1999 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune ’s Editorial Position Tax Break Makes Sense A new State Tax Commission study that shows Utah income taxes favor business over individuals surely will revive political debate about the discrepancy. Thelatest study showsthat for every businesses that employ them. Workers cannotenjoy rising salariesif the busi- $100 paid in total state income taxes, businesses paid just $12.06, while the remaining $87.94 came from house- paid by individuals in inflation: The nority of businesses andtheir owners sophical. Businesses enjoy their lower tax rate because the state’s lawmakers nesses they work for are not making money. Onefactor that does accountfor the high percentage of state income taxes Legislature has not But an evenbigger factor is philo- Appearances being akin to reality these days, the business-oriented Utah Taxpayers Association reacted predictably to the study, figuring correctly that others with different agendas decided that Utah needs to be a conge- nial place for business. Tax rates are part of a climate lawmakers years ago created to attract and keep businesses in thestate. wouldtake advantageofit Howard Stephenson, the UTA's While political realities may necessitate some adjustment between tax legislator-president, attributed thedis: parityto personal incomesrising much rates for business and individuals, thereis nothing wrong with the premise behind the d faster than the incomes of businesses. Theideais that individuals are reaping the advantagesof a good economywhile businessesare struggling to make ends healthy, su jobs and decent meet. relationship between workers and business. The remunerative health of workersis tied to the health of the businesses making less money, which translates into fewer employees and lower salaries. It really is that simple. Disarm clinationof the returning Albanian Kosovarsis to take vengeanceonthe Serbs who remainin the province. NATO is pledged to keep the peaceforall resi dents of Kosovo, Albanian andSerbian alike. Unless the KLAis disarmed, retaliation against Serbs will be impossi ble for NATO to stop. Returning Albanian refugees have shot some Serbs, burned Serbian homes and de’ d monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On the otherside, Serbs have cordoned off some neigh. borhoods and refused to allow Alba nians to enter, So far, NATO. peace. keepers have not managed to clampalid onthe violence. NATO's senior commande: Gen. Wesley K. Clark, is so conc that he has called on the allian membernations to speed up the insei s climate is adverse, there will be fewer This is silly and ignores the mutual NATO's efforts to bring peace to Kosovo will be unhinged unless the alli ance holds the Kosovo Liberation Army, the rebel force of the Albanians, to greement to disarm. The reason is this: The natural in adjusted personal incometax brackets since 1973. As a result, Utah essentially hasa flat personal incometaxrate. holds. At first blush, this appearsto be a blatant example of governmental abuse of commonpeople to benefit a rich mi- KLA THE PUBLIC FORUM that is toolong. Letters from The Tribune’s readers Earlier this week, the KLA agreed to stop all hostile acts immediately, to abandon checkpoints andfortifications, andto mark minefields. Within90 days, all of the KLA’s heavy weaponsareto be stored under joint control with NATO. In exchange, the KLA is supposedto become the coreof Kosovo's newpolice force. And one provision ofthe agreement says that NATO will consider al lowing the KLA to form a standing mi litia, similar to the National Guard in the United States. Already, some KLA commanders areinterpreting this pro vision as carte blanche to create a standing army. Disagreement over this point could give KLAfighters who refuseto disarmajustification The practical reality is that the Al banians, who were terrorized and driven from Kosovo by the Serbs, are not about to disarm voluntarily. The agreement with NATO amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that the Alba nian Kosovars eventually must beal. tionof theirtroopsinto the province. At this writing, there are about 20,000 NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, and more are arriving at the rate of about 1,000 a day. Oneestimate says that it may take until the end of Julyfor all 50,000 of the NATO troops to take up their posts. In so volatile a situation. lowed to create some kind of defense force. But for the time being, NATO must insist that the KLA disarm. Oth erwise, peace will not bepossible. If NATO does not quickly establish enoughtroopsonthe ground to enforce peace, hostility in Kosovo could spiral out of control Constitutional Defenders Mormon Church. Where he completely left the sameball field that the rest of us play in was whenhe stated that the op position to this transaction by the AmericanCivil Liberties Union is a con: Mynamemade it on the membership rolls of the Mormon Church many years however, I aminactive in both, but well versed in each. Mr. Oertle accuses the ACLU ofblind adherence to political correctness. What, then, of their numerous defen: of things like the Second correct as the Mormon Churchdid when it announced a modern “revelation” re- garding