Show OPINION The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday May 3 1981 “The prnie ought to nrrve an a forum for the people through which the people may know freely what in going on" — ( Action Addresses I) Ilnimlri Utah State senators Miles “Cap" Ferry -- District 24 (All of Cache County south of Logan city limit and Box Elder County) Box 70 Corrine Utah 84307 f The Herald Journal's opinion j Charles Bullen — District 25 (Logan all of Cache County north of Logan Rich County) 1624 Sunset Logan Utah 84321 Media on trial Utah State representatives Back in the days when newspapering was a daily adventure taken much less seriously by its practitioners than it is today photographers often romped through the nation’s courtrooms with outrageous Lyle Hillyard — District 58 (Logan everything east of 3rd East and city voting district 16) 175 East 1st North Logan Utah 84321 abandon ' 1 They shoved their Speed Graphics aggressively into the faces of judges jurors plaintiffs defendants and attorneys — anyone who looked like he or she might make a dramatic picture There was more swashbuckling bravado about the news business in the 1920s ’30s and ’40s Readers were being entertained more than they were being informed — and they loved it The gentlemen of the bar however came to decry it They considered the snap and flash and the sensational images it projected to be a serious infringement on the 6th Amendment rights of American citizens It didn’t take long for most states to ban cameras from all court proceedings The public lost something when those restrictions came Lost was a significant part of reporting the true flavor of judicial proceedings the part that only photographs can provide Americans didn’t deserve to be deprived of that facet of reporting but the journalists who were so to what was going on in those courtrooms certainly deserved their loss of privileges Most states still have bans against all kinds of courtroom photography and probably will have for many years to come The Utah Supreme Court however has reluctantly decided to give Utah news organizations another chance The rules which have prohibited cameras in the state’s courtrooms have been relaxed albeit very slightly to allow some still photography Television cameras are still prohibited The decision came last week after more than two years of consideration which began with a legal petition from the Utah Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi The obviously skeptical high court has offered us not much more than a foot in the door The decision provides judges at all levels of the judicial system almost complete Keith Jorgensen — District 59 (Logan voting districts 4 6 County north of Logan) 5472 North 31st West Amalga Utah 84335 If faith can move mountains then the Reaganauts may prevail in some of their epochal endeavors Only those imbued with faith which surpasseth description n would try to put that dollar bust ConraU out of business The government has been messing around in the railroad business since the Civil War but it was only in 1976 that Washington bought the bankrupt remains of the Penn Central disaster along with a bunch of other worthless Northeastern and Midwestern o lines and tried to play socialized The results have been just as predicted: mediocre service larceny by businessmen and labor unions and an infinity of debt and deficit But behold the Reaganauts 'strong in their faith in the supply side dared to ask Congress to let them sell Conrail’s rusty piles of trackage off for whatever can be gotten Bless and praise them true-believi- ng choo-cho- There are almost as many lessons to be garnered from the Conrail debacle as there have been taxpayer dollars lost First among them is that the worst way to protect workers in a dying company is to put up subsidies to keep the company going It is far far cheaper to use public funds to pay the employees off once and for all and let creditors put the company into bankruptcy If the government assumes pension obligations for older workers and makes lump sum separation payments for younger ones it comes out much better than if it tries to keep the place going Invariably Washington gets swindled in the price it pays for a bankrupt property and afterward in the cost of running the loier The individual states may be able to run a railroad with frugality and dispatch South Dakota where the wheat farmers are in a panic over the bankruptcy of the Rock Island and the Milwaukee which take their produce reasons: are already going up The State Tax Commission has mandated that the value of locally assessed properties in Cache County be increased 50 this year Thus though the tax increase will be nearer to 1 due to the limitations im— Taxes 10-1- By posed by HB 104 Logan School District will receive a hefty budget increase as a result of the increased tax base Date of election State law requires that notices of the assessment increases be mailed by May 20 Due to the task of factoring they will probably not be mailed before then The school board set the election for May 19 This appears to be an attempt to ask voters for a school tax increase before citizens realize that their taxes are already going up — Special election A special election may result in a low voter turnout enabling school special interests to pass the tax increase Since the tax increase cannot be levied until the 1982-8- 3 rchool year the election could be held in conjunction with the November Municipal elections at no cost to the district levy unnecessary Logan District's funding needs are no more serious than those of other school districts in the state Federal and state cuts are shared equally among the 40 districts Taxpayers did not demand federal and state cuts so that local taxes could be increased — Could force Cache tax increase Logan District already has a 300 mill voted leeway Cache District has none Increasing Logan’s 300 mills to 500 may force Cache to ask for a voted leeway to enable them to compete in the teacher market — state Guarantee spa Nichoiarvon -- V to market isevidently going to try Iowa’s farmers may see a similar cutback in transportation services unless their state decides to go into the railroad business When states buy a railroad and run it they have a better chance of doing it sensibly because the costs of the service are more likely to be paid by the services’ users and beneficiaries Taxpayers in Tennessee on the other hand have no practical way of knowing how their money is being wasted on a decrepit nationalized railroad in Pennsylvania or Rhode Island Not that state ownership is a sure fix New York's attempts to provide its citizens with railroad commuter services have created a of rage among users and taxperma-fur- y alike payers However the Reaganaut philosophy of transportation that less is better and none is best can be pushed only so far The national government may have to come up with a more activist transportation plan than leaving it to the private sector Whole transportation industries are com- dependent on federal subsidies There would be no shipbuilding in America nor an American merchant marine without