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Show Page 3 The Garfield County Insider February 19, 2009 IN OUR TOWN... Explore Escalante jana@exploreescalante.com At first I thought this was funny... then I realized the awful truth of it. Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table At which he’s fed. When he screams and yells, Then let him know That you won’t be done Till he has no dough. Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts Anyway! Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt. Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes Are the rule. Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries Tax his tears. Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax all he has Then tax him some more, Tax him till He’s good and sore.. Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.. Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his assets. Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he’s laid. When he’s gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply The inheritance tax. Put these words Upon his tomb, ‘Taxes drove me to my doom...’ A few taxes that most of us have paid: Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Excise Taxes Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline At x (44.75 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges/IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Personal Property Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service Charge Tax Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world! We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What the heck happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’ We proudly report Wrestling Results from the regionals. Benny Carrizosa 3rd; Ryan Brooks 3rd; Neil Owens 3rd;Keaton Durfey 2nd. By the time you read this the State finals will have finished. I’ll include those results next week. Cell Phone – do not call list. Cell phones can now be called by telemarketers, to remove yours from their list, call 1-888-382-1222 and listen to directions. It takes 30 days before the telemarketers can’t call anymore. Be sure and write down the date you registered. When you get a call that is a live person simply tell them you are on the do not call list and to remove your name from their list. If they call again, turn them in. If you get phone message solicitations, write them down, who, when and any information you can glean from the message. File a complaint after your 30 days. Remember, business phones are not eligible. I hear from merchant services at least once a day and there’s no way to get rid of them. Sigh! In Oregon the school system received nearly half it’s revenues from the O&C lands, federal lands that paid the state royalties for any timber harvests and historically picked up a fairly large share of the costs of schooling in the bigger cities. When timber harvesting on public lands went away so did the school funding. You can imagine the results. Well Utah, here they come for the Oil and Gas royalties. Kevin Carter, the director of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration responded to the announcement of the Oil and Gas Lease cancellation by the Obama Administration by saying, “Secretary Salazar took $3.5 million from Utah’s School fund today.” Perhaps President Obama will replace those monies from the state’s bailout money? Don’t count on it. And in Escalante, we’re extremely fortunate that the funding for the water project and the Fire Station are committed. The state removed $6 million uncommitted dollars from the loan fund last week. For those waiting in line to receive funding for their projects it’s not good news. There’s a meeting of the New Escalante Irrigation District coming up. They are listed in the State’s website as receiving a $7 million grant for the Dam Replacement from the Division of Water Resources Dam Safety Revolving Construction Fund. On the State’s website it reports construction in ’09. I hope their funding is committed as well. House Bill 272 Utah Scenic Byway Designation Amendments, is awaiting a vote in the House. The amended code will require Legislative designation for a byway instead of just a committee. It also would prohibit a non-scenic area (i.e. commercial district) from being designated as state scenic byway or nominated for National Scenic ByWay or All-American Roads. If you have any opinion on this bill you might contact Rep. Mike Noel - Work Phone: 435-644-3996 Cell Phone: 801-647-8853. If it passes the house you might contact Senator Dennis Stowell Home (435) 477-8143 Cell (435) 559-8143. Punxsutawney saw his shadow so it’s six more weeks of winter, two down and four to go. The official report is Escalante is at average rainfall for 2009. Until next week - - - Utah Housing Corporation Grant S. Whitaker assumes role as resident and chief executive officer Grant S. Whitaker has assumed the helm of Utah Housing Corporation. As president and chief executive officer, Whitaker leads the non-profit public corporation to create affordable housing solutions and to stimulate Utah’s building economy. Utah Housing Corporation is Utah’s leader in providing mortgages for first-time home buyers, in financing affordable rental properties and in developing special needs housing. With low-interest rate mortgages and down-payment assistance, Utah Housing yearly helps some 2,000 Utah families purchase their first homes. In addition, Utah Housing funds 800 affordable apartment units each year. To date 60,000 homes and 20,000 apartment units have been financed. “This is a critical time to demonstrate leadership in stimulating the housing market. Housing led this economy into a recession and it can also lead the way out of the