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Show tibm$ )t Jtalt gni$ The Salt Lake Tribune, Friday, June 8, SertionA Max Lemer Decade Changes Europe Issues Page 18 1973 Property Tax Exemption Privilege Cant Be Arbitrarily Decided Public officials are seldom far from heavy A case in poipt revealed spokescross-firmen for various religious and charitable organizations blasting the Salt Lake County Commission for questions on report forms such organizations must now use to clrm e. property tax exemptions. The incident was another in a series prompted by court decisions revoking the exemption previously held by Friendship Manor, a apartment comin Lake Salt That ruling went City. plex on old law case the subject, causing beyond the Salt Lake County assessor to review all existing exemptions on property held by reli, gious, charitable and other nonprofit groups. Which, in tum, resulted in new state laws church-sponsore- d passed by the 1973 Legislature. The Salt Lake County Commission attempted to comply with the latest statute, that is, composing a standard report form to ue filed by those seeking a property tax exemption. Not only does the law require an application, it obliges the county board of equalization the county commission wearing another hat to issue a written finding as to why the exemption is either granted or denied. Obviously, such a finding depends on the best and fullest information available. Salt Lake County commissioners tried to make the tax exemption seekers responsible for supplying that data. A reasonable position. But the cross-fir- e developed when lawyers for the applicants charged information sought is too inquisitive, excessively officious and a bureaucratic duplication of effort. Graham in &A y ? y-1- ft mm . J&t--f r f tcf It was the time of , L. p Changing Times The years have peeled away. John Kennedy is dead; so is De Gaulle, who destroyed Kennedys European policies but who was himself felled (like a great oak, wrote Andre Malraux) by the French people, in whose name he marched grandly on the stage of history. The British are in the De Common Market, and Edward Heath Gaulles sacrificial victim in the fight over British has replaced Macmillan as prime minisentry V dont you forget - bios-somi- - O We're in this together, and i hope in the White , . House, when a young Presi- dent had proclaimed an era of Western interdependence, Mr. Lemer when eager intellectuals talked of a Grand Design for a united Europe linked with America. But De Gaulle was, for Americans, the wicked monster immurred in his cave, who had devoured Harold Macmillan and the British and was waiting for the fat meal of affluent America. I- it! ter. Georges Pompidou continues De Gaulles naon NATO, on gold and the doltionalist policies lar, on a general hostility to the United States, but in a less grandiose way.' Willy Brandt has replaced Konrad Adenauer at the helm in Germany, reversing the old Cold War policies and leading Europe toward detente. basis. that graveside, or other interment, services be dispensed with. 0 the contrary, such rites are an integral part of a funeral and should be retained. , ? Europe-watcher- prop--ert- y If in following new law, Salt Lake County created needless inconvencommissioners ience, changes in report forms should be considered. But being stampeded into expedient decisions would merely aggravate an already troublesome situation. ir Gaulle-watche- When all is said and done, if public policy grants to certain minority categories what the majority cant have in this case a tax exemption then the public has the right through its government to make the exempted class fully responsible for justifying that dispensation. And through rules and regulations applied on a standard, not arbitrary, Stop the Procession The Salt Lake County Commission has warned the operators of funeral escort services that red lights and sirens belong only on emergency vehicles. The commission has acted properly. The warning is partial acknowledgment that the funeral procession is essentially and anachomism. The funeral procession, ostensiably an outward expression of respect for the deceased and a demonstration of sympathy for survivors, has in the day of automobile-jamme- d streets and large communities become outmoded. An archaic remnant of a era, it has little place in modern, urbanized society- - Dodd, representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daSaints, complained it cost the church $4,000 for hiring eight employes to compile all the mandatory information. He endorsed a policy that permits organizations to answer only questions each considers appropriate, letting the county search out further detail if that seems necessaiy. This time, county officials are taking a bum rap. People who impelled passage of the new state law on property tax exemptions are now moaning over the way its being implemented. Perhaps Salt Lake County commissioners, as the board