Congress' putting hundreds of millions into the enterprise every year In fact we have not had a competitive marine transport industry since the time of William McKinley pletely the first president to recommend a maritime s Hoffman 1 subsidy Likewise there would be no barge industry if the people who own barge transportation companies had to put up the money for the canals and waterways that they and almost no one else use for commerce That adds up to billions more The government can walk away from running railroads because its participation in the business is relatively new and still somewhat limited though the repercussions would be more serious than if Washington had stayed out in the first place Many airlines are finding the jolt of deregulation at least as tough as they feared though the industry continues to shlurp up subsidies All that is nothing compared to the federal part in the highway system All over the country bridges in the system are getting old and rotting out They will become unsuitable for truck use in the next few years unless they get some major fixing at very large prices Unless the Reaganauts are going to make the truck industry pony up user fees so that it comes dose to paying for the damage it does to the roads we will continue to have a subsidized freight system but not a planned one As the high speed energy-efficiesmallest and most recent recipients air and rail will get cut off while trucking and maritime will be allowed to continue their golden boggle by virtue of nothing more than seniority at the trough nt 0 King Features Syndicate How Reagan’s fiscal plan could work — 200 Mill I am writing to express my concern over the planned Logan School District special election to increase the present 300 mill voted leeway for maintenance and operation to 500 mills I am opposed to it for the following a multi-billio- Letters to the editor To the Editor: and Cache Selective subsidization for transport control over courtroom photography However slight the victory may seem to journalists the court is to be commended for offering us a chance to prove that we have matured and that we can begin again to offer the public the extra dimension missing for so long from court reporting Utah’s news media are in effect on trial and our conduct in courtrooms during the next few months will determine whether our privileges are expanded as they should be or whether the court decides to reinstate the camera bans The Herald Journal has joined other Utah media in a pledge to take that challenge seriously and we hope that through cooperative efforts we can eventually move freely through our courtrooms in such a way that the public’s right to know is enhanced while every citizen’s right to a fair trial is protected Voted leeway 17 Re- gardless of the size of Logan’s tax base the State of Utah guarantees Logan District the same number of dollars per Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) as any other district in the state Next year this guarantee will be 11003 per pupil Added to this are state and federal categorical programs in which Logan is on equal footing with other districts On top of this are the levies already imposed by Logan District Only 12 of the state’s 40 School districts now have voted leeway levies — Permanent tax increase Voted leeway levy authority is permanent once approved by voters Even after the original reasons for the tax increase are met the levy goes on and on — Economy cannot stand a tax increase The national economy crisis is magnified in Cache County due to the announced closure of the Wurlitzer (Continued on page 331 James JTreires President Reagan has pledged to raise military spending cut taxes by ten percent a year and reduce inflation Most economists believe it is impossible to attain these goals Cutting taxes and increasing the Pentagon budget will they insist result inevitably in a huge federal deficit and that will ensure continuing high inflation It’s safe bet that Mr Reagan’s plan will fail but not because it is technically impossible to accomplish It will fail because of political factors not economic barriers The only way the President can accomplish his objectives is to harm the interests of the very people who have supported him throughout his political career And that is unlikely to say the least But just for the heck of it let’s suppose Mr Reagan is dead serious about his aims and open to any constructive suggestion Here is the advice I would offer: Tax Cuts Abolish corporate income taxes (on this one he’d agree) Reform the individual income tax to eliminate almost all deductions close all loopholes and shelters lower the progressivity of the rates and eliminate favoritism to income from property The new structure would tower the tax burden of families earning less than $25000 significantly provide moderate relief for the $25000 to $50000 bracket and increase the actual (as opposed to scheduled) tax burden of the $50000 plus group The overall ten percent reduction in general taxes would thus benefit all those earning less than $50000 with the lowest income groups getting the largest percentage increases in net income With these changes business would have all their profits to reinvest or pay out in dividends Distributed dividends would be taxed more heavily by virtue of their being received mainly by high income families who would no longer have tax shelters so corporations would have more incentive to reinvest earnings The less affluent Commentary the Great Depression The most favored groups in our society never seem to learn that their continued welfare depends ultimately on the economic health of those at the bottom For all the talk of sacrifice and neither party has done anything for thirty years to improve the relative economic position of the average belt-tighteni- ng families would have increased purchasing power and it would be spent quickly becoming the civilian economy Military Spending Although I do not share the President’s belief that military spending must rise I would advise him that any increase he can finance out of the new tax structure would be acceptable But not a cent of the military budget should be financed through borrowing TnfiHnw Lower tax rates for the many would bring a surge in economic activity more tax revenues and much less welfare spending With no deficit financing inflation would abate Why won't this program be enacted? Because it would be violently opposed by the same powerful forces that brought us working family We are becoming a class society in which the educated and talented are handsomely rewarded for serving the interests of the few while the many producers of basic goods and services are on a treadmill of desperation and debt Ronald Reagan could find an exalted place in history if he would learn from a man he admired — Franklin D Roosevelt When the lowest paid workers in America can afford the rudiments of a decent life you can be sure the rest of us will be doing well It’s time for some Rooseveltian “tickle-up- ” theory Take care of the “least among us" and the others will take care of themselves Mr Treires ii Chief Economist for the Fund for Peace |