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Show I Sun Advocate PHWiilj1 "'NB" liyiiiii i wwy y yw'yyyyyiw opomiDOini ewvwijWiewgepww lOA Wednesday, October 59, 1986 'No' to proposition Proposition 1 on the ballot next week will give the voters the opportunity to tax themselves even more heavily than before. Simply voting yes will do just that. Proponents of the proposition call it a sick tax and speak of the proposition as adding additional taxes, in the form of room rate increases, on people who are using their hospitals and are getting low rates because they are hospitals. But a check of room rates last week in Utah revealed that the hospitals are just as even higher. sometimes high as the in the The private room rates hospitals checked last week revealed that University, Holy Cross, Pioneer Valley and St. Marks charge the highest rates. University, Holy Cross and St. Marks are all hospitals and do not have to pay any taxes. The hospitals with the lowest rates in the state are consistently the Proposition 1 will simply allow the state to levy property taxes on those hospitals which are not truly providing charitable service to their communities. Intermountain Health Care, the largest corporate owner of hospitals in Utah, also has the highest income after taxes (which it doesnt pay). IHC also has the highest cash and equivalent percentage of assets of any other in the state. LDS Hospital (which is not in any way connected with the LDS church), owned by IHC, realized a net income of $13,638,372 in 1984. And this is a hospital which doesnt pay any taxes. IDS Hospital also had gross revenues in 1984 of more than $99 million and only provided 2.5 percent charitable care. All the IHC Wasatch Front hospitals provided just 3.3 percent charitable care. The it hospitals along the Wastach Front at the same time paid taxes and provided 4.5 percent charitable care. The hospitals in Utah provided less 1984 than the charitable care in hospitals and made more money than the Property taxes will go up next year will it be on homes or will it be on big business hospitals in Utah? The hospitals are only so in name and it is time they paid their fair share of taxes in Utah. Vote NO on Proposition 1 next Tuesday. not-for-pro- fit not-for-pro- fit for-prof- its not-for-pro- fit for-profi- ts. not-for-pro- fit for-prof- chucks waggon not-for-pro- fit for-pro- fit for-profi- ts. It's desert weather not-for-pro- fit Don't hurt Carbon Local option sales taxes are higher along the Wasatch Front than they are in Carbon County. And they create jobs in that megalopolis to the north while decreasing our ability to provide services. When Carbon County shoppers go to the Wasatch Front to make their purchases, they help them while harming us. Local option sales taxes lost here in the past year and spent in Salt Lake City and ProvoOrem are contributory to the loss of about 15 city employees in Price. When this area is deprived of that sales tax revenue and that lost revenue is rolled over about four times, it amounts to almost enough money to pay the salaries and benefits of city service employees -- recently laid off. Shopping along the Wastach Front actually contributes to unemployment in Carbon County. State wins one in the superpower spy war An undeclared cease-fir- e finds the American ambassadors wife clearing her own coffee cups in Moscow and the Soviet KGB gnashing its teeth over the loss of much of its espionage network in the United States. On balance, the added inconvenience imposed on U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union is a pittance to pay for exstrengthening Americas national security by pelling scores of Russian spies from this country. As the smoke clears from four rounds of expulsions and retaliatory actions, the score stands at 10 Americans kicked out of the U.S.S.R. and 80 Soviets ordered out of the United States. Despite the lopsided exchange, the number of Soviet diplomats here and the number of American diplomatic personnel in the Soviet Union will be equal at 251. Such parity already was mandated by Congress last year to counter the Kremlins ambitious espionage campaign against the United States. These numbers do not count Moscows mission to the United Nations in New York, where another 270 Russions are stationed. They include, according to a Inreport by the Senate Select Committee on and telligence, Vladimir Kolesnikov, a top KGB agent de Perez Javier General to assistant Secretary Cuellar. It can be argued that the Kermlin did Americans a favor by withdrawing from the U.S. embassy in Moscow some 260 Soviet employees who were service janitors, cooks, maids, chauffeurs and other and workers Russian the Kremlin supplied help. The to access intelligence on their relied gather no doubt from inside the embassys walls. Moscow never would dream of employing an American support staff to snoop around its supplied by the U.S. government consulate in San and its embassy in Washington Francisco. Americans benefited directly from the diplomatic because the expelled Soviet agents constituted the cream of the KGB spy network here. Most of those removed were chiefs, not Indians. For years, various State Department officials have warned against deporting large numbers of identified Soviet spies, on grounds that it would prompt the Kremlin to expel American diplomats from Moscow. The latest exchange suggests that Soviet espionage is something Americans do not have to tolerate after all. tug-of-w- ar the railroad pulled almost all of the rail By CHUCK ZEHNDER when they realigned the railroad and went to Managing editor standard gauge. The stone foundation of an old turntable, It is definitely desert weather. stock corrals where cattlemen waited to old I just couldnt stay in the mountains last load their cattle onto the train and dugouts the those all weekend. I mean rain, hunters, snow and cold were just too much. So we in the hillside still are very evident at headed to the desert. Grassy Trail. It was fun. Maybe well have to do a little research and do a photo story on the around Ive spent lots of time down the old line someday. the last for River on the Price Tunnel Ranch We even found some broken bottles and few years. I remember back in June 1972 Joe Rolando (in high school then, now business oriental china at Grassy Trail. There may writer for the Tribune), Dale