of equalization, can modify the initial report form. It was hastily drafted to meet tax decision deadlines. But confusion and dispute will intensify, not diminish, if everyone requesting a property tax exemption is permitted to do so on the grounds they, not the governing body, deem suitable. Los Angeles Times Syndicate A decade ago, in Pans, I NEW YORK, N.Y. lived where I could keep a close watch on Charles de Gaulle nearby in his Elysee Palace, ringed " around by a wall of spikes J 4 and guns. I was one of a number of Americans at the f - - '' x : time who saw themselves as J' and 1 De ; The Public Forum Nixon in Trouble Tasteless Appetite Sad State of Gardens Editor, Tribune: In a way the current fuel shortage may have a very healthy effect as it provides an opportunity to consider just how valuable or worthwhile are our current habits of consumpt tion. As a society we seem to be on a journey to consume everything and everyone hell-ben- around us without due consideration to replacement or some means of establishing a balance that can endure for future generations yet to come. We seem to have developed an appetite for that has taken almost total com- - Editor, Tribune: A few days ago I wanted to spend an evening in the International Peace Gardens about which I have read in a booklet published for the visitors to Salt Lake City. Since it was highly recommended, I thought it would really be worth seeing. What an illusion that was! It is obvious the people of various ethnic groups who donated the to the city expected them to be one of its attractions. It must have cost them a lot of money to start this project (for instance, the sculptures in the Mexican part of the gardens are supposed to have been brought from the highlands of Mexico). It is a pity that somebody did not live up to their expectations. gar--de- Richard Nixon has reversed his owm Cold ar policies but is in deep trouble because in burying the cold warrior he didnt bury the political fighter at home, and his subterranean image had come up to devour his global one. And Henry Kissinger, who disliked both American and French policies equally a decade ago, now is trying to develop an American policy of his own for Mr. Nixon which they call the New Atlantic below-the-be- lt Charter. It is a curious, unparalleled situation. Mr. Nixon has had talks with Heath, Brandt, Giuho Andreotti of Italy and Pompidou. The Leonid Brezhnev visit comes later in the month, and his own European visits in the fall. The trouble is that the European talks, which could set the frame of Americas connection to Europe for years to come, are a sideshow. The main event is in the Senate Committee Hearing Room where the TV cameras are trained. The change that is mandated by the Forura Rules urbanized nature of the Salt Lake metropoliPublic Forum letters must be submitted excltan area is the way mourners get to the cemusively to The Tribune and bear writers full etery. It ought to be by some means other name, signature and address. Names must be At present, gardens are overgrown with weeds, than the procession. shrubs are riot trimmed, the Swiss chalet in the printed on 'political letters but may be withheld It would be a simple matter for those in for good reasons on others. Writers are limited to the Swiss garden is inhabited by various grasses and weeds. In some places the ground has charge of funeral arrangement to hand per- one letter every It days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters per- obviously been dug up for flower beds but nothing Big Projects, Small Men sons attending a funeral a small card directhas been planted and there are weeds growing on use of All the true name. writers letters mitting In the competition between Mr. Nixon's foreign ing them to the cemetery. This could be in them instead. are subject to condensation. urgencies and his domestic disabilities, the forccnjunction with an announcement by those It would seem to me that the least the city eign urgencies are drowned out. It is a time of conducting the funeral that graveside rites could do is take the International Peace Gardens grand projects and of small men. What many c The funeral procession, ostensibly an would be at a particular cemetery a short mand of our senses to the extent that we cry like off the itinerary for visitors, instead of advertising Americans seem to be saying is that until they babies from when weaned total dependence upon hazard. Those strings of cars, running time later, however long it takes to travel We have other parks in the city which are beauthe bottle and confronted with other means of it. get the true measure of Mr. Nixons doings at through red lights and across intersections, there leisurely, safely and individually. tifully kept and would provide enjoyment instead home, they cannot give their major attention to our needs. Fuel is only one of many meeting often at too high speeds, do nothing but tanDoing so would