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Show ee SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 U TheSalt LakeGritune 0% SECTION C OBITUARIES WEATHER Page C-9 Page C-19 City-Imposed Fees May Spark a Taxation War By Dan Harrie THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE WhenNephiused an obscurestate law to impose a $75,000salestaxlast July,city officials unknowingly lighted a fuse on what may explodeinto a full-blown, statewide war over governmenttaxation powers. Onone side are business leaders who claim tax policy must be a state function, otherwise chaos will rule as a hodgepodge of taxation develops in Utah's 228 cities and towns. On the opposing side are city government heads, who sayas the front-line providers of services they need authority to respond to the demandsof their communities. Thefight is headed for the Legislature, where seyeral bills to scale back the tax authority of cities alreadyarein the works. Last week, more than two dozen officials from a broad rangeof industries held a closed-door meeting to forge a coalition under the auspices of the Utah Taxpayers Association. City representatives will meet Friday to plot a counterstrategy. UnderUtahtax laws,cities are granted limited tax power, with boundsset by the Legislature. But an obscurestatute outside the tax code gives municipalities another meansto raise revenue, througha business-license fee. It is that law, and a handfulof Utahcities’ useofit as a backdoorsales tax, that has sei the stage for a tax-powers brawl. “This statute could be used to tax anything,” complains Howard Headlee, director of the businessbacked Utah Taxpayers Association. He raises the specterof a city income tax or sales taxes on services such as banking, legal workor accounting. “Nobody's safe right now,” Headlee warns. Nonsense, countercity officials “Let history be our guide. Ii’s not happenedyet,” said Dave Spatafore, lobbyist for the Utah League of Cities and Towns. “For them to raise those red flags now — they're red herringsandit’s unconscionable,” griped Spatafore. Business-license fees, as imposed by somecities, really are taxes by a different name. They are not used to coverthe cost of business regulation, but to raise revenues to pay for city operations. And the cost of the fee simply is passed along to customers. What worries some businesses and lawmakersis the absence of any state limit or control over these fees, as there is over other taxes and over county business-license fees. Some cities, such as Salt Lake, Ogden and Provo, use the fees on a limited basis to target industries such as hotels and motels. A handful of cities — Moab, Nephi, Salina and Richfield — use them more broadly, similar to a generalsalestax. The southeastern tourist magnet of Moab has been using a business-license fee to generate general tax revenues since 1961. The fee started out at 0.5% of sales, but quadrupled to 2% by 1991 Whenthat feeis addedto existing taxes, including state sales tax, Moab hasaneffective sales-tax rate of 8%, believed to be the highest in the state. But as an offset, Moab abolishedail city property taxes in 1991 Moab officials argue that the license fee, which generated $1.4 million in 1994,is fair because tourists, who place heavy demandsoncity services, pay half the tab. Residents, meanwhile, are not saddled with the entire load through property taxes “Every communityis different. For us, this makes sense,” said City Manager Donna Metzler. “Moab is a very conservative city as far as its fi- nances go,” Metzler said. “For the state to come in and tell us, ‘You can do this and can't do that’ really @ See BATTLE, Page C-4 Lifesaving Machine Forges A Bond Between Strangers By Michael Nakoryakov THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Paul Fraughton/TheSalt Lake Tribune It's laundry time for Daniel,a fifth-grader at Salt Lake City’s Whittier Elementary, where a converted janitorial closet houses a washer-dryersetthatis available for students to use. Before this summer, Alvin Marsden had never heard of VerDon Brinkerhoff. But as the 56-year-old Boise developer and the 57-year-old When Times Get Tough for Their Parents, Some Youngsters Learn to See School as... A Home Away From Home By Jennifer Skordas THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Almost every morning. 10-year-old Daniel walks from his fifth-grade classroom to a convertedjanitorial closet. He hooks a hose from an old white washing machine to a sink, tugs off his clothes, drops themin the washerwith a capful of detergent and twists the dial to the 14-minute wash cycle. Then he looks for an outfit to wear back to class, picking through bins and boxes overflowing with kid's clothes, “T tell the teacher I need to be in the laundry room in 14 minutes to put myclothesin the dryer, and she reminds me,” Daniel says. None of Daniel’s friends seemsto notice that he has changed. But Daniel says there was a time when they teased him for comingto school wearing dirty clothes. Now he goes home nice and clean. “We try and makeit nota big issue,” says Betty Kerr, counselor at Whittier Elementary, the Salt Lake City school Daniel attends. “Everything just sort of takes place andit isn’t that big of a deal. It’s just part of the day.” At Whittier, a kid washing clothes is just part of the day. This is what the student population at Utah’s urban schools looks like: There are plenty of healthy, happy homes whereparents nurture and care for their children, There also are a growing numberof kids who may not get a shower before school, or eat breakfast, or even have a night's sleep. “Thisis a slice of the newreality,” says Whittier Principal Patti O’Keefe. And the laundry room is just one way she andherstaffare tryingto faceit. One fifth-grade teacher picked up a child at home each morning to ensurethe girl madeit to school, That child later movedin with the teacher for a week because her mother was emotionally @ See SCHOOLS, Page C-8 St. George mechanical engineer sat together Saturday — tasting the cake at the farewell party LDS Hospitalstaff held tocelebrate Marsden’s release — the two felt as close as lifelong friends The two menshare something fewpeople have experienced — getting an artificial heart. Marsden was leaving the hos- pital five months after he was implanted with the CardioWest C-70 artificial heart anda little more than two weeksafter the mechanism was replaced by a donated human organ. Brinkerhoffstill is hooked to a $75,000 circulatory-support machine that keeps his blood pumping while he waits for a donorheart. He has had the artificial heart since July 20. “What | told VerDon,andwili tell anyone whowill have to go throughthis in the future,is ‘no worry, no concern, just have faith — and doctors here are magnificent,’ said Marsden who showed up at the party with a fishing pole to indicate what he is planning to do when he gets home. “T will go on with my life, but For Some, Being a Grandparent Means Being a Full-Time Parent All Over Again By Nancy Hobbs ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A half-dozen years ago, when LaVone Stokes thought about retirement, she pictured herseif sitting before an easel, surrounded by oils and brushes and immersed in landscape painting. instead, she’s spreading pieces of bread with peanut butter and jelly, then washing the remnants from the hands and faces of her twin 3-year-old granddaughters and 6-year-old grandson. Not exactly what she had in mind, said 7i-year-old Stokes, laughing at the thought. Stokes’ return to full-time parenting — assisting herlive-in, gingle-parent daughter — is a necessity. The children’s mother is going to school and working, trying to becomeseif-sufficient. Until that happens, Grandma's role is more than the traditional indulgent companion. Likewise for many other American grandparents who are step- ping up in increasing numbers to baby-sit grandchildren while parents work, to support children and grandchildren in their own homesor even to become guardians of grandchildren because their own children have proven themselves unfit as parents. Today is Grandparents’ Day, and the honorees should be recognized for the wide range of vitai roles theyfill in society, said Scott Wright, an associate professor at the University of Utah's Geron- tology Center. “Grandparents aren't just the oceasional holiday visitor anymore,” Wright said. “Their roles are changing as they’re becoming much more involved in the lives of their children and grandchiidren. “They’re now woven into the system; they're no longer on the periphery,” he said. “They're an extra level of support and love that families can turn to when we need.” That need is reason enough for Stokes to set aside her paints and forget the piano she hasn't played for four years. “Ym too busy. I’m here with the children 24 hours a day,” said See GRANDPARENTS, C-3 I am notsaying this experience didn’t change me,it did — thisis a miraculous opportunityto live twice, and it helped me to see howpreciouslife really is.” The Idahoan — who said he “never was sick in his life before this” —- suffered from cardiomyopathy, a malfunction of the heart’s muscles and blood vessels. By April 10. Marsden’s heart was dying. On April 11, surgeons put an artificial heart in his chest. He lived on it 183 days, breaking the record set by the first man to be implanted with the device, Seattle dentist Barney Clark, whoin 1982 survived for 112 days at University Hospital. Brinkerhoff, who is the third recipient, said Marsden’s successful recovery is ‘a great en- couragement” for him, “Al is a wonderful man and & See HEART,Page C-7 Tim Kelly/TheSait Lake Tribune Heart patient Alvin Marsden cheers the end of his LDS Hospital stay Saturday. Charlene Brinkerhoff and her husband, artificial-heart recipient VerDon,still await a donor organ. Artificial Heart: an Easy Choice in a Difficult Time By Norma Wagner THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: VerDon Brinkerhoff had been unconscious for nearly a week when physicians told his wife Charlene there was only one hope — anartificial heart. It was not a difficult decision. “The decision was made immediately — it had to be. It was either widowhood or this,” Brinkerhoff said about the implant her husband received on Juiy 20. “It's not a means ofartificial life sustaining, it is a step, a rung in the ladder to- ward a donor.” After the impiant, physicians at LDS Hospital kept the 57year-old Brinkerhoff sedated for a week, until his condition stabilized. When the St. George man wokeup, he said two words to his wife: “Thank you.” Saturday, Brinkheroff joined a going-away party for his predecessor, Alvin Marsden, the second patient to be implanted with an artificial heart in Utah. The first was Barney Clark in @ See ARTIFICIAL,C-7 UTAH QUOTES “We get it down so fast they don't want “We don't forget to say ‘Thank you.’ We “We've had supporters come here for 70 to take the trouble to put it up again.” don’t have a machine thattalks to you. days, all praying for no rain-outs. I — Travis, a Salt Lake County member Here you talk to a real person.” | guess they stopped praying.” of Residents Against Graffiti, — Glen Boldt, on what he sees as the — Lon Henderson of the Heritage who cleaned up the results of advantages of his Salt Lake business, Arts Foundation, on flooding last a gang “tagger war” last re | Hale's Market, which will be forced to week at the Tuacahn Center for compete with a new Fred Meyer store the Arts near.$, George “Tt must be something in the water. These kids can really sing.” — Richard Jay-Alexander, executive producer of “Les Miserables,” who wasin Salt Lake City recently auditioning young performers i “T’m a mother and she’s a mother and I know how that cowis feeling. We're here for moral cow support.” — Louise Fork of Sait Lake City, who watched a cow give birth at the Utah State Pair |