blacksandthepriesthood? Supposedlythe ACLU errs whenit re. sists when “people are askedto follow reasonablerules.” In reality, the only “rules” that I have ever seen the ACLU sue to have implemented are those found in the Constitution. While theoriginal What, Mr, Oertle, do you find so oner: ous about havingto allowall people to enjoy their constitutional rights? Too Weak a BudgetBill Nussle and Benjamin Cardin is r nt to strip away some of the pretense in which the budget now comes regularly wrapped. That's a worthy goal, but the legislation goes too far in conforming the budget rules to reality the reality being that Congress wants to hand back or out, in the form of tax cuts and/or spending increases, more money than in the long run the government will have on hand or ean afford he bill would redefine and lower the current standard offiseal discipline. It also would remove one of the most im portant devices for forcing Congress to come to terms on a budget each year Neither of these provisions allowed to stand should be For purposes of control, the current rules divide the budget into two parts Thethird ofall spendingsubject to the annual appropriations proce: theo. retically subject to a fixed dollar cap The remainder of the budget taxes and the semiautomatic spendingfor So clal Security, Medicare, stamps, etc is Medicaid, food subject to a pay-as-you-go rule. Any legislated tax cut or spending increase has to be offset by tax increases and/or spendingcuts. The bill would drop the offset re. quirement to the extent that there is a surplus in the non Social Security part of the budget. Such a surplus could be spent with impunity. The president has implicitly agreed to such a relaxation, but only if an agreement can be reached to restore the finances of Social Security ind possibly Medicare first. His realistic fear is that otherwise money needed to meet those looming obligations will be used for other purposes. He's right to insist on that condition To avoid the threat of a government shutdown, the bill also provides for au tomatic appropriations at the previous ye evel if the president and Con gress fail to agree on new appropria John F. Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) John W Gallivan (1960-1983) Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) PUBLISHER Dominic Welch EDITOR James E. Shelledy KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION, 1438. MAINST. SALT LAKE CITY, MIL , 4 Forgetting the Needy agreed with Joseph Smith's philosophy that we should neverturn the poor away The whole basis of Mormonism was to assist those in need Consider the church's recent $8,1 mil lion purchase of a parcel of Main Street and reflect upon it. Is this apriority? Is it more imperative to attract tourists than to help those in need? The $8.1 million would purchase 81 $100,000 homes for destitute families. It would build a homeless shelter beyond description, It would give men, women and children a newlease on life. It would alleviate human suffering. Instead, this money is going toward a frivolous effort to impress tourists dur ing the Olympics, so everyone can return to foreign lands and praise howfashion 4 Meanwhile, a crippled Vietnamvet Brother Joseph” commanded us to give. Both legs amputated, Bill commandeers his wheelchair to South Temple year af. ter year, always cheerful and thankful, unlike some of the “stiffs who scowl as they walk by him Ne rby on the Temple Square wall hai a metal plaque which instructs us notto give money to anhandlers. Is that Sign still there Is that with her comment about the economi- people who drink somehow less people poor because they drink? Are reputable? Ihavenodoubt that shefeels that way. Oneof the reasons why Mormons areregarded with such high suspicion by many non-Mormons is the unyielding ability of the LDS faithful to judge those they deem as unworthy. Since it is quite obvious that these Cheap Charges In reading Mitt Romney's comments on concerts and other events of past I was disappointed to learn of s n to charge afee to attend these traditionally Olympic-sponsoredevents. Inlieu of thelatest public opinion poll, 1 would think it wouldbe in the Salt Lake anizing Committee's best interest to provide free events to bolster supportfor columnsholdnorelevant newsorinfor. mationvalue, I can only surmisethat the point of them is to increasereadership. It saddens me to imagine that the pres: ence of someoneso entrenched in her judgment might contribute tothat en. deavor. I promise you that it has had quite the opposite effect among my fam: ily andfriends. the Games, as was demonstrated with the CHRISTOPHERPFEIFFER Salt LakeCity activities surrounding the unveiling of the Olympicmascots. reason to charge the massesandpossibly exclude the taxpaying public from what would have been free events rectly or indirectly and most certainly I've always eran named Bill sits near the temple gates begging like a leper, receiving mostly scowls and averted glances instead of the sustenance and substance UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 to consumealcoholalso choose to drive while intoxicated was wholly offensive, and who knowswhat she meantto imply cally and socially disadvantaged? Are As citizens and taxpayers, we have ther