eliminate those long lines potential shortages an overly aggressive appetite of frustration to visitors. Is the present state of his projects abroad. gle traffic. of cars that tangle traffic unnecessarily and for indulgent consumption may produce. We have the Peace Gardens a result of the lack of money, In terms, this will be a loss to the To advocate the abolishing of funeral pro- add to the congestion already part of the limited supplies of almost everything we use from responsibility or just neglect? nation and to Europe as well. The whole direction BARBARA ANDERSON land to water, and even air, to the extent that we of the connection has changed cessions is not simultaneously suggesting streets and roads. by-go- out-fi- . long-rang- e Europe-Americ- Mustnt Prolong the Agony The suggestion advanced by Utah members of the Associated General Contractors that contract completion deadlines be extended because builders are having difficulty getting diesel fuel is not appealing. The disruption caused by major construction jobs, particularly highway projects, is at best an inconvenience and at worst an awesome danger. Generally, the nuisance caused by such projects is a nerve tightening irritant, that the contractors now want to prolong. A case in point is the ongoing job over Parleys Summit on Interstate 80. This is the job where Hal M. Clyde, Utha AGC chapter president, says his firm, W. W. Clyde and Co., was required to lay off 30 men because of diesel shortages. The Parleys Summit contract has been going on for better than two years now and for two summers motorists have been forced onto a twisting bypass road designed only as a low volume frontage road. And the end is nowhere in sight. The Grant Cartoon need to learn how to recycle and reuse much more than we currently do to create a realistic balance with the limited resources of the world around us. Rather than introduce a frantic, panic, craze to boost production up to meet our seemingly gluttonAnother project that has dragged on in ous appetite for more fuel, it may be wiser to of the 53rd similar fashion is the work east learn to manage better our resources so that we The job, at the mo- can South interchange of get along comfortably with less. By this ment very disconcerting for the average mo- means we afford a brighter future for future gentorist, has been underway for nearly as long erations besides reducing the illusion that our as the Parleys project. every whim must be satisfied or fulfilled in our for happiness and joy. quest Now' the contractors seek to prolong these 5. We may even be more happy if we traveled and other similar agonies around the state. less on often, and when we do travel, take along to the allowed be simply They shouldnt basis of the evidence they have presented someone else rather than driving frantically about in oversize cars alone and not having any worthuntil now. while projects going when we get wherever it is There is no escaping from the fact that if we drive so furiously to get. More unselfish planbulldozers, graders and other construction ning could probably cut considerably our costs of equipment dont get diesel fuel construction living and make us happier besides if the fue. s projects simply stop. But, considering the shortage became a permanent ceiling on to extent the extent of the about that we were obligatthe consumption conflicting reports fuel shortage, before the state of Utah ed to learn to do with less. To some extent we have developed such an accedes to the contractor request there had better be an independent investigation of the appetite for consumotion that we devour life like claim that earthmoving equipment fuel gau- starving beasts without sensible taste or appreciation for what is being consumed. ges are showing empty. MERRILL H. GLENN JR. The contractors petition becomes reasonBrigham City able only if no way can be worked out to assure delivery of adequate supplies of diesel Just for Security fuel to construction sites. Before granting of deadlines contract extension any every Editor, Tribune: With recent federal financing possible means of assuring sufficient fuel disclosures at San Clemente, we are now wondermust be sought. ing why we as taxpayers must help furnish President Nixons western homestead with a beach caThe motoring public, whether driving a bana, redwood fencing, storage shed and electric small car, pulling a travel trailer or operatheating system all in the name of his national seing the largest of freight trucks, deserves curity? speedy deliverance from tortures similar to Lets hope some secret agent is not basking in that loitering at the crest of at the Salt our cabana with telephones bugging our own County line. private lines! it BETSY KEMP Holladay Bill VjLujfhanV Towering Figure Orbiting Paragraphs The new look in colorful dinner jackets must be terrible for the penguins, who are not only endangered but now out of styie. We are urged to plan