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Show U7.M! PBESS ASSOC. P 0 BOX 1527 CITY EX C4110 SALT LAKE CITY, UTA- H- FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1976 Allan T. Howe Announces Candidacy for Reelection Howe also referred to his work on two standing Committees of the House the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and the Public Works and Transportation Committee. Howe pointed out that his work on these two committees is significant to Utah's concerns. Howe has done work on the Subcommittees of these two major Committees on which I have dealt with legislation bearing on matters of paramount importance to Utah such as water development, energy resources, mining, natural resource conservation, national parks and recreation, economic development and aviation, he said. Howe expressed his support of Congressman Allan T. Howe the Kaiparowits project, saying Utah Congressman Allan T. that he believes that Utah will benefit tremendously from the proHowe of Utahs Second Congresject. He pointed out, I have sional District announced his candiworked to get the bureaucrats who dacy this week for reelection to his are holding up a decision on Kaiparcongressional post. The announcement was made in the Salt Lake owits to cease their seemingly endless delays, and I will continue City Commission Chamber. efforts in this area." Congressman Howe reviewed the my Howe concluded his remarks by accomplishments of the" Congress I will continue those during his first term of office. I saying, have supported legislation designed efforts when this election year is to counter inflation, stimulate in- over if you give me the privilege and responsibility of representing dustry, put people back to work," you in Congress for another term. Howe said. Tax Reappraisal Program Approved by Commission S. Cliff Cockayne County Assessor A $2.8 million tax reappraisal program for Salt Lake County was approved this week, depsite dire warnings from the county auditor that the program will bring a temporary shortage of dollars needed to run government. Although county commissioners signed the contract to reassess all property in the county at 20 percent fair market value, the State Tax Commission will still have to approve it. The agreement allows a joint Tax Commission reCounty-Stat- e valuation of property to be com pleted in time for use by the 1978 calendar year assessment roll, levy and tax collection. According to County Assessor S. Cliff Cockayne, current average worth of county property for tax purposes is $1.2 billion, or roughly 12 percent of market value. The progrtam will increase the tax take by $800 million, he said. Although the contract was supposed to be signed by Jan. 1, legal and financial snags along the way caused several delays. The major delay fears that the program would fail to raise enough tax revenue for use in 1976 surfaced again during the commission meeting. I recommend against signing this contract. We have laws sufficient to handle our own tax collection. Our office does not believe the contract will meet the county's needs, said County Auditor Gerald R. Hansen. The auditor was concerned with the part of the state reassessment iaw that says ho tax collection can commence on reassessed property within the program until the entire area to be assessed is completed. Therefore, the county will not have the money to operate government during the next two years, Hansen warned. However, Cockayne assured commissioners that the contract is sufficient because the state has agreed verbally to leave certain tax rolls under the county's own reassessment program. This will allow the county to raise, the necessary operating money! he said Wilson Proposes City-Count- CAP y Governing Board After several weeks of consideration, Salt Lake County commissioners voted not to participate in a joint public operation of the Community Action Program (CAP) with Salt Lake City. Mayor Ted L. Wilson had suggested that the county and city form a joint governing board to give the government entities a tight hand on policy and spending of the federally-funde- d program. Commissioner Pete Kutulas said he based his vote on public input at a recent hearing. CAP supporters had urged that officials allow the program to remain a private, nonprofit undertaking. The county will study the arrangement they presently have with the CAP under whicht he program occupies offices in the County Complex at 21st South. Space was given as an grant to the program. - 's Officials have contended that the cityultimately js responsible for actions of the CAP, and indicated that they wanted direct control of the program, particularly fiscally. Wilson proposed the governing board, which would direct the activities of an administrative board to be comprixed of one-thir- d government representatives, one-thir- d poor organizations and one-thir- d private sector. At the hearing, representatives of the programs administered by CAP objected to a takeover (or even to city control) on the basis that the program would cease to be representative of the interests of the poor it was meant to serve. in-ki- city-coun- ty Salt Lake Police Department Takes Over Investigation Salt Lake Citys Police Department will handle its own police complaints since the brutality county attorney is giving up that job. Salt Lake County Atty. Paul Van Dam last week said his office would no longer handle such complaints because it ruins our relationship with law enforcement agencies. He said his office must maintain a close and congenial" working relationship with police in order to effectively nrosecute cases. Police Chief Dewey J. Fillis said the role filled by the County Attorney has been an important one, but said the prosecutor's role is too important to disturb and we want our relationship to be congenial. Chief Fillis said the Internal Affairs Division will take care of complaints until an independent agency can be set up for the task." The chief said Internal Affairs is not the proper department to investigate incidents of alleged excessive force by officers, but will do the job until something better can be arranged. Budget Session Concludes; Rampton Ponders Dilemma the two houses that by his accounting the budget is $6.5 million in the red and by the legislative analyst's calculations is $2 million out of balance. Rampton said he is filling to accept the analyst's estimates, but feels it is his duty to either eliminate $2 million of spending by line item veto or reject one of the two tax-cmeasures. ut Or, he could veto the entire budget bill and call the Legislature back into session. I don't think either of us could stand that, he said. Another option would be to wait until May 1, meanwhile reviewing revenue estimates and, if necessary d at that time, impose an cut. spending He has only 10 days after the session to exercise his veto authority. Unofficial speculation among legislators centered on a veto of the inheritance tax reduction bill as the easiest way out of the dilemma. Enactment of this and two other tax cut measures probably constituted the highlight of the session, across-the-boar- Ronald Rencher Speaker of the House Governor Calvin L. Rampton is in a quandary as a result of what he regards as legislative mistakes. Following adjounment of the y budget session of the Utah Legislature, he complained that the budget was out of balance and listed the corrective options avail- although the climactic event occurred dramatically just before able to him. He has several options, but none midnight. There was a jtunned silence in are very palatable. (continued on page 4) He bluntly told a joint session of 20-da- TODAYS EDITORIAL Rights for the Aging If certain human rights are unalienable, as the Declaration of Independence affirms, they must, by simple logic, have existed as far back in time as the earliest social structure. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the examples offered by the Declaration, are general enough to meet this logical condition. But most of the rights that individuals and groups have fought for are much more specific, rising out of changing circumstance. Until they surface into aware:. ness, they could just as well never have existed. Any given group, however, may hope that its rights will in time be recognized as unalienable. What of Americas older citizens, a group just beginning its campaign for firhts? For three centuries it occurred to nobody that they wer being deprived of their rights, or even that they had any special rights to be deprived of. Few in number and low in visibility, they accepted life as it was for them, and were not considered a distinctive group with distinctive problems. Only since 1900, as a result of their phenomenal increase in numbers and changes produced by the great social revolution still in progress, has that been possible. (continued on page 2) |