Congress or the president willingly walked away from responsibility to fund the government that all, or even most, people who choose @ Mail to Public Forum, TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 86% It Lake already been charged or taxed either di able Mormonism and Utah are. spending limits already too low, by re ducingthe political consequencesif et dividual. Sarcasm aside, the implication Becauseof the actions of a few who DARRELL PROWS Salt LakeCity 1 love my LDS Church. minded andegregiously judgmental in- contributed to the scandal, there is no tions each fiscal year But that would put the leverage on the wrong side of the argument. The effect would be to ratify TheSalt LakeTribune PAST PUBLISHERS u I typically don’t write to The Tribune regarding columnsor editorials, but I feel compelled to write you aboutthe decision to replace Elouise Bell. In her May 30 column, Laurie J. Wilson revealed herself to be an extraordinarily narrow- published. City, Utah 84110 @ Ourfax numberis (801) 237. 316, Amendment, and therightof the Ku Klux Klanto assemble? And whyhaveI never seen the ACLU doanything aspolitically From The Washington Post The House is scheduled to take up a bill to change the congressional budget process: The proposal by Reps. Jim Currently, framers did exhibit biases against virtu: ally all but white males, those failings have almost all now been remedied by subsequent amendment ANOTHERVIEW than your nameandthecity in which you live are kept confidential. @ Keep it short. Concise letters developing a single theme are more likelyto be published. ® Please type and double space. @ Letters are condensed andedited ™@ Because of the volume of mail received, not all submissions are tributing factorto school shootings. prior to those of the ACLU. Offensive Column Where to Write @ When submitting letters to the Public Forum, please include your full name, signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other A letter by Rand Oertle (Forum, May 28) seemedtobe intendedto support the recent Main Street transaction of the even ‘Christlike?” If you're reading this, Bill, God bless you and care for you. It seems that my new-age, modern church never will scarred bythe scandal. Being a host city are we not worthy ofa fewfree events? Do we have to be “nickeled and dimed” to death? JON DEWEY Salt LakeCity Noxious Vehicles With more and morepeopleopting to drive trucks, I have encountered the noxious odor and annoying racket emit ted by diesel engines in the drive-up lanes at banks, fast food establishments and other semi-enclosed structures, Most of these trucks are four-wheel drive, Some have lift kits, which posi tions their exhaust pipes almost level with the window in a passenger vehicle. The fumes from these engines make my eyes water and breathingdifficult, even with the windows rolled up in mycar. If the wait is more than a couple of min utes, 1 become lightheaded from the fumes. These trucks are so loud, while idling, that it is impossible to hear what a person is saying through the speaker at these establishments, The teller bank has to yell to be heard over the ir ritatingnoise of these trucks. I try to go inside these establishments whenever possible but there are times whenthelobby is not openfor business. Inevitably, there will be another vehicle in line behind me. | am trapped in the rattling gas chamber created by these trucks. People who drive diesel trucks should have the commoncourtesy to shut off their engines while waiting in line at a drive-up window rather than asphyxiating everyoneelsein line CHRISTOPHER EARL FINK SHERRY L. KING West Jordan Salt LakeCity ‘ ‘ Unchanging Choices Everything weare comesthrough our senses. The brain seems to enhance those perceptions until we are aware that we are more,that thereis an intu itionor revelation adding something intangible that becomes the essenceofour individual lives. It is here, deep within, where wecanappreciate the wonder and beauty oflife. But modernlife has short-circuited the rhythmsofthe natural environment Man has becomecaptive to his own electronic inventions. Weareliterally wired. There is a newreality and it has nothing to do with thesoft, tranquil rhythms ofnature. Onecan appreciate while traveling the back roads of western Nebraska and Kansas that somethinghas beenlost; the Americans forged by a great continent the harsh, soothing demands ofnature are no more. Possibly, there will be no more Lincolns, Roosevelts or Trumans It is overwhelming imagining the many toils, sufferings and accomplishments of ourpredecessors Maybe the essence of life never changes, the beauty and utilityofit, the harshreality of existence, the work and pain. Maybe, just living, in any eraor circumstance,thequiet courageit takes from each individual gives rise to that intangibleessence, that intuitive revela tion that produces great men and women. We can knowthat the media over whelms us, that we must break free. Le gal censureis not the way, moral censure is. Wejudgeand makeourselves by what we allow to influence us, by what domi nates our minds. Each of us should al ways be, and is always, free to choose. Censure begins with ourselves; we are made or unmade by our choices, XAVIER NARUTOWICZ Park City { ’ |