for retirement. A lot of people even start practicing up for it, starting about 3 p.m. every day. im Editor, Tribune: As inconvenient as the current fuel shortage is, it has the potential for being just what this country needs. We should view this situation as a time to look at alternatives to our current practices regarding energy consumption. It may be true that A country that runs on oil cant afford to run short, but is the only answer more oil exploration? It seems that on a national level, we should take this opportunity to evaluate cleaner, more abundant sources of energy. On an individual level, we can all explore ways to consume less energy. If the only results of the fuel shortage involve more drilling and more oil pipelines until we are able to return to our customary rate of consumption, then we are merely postponing dealing with a situation that we must eventually confront. JOHN MALOUF Time to Leave more-or-les- Lake-Summ- (W 'n Good for Country People are now writing their autobiographies at in case it had escaped your attention that the pace of the world is picking up. 19, Editor, Tribune: A short story with a happy ending. Far above the Watergate fracas, a tottering executive branch, faulty Congress, political opportunists and a rampant downgrading of Americanism, theie stands head and shoulders tall, a status symbol of the spirit that made America a great nation. A land choice above all other lands. An individual who still calls a spade a spade whether it be used to bury traditions of freedoms right, or plant a tree whose fruit endowed with the wisdom of human understanding and dignity respect is still the way of the good life. Of such, is the character of Spiro T. Agnew. WALT KINZEL Logan Editor, Tribune: The time is ripe for a change government in these United Sf ates of America. The first order of business calls for President Richard Nixon to resign. If he does not, then Congress should impeach and remove him from o fice. The evidence against him is obvious. Nixons former subordinates and closest advisers, Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Stans. Dean, ana others implicated or indicted for acts related to the Watergate scandal, have been personal aides of our President for at least a decade. Who can truthfully believe that their boss was either unaware of their James Bond campaign activities, or (the new revised version) acting in the interests of national security. Now, if you would please, allow me to ask the of a during, the decade. NATO is still important, but the nonmilitary tasks are far more important. The question of mutual troop reduction on both sides depends on more general settlements between the Soviets and the West. Need Not Mean Freeze The new issues between the United States and the Common Market countries a- -e those of monetary reorganization and trade relations. That is the point of Kissingers New Atlantic Charter Pompidou may have tried to freeze out Mr. Nixon at their meeting in Iceland, but, this need not forebode an Ice Age ahead for the decades to come. Both sides owe this, if anything, to the great aging figure of Jean Monnet. If anv ideas have survived in the quarter-centursince World War II, they are Monnets. His shadow flourishes where De Gaulles has withered. He worked for a United States of Europe, but never with the idea of opposing it to the United States across the ocean. His vision was always a pragmatic one and a unifying one y As the Watergate show moves on merrily, is there a chance that Americans will also be pragmatic and pay some attention to the ongoing work of foreign policy It is time for Richard Nixon to talk again to the people and say, On Watergate. I await your judgment. Do with me what you will in the end. But meanwhile, there are policies to be shaped and work to be done. Inlerlandi supreme executive a few questions. Since when is it right for Mr. Nixon to ailow his supporters to spy on his opponents, and then justify it by saying that they, too, do it, when in fact he knew they could not do it, even if they had the means? Then, may I beg Mr. Nixon to inform me, and the rest of the nation, why he tried to block the investigation of Watergate by (1) initially whitewashing the affair through the Dean report, (2) initially trying to block congressional "investigation and finally (3) by invoking executive privilege, with namterfere the investigation might saying tional secunty? Finally, how can Mr. Nixon dare hold himself up as stainlessly innocent of wrongdoing, while his former trusted aides get the ax, and his government falters from lack of credit ability? Richard Nixon should go from the he has dishonored, and leave the which he and his men have tried to must leave now, or this nation will suffer from his gross dishonesty. White House government debauch! He only further DAVID V. GETTS Honest, no criticism of the Postal Service is intended just because Im mailing Christmas packages in June! |
