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Show With Charlie Peterson Former County Councilman Peterson was one of the (for better or worse) 'Original Seven' council, elected to office after the change of government referendum in 1991 He survived the infamous recall vote a year later but chose not to run for IN A NUTSHELL He may find writing this column to be worse than elected office. UPSTATE NONSENSE J. Bracken Lee, Utah's former governor from Carbon County, who was every bit as cantankerous as his contemporary, Harry Truman, once said something to the effect But nobody is safe when the Utah Legislature is in session. And that was back in the days when we only allowed legislative sessions in alternate yean; now the damage is done annually. As the current session ended I wondered where "Brack" was when we needed him. Here in conservative Utah and in contrast to the mess in Washington, state government has taxed us more than it has spent. The State of Utah has a surplus of money. So this g year's Legislature, when not busy lawsuits, or raising defending has reduced our taxes. speed limits, property Property taxes Now look, the State assesses income taxes, sales taxes, motor vehicle fuel taxes-- it has even levied a special sales tax on all purchases, including our food, and gives the proceeds directly to the organizers of Salt Lake CITY'S 2002 Winter Olympics. But property taxes ? Property taxes, the last time I looked, are a local tax. My property tax notice lists Grand County, the hospital, the cemetery, the mosquito district, the school district, etc, but not the State of Utah. So the legislature, in a fit of grandstanding, can take credit for reducing taxes this reduced taxes are local taxes. When property tax session, but the joke is on us-t-he reductions are mandated at the state level the chief beneficiaries are large, centrally-assesse- d corporations like Utah Power k Light, Southern Pacific, and Northwest Pipeline. These guys have enormous clout and effective lobbyists. Residential taxpayers (who will now share a larger fraction of the total) have none. Why not reduce the state sales tax? The State of Utah is like a teenager who has been beaten by his father (the federal government) and in turn beats up his younger brother (rural Utah) because he doesn't know how else to behave. gay-bashin- g, and are going to stay there for the next six yean rebuilding so that upstate air and traffic stays so intolerably bad that the Upstaters escape to southern Utah every weekend. Where the roads are awfuL Go figure. Federal government may be big and meddlesome and inefficient; but from a southern Utah perspective, I can't much distinguish between State and federal bureaucracies. In the meantime and until the Legislature empowers UDOT to take over county toads, flwiiH County Is paving the Sand Flats Road. At least that's what Stiles told me. 15 open-meetin- MORE UPSTATE NONSENSE I just returned from a trip to that Black Hole that used to be called Salt Lake Valley. Guess who needs light rail and mass transit? What's the answer to traffic congeaHon and air pollution along the Wasatch Ftant? Tune in to our upstate experts. Just ask the same folks who brought us Syncnete and cold fusion. Ask the state engineers who tried to pump out the Great Salt Lake. Here in gullible Utah, or as some say, the State of Denial, we are going to solve our upstate air and traffic problems by twelve-lanin- g from Payson to Brigham City. The answer to more traffic and more air pollution is more traffic and more air pollution. More upstaters can drive more cars and trucks to more parking lots, more shopping malls, more convenience stores. There you have it The answer is more, not less. Better things for better living by alchemy. What can't be improved by quality can be arrived by quantity. The only legislation that could possibly be worse would be the lowering of motor vehicle fuel taxes. Cheaper gasoline and diesel would make heroes out of legislators and make driving cheaper and more convenient. Cheaper gasoline would also increase air pollution and traffic congestion. Got It yet? The answer is more, not less. More. We don't like Micron anymore because it intends to do less, not more. As anyone with a lick of common sense knows, traffic problems will be solved by a more convenient it less and a convenient system by highway t, while sensible, is as system, not the other way around. Problem is that unwelcome in Utah as a BLM land manager at a Jeep convention. I can hear the Rushlike rhetoric, "...first they tried to take our guns away, now they're trying to restrict our n right to drive pickup trucks." So all these gasoline taxes that are paid into the Fund by the hordes of tourists, jeepers, bikers, and even locals, that buy gas in Moab, are sent to Salt lake City THE SAND FLATS' I don't think there's a story here; but Stiles made me do it Last October, the County Council by a vote of 1 approved die continued designation of the Sand Flats Road as a county 'B' road. 'B' roads, by definition, have to be maintained for travel by cars. The County is improving the road with gravel and grading right up through the Crack. End of story? Not quite. In this d era of cooperation die Sand Flats was to be our crown jeweL On the of verge being trashed, denuded, burned, and orgied into oblivion, the Land Behind the would be rescued by the Sand Flats Collaboration. Grand County, the BLM, State Dump and our own Citizens' Stewardship Committee came together to do good. This year, Lands, instead of coming together, they've come apart 5-- new-foun- 1--15 mass-trans- single-vehic- le mass-transi- God-give- Ij -- i i 'ssfjt; ; j!. .'si.Aijijini: .' ?' ttf f l fv 0 i; Helping to disperse the crowds? Just what we need. are wonderful Partnerships entities, but only if you have common goals amongst the To as partners. begin with, or Craig Bigler put it, "...the Citizens' Stewardship Committee is philosophically opposed to the BLM". The BLM sees a need to go with $11,000 d potties, campground loops, you know, the Big Bend kind of development and control. The Committee on the other hand, buys $1,100 potties, uses no gravel, put to do "just up cheap rock and pole barricades, and relies on its dedicated enough" to prevent the displacement of the users to some other spot. Bigler Is upset partly because the "Collaboration" is funding the BLM excessiveness from the common pot of user first-cla- ss deeply-gravele- semi-volunte- ers fees. Into this small controversy Grand County rides to the rescue. And the differences, of course, escalate. Contrary to their predecessors, foe guys in white hats now like roads. Alienating both the Committee and BLM the County has given up trying to maintain the washboard surface and is trying to old, cobble-rocthe BLM. There's a k, : jj; iim; ; V.'. WHAT YOU'LL FIND AT DAVE'S... Panache Coffees We serve ft by the cup or you can buy our beans by the pound. Xanadu Teas A great selection of teas from around the world HESSE |