Huntsman and be even more down there. It is one place I hiked from Woodside to Mounds along the where bottle diggers have done very little river. potting and old outhouse holes still wait to be Thats when I first found the old narrow uncovered. I remember when my daughter was in gauge tunnel. I hadnt hiked along the river but this since that much of north there time, kindergarten (shes now a senior) the Vic time I covered the river from the ranch to Hall family and ours went down there to see if we could find some of the old outhouses. It the old ghost town of Grassy Trail. narrow was November and the ground was just too of old Finding those remnants the I took hard after a summer of was thrilling again. gauge railroad The river this time of year is crystal clear with still of of of hundreds feet ties, pictures on and rail even had some moving slowly through the rocks. Its and plates spikes so wading is not really comfortable but cold them. We found parts of three old trestles. if you wear tennis shoes. It was sure not bad old the where Trail Just below Grassy railroad cut near the cliff off a long flat, warm down there this past weekend and there was S.M.M. and the date Sept. 21, 1886 hopefully it will be again this coming sun-bakin- g. carved into the rock. A little further downstream we found a beautiful earth cut through a small hill with a curved grade and ties still in place through it. And just across the river we even found some old rail. That is extremely rare since weekend. Im anxious to get down there and do some more exploring. Ive got lots of hiking to do on north along the old grade. -C- W- Theres a good story in todays paper on castle country development and target industries. However, one important new development was missed. Mike McAinsh, an LPN in Castleview Hospitals intensive care unit, brought in a copy of a story from U.S. News and World Report about small towns in rural areas making a killing with factory outlet malls. Then in the mail today I found that VF Factory Outlet, based in Pennsylvania, is opening a factory outlet mall in Draper on economic Nov. 20. What this is, is a whole cluster of factory outlet stores which sell seconds, irregulars or discontinued items of only one manufacturer. And some towns are bringing in many different factory outlets. Boaz, Ala., population 7,500 already has two discount price malls and a third one planned! And the downtown section where the first factory outlets were placed is a bustling mecca for shoppers who drive from Atlanta, three hours away. Sales in Boaz are expected to top $100 million this year and the executive director of the chamber of commerce said, Were as were laughing all the happy as can be to bank. the way merchants in Factory outlets and this country account for 13 percent of all retail sales and receipts this year are expected to top $11 billion! Maybe thats something Price should look at the new one in Draper will be the first in Utah, but probably not the last. off-pri- ce observer Spending floodgate is open Construction By WALT BORLA Staff writer In the midst of all the campaign rhetoric on spending and extravagance of public funds that we have been hearing these days, the focus of all this at- tention is puzzling to me. When the county board of commissioners proposed to increase the property tax revenue, local residents flooded the courthouse public hearing on the matter on Sept. 4. Yet approximately four blocks north of the courthouse at the Board of Education building, spending goes on its merry way with little public protest. In looking over my tax bill it is evident that the greater part of it, far and away, goes to the schools. The Board of Education this past summer tapped a previously approved bond issue to borrow half a million dollars to help finance the construction of a new Ann Self School at a new location in Price. is now proceeding on a site that is unsuitable for building. It is on a flood plain with 20 feet of sediment that must be settled before construction can begin. What guarantee is there that a stable building can be constructed on such a location? Are we to be saddled with another school building that may even be unsafe for its occupants? I continue to ask why the pressure was so great to purchase this property and move the school from its present location in Spring Glen . Thousands of dollars have already been expended in remodeling the Spring Glen school. The school district already owns a full city block surrounding the school that could have been utilized for the new building. The old building could still be utilized for some functions of the training center. The rural setting in Spring Glen is ideal for this type of facilaity. The answers I get for the move are: Emery people want a closer location for their students; the Price location is much more convenient for Carbon students; the new location will be closer for volunteer help. Emery people will admit access to the Spring Glen location is easier for them than the new location. As for conconvenience for venience whom? The teachers, administrators, parents? Are we really building this facility for the unfortunate students attending or for convenience of some? Are we allowing some interests to unload some questionable property at the expense of the taxpayers? Presently the Board of Education is in the process of spending another bundle to provide an outdoor summer camp in the Clear Creek area. In the meantime our teachers are working without a contract d classrooms. Gov. in Bangerter is calling for a cut over-loade- back in kindergarten and other vital school programs. It appears to me that the focus of public attention in extravagance of public spending is centered in the wrong direction. Rumor has it that the next project of the Board of Education is a new district office building. I am not opposed to the building of a new Ann Self School and Training Center, only the expensive and questionable relocation of the facility. As for a summer camp in the Clear Creek area, may I suggest that we concentrate teaching the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic by teachers satisfied with the remuneration they receive for their services? Summer camp recreation activities or even such activity during the school year, should be left to the resources of those parents interested in such for their children. |