recession,” Whitaker said. “While low housing prices make this a great time to buy, we make it possible with our down payment assistance and reasonable mortgage rates. It is essential that we tap into tight financial markets to advance our mission of providing below market rate financing.” Whitaker has been senior vice president of Utah Housing for 25 years. He was instrumental in creating and managing one of the top state mortgage finance programs in the country. Joining Utah Housing 30 years ago and just three years after the corporation was established by the Utah State Legislature, Whitaker replaces retiring president and CEO William Erickson. While providing a high level of security to bond investors, Utah Housing serves the needs of low and moderate income home buyers. Whitaker has balanced the high mortgage loan demand and the restricted supply of tax exempt bond authority making Utah Housing mortgages competitive. Utah Housing has achieved top rankings from U.S. Housing and Urban Development by maintaining mortgage delinquency rates far below industry standards. Whitaker also led Utah Housing to acquire and service all loans internally. Customers interact directly with their Utah based mortgage lender. This has been a key in Utah Housing’s low delinquency rate. To advance a healthy housing market in Utah, Whitaker works with the elected officials, mortgage lenders, realtors, home builders, apartment developers, housing advocates and others. Bryce Valley Area News by Vicki D. Syrett 679-8687 or vickidiane36@hotmail.com Congratulations to Gary and Luciene Syrett on the birth of a wonderful little boy on February 13th at 7:12 A.M. He is to be named Brace and weighed in at & lbs. and 14 ozs. and was 20” long. Glad to have Mommie and baby home are the sibliing os Brace, sisters Morgan and Makenna along with brother Brock. They are excited to have a new little baby brother. The proud grandparents are Fred and Tonya Syrett of Bryce Canyon City and Sharon Christensen of West Jordan who is here to help out for a little while. Greatgrandparents are Gloria Clarke of Cannonville and Jean Syrett of Cedar City. All three wards in the Bryce Valley area went through Ward Conference today. It was quite a surprise for the Tropic Ward to have Elder Robbins from the 1st Quorum of Seventies attending and speaking at their Conference. He was a very good speaker as were Bishop Gayle Pollock and Elder Clint Mecham. Speaking to us was our Stake President Klin Chynoweth who was over the meeting. He is always pleasant to listen too and always has a good word for us. They all did a beautiful job and the Ward Choir made it all that much better by presenting some beautiful music for us. In Cannonville they had new 2nd Counselor Kerry Alvey speak along with Bishop George Thompson and they to did a great job. Megan Cottam playing the violin and Janice Twitchell on the piano did a beautiful musical number for the Conference. Released from Stake callings in our area were David Tebbs and Gayle Pollock. David has been the Stake Clerk for many years and Gayle Pollock was released from the High Priest Council. Called to be the Stake Clerk is Gary Syrett and David Tebbs was called to be on the High Priest Council. Everyone released was thanked for their hard work and a job well done and congratulations to Gary Syrett, David Tebbs, and Bishop Pollock on their new callings. As we said last week, our new Bishop is Gayle Pollock. I also have Carl Shakespear as being called as a Secretary in the Stake but I could not keep up witht he speaker so I will have to get the official word for next week. Sorry Carl I just couldn’t write that fast. Congratulations are in order for Gary and Sandy Johnson as they welcomed a new, beautiful granddaughter. She was born on Friday the 13th and weighed 7 lbs. and 6 oz. They have named her Kiera and her older twin sisters, Kasia and Kenzie and one older brother, Treyton are happy to have a new baby sister at home. Parents are Brady and Ruth Carter. Sandy got to spend some time in Minersville helping out the new mother and doting over her grandkids. (Of course) Congratulations to the Bryce Valley Girl’s Basketball team who came in second in Region. We are so proud of them and their efforts. We wish them the best of luck in the State Tournament next week. The doorbell rang the other day and we went to the front door but no one was there. Arthur then de- cided to check the back door where all the snow still sits in the shade on the north and there stood some angels. They delivered some wonderful Valentine Cookies to us and others around the town of Tropic. Thank you girls for remembering us. We loved it. The Bryce Valley 5th Grade class took time this past Valentine’s week to make hundreds of cards for the children at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake. THey worked very hard and some made many extra on their own to include with the others. What a wonderful, thoughtful group of kids!! Way to go Bryce Valley Fifth Graders. Thank you for being so kind!! Driving up Waterfall Canyon we spotted a beautiful, bald eagle in the tops of the trees. He looked so elegant and regal and like he owned that spot. It was great. Going out to lunch to celebrate Valentine’s at Clarke’s Anna Dunham and Vicki Syrett were excited to see the Kid’s Club busily making Valentine’s. It is a club that is for the Kids in the Bryce Valley area and Megan Leech is over it and the kids were having a very good time making all kinds of cards and enjoying each other. What a neat idea. A lot of patron’s were treated to a beautiful red rose from owner Wes Clarke. What a fun Valentine’s day. Sandrea Francisco took her mother, Eva Dean Francisco to Cedar City to see a wonderful ballet. It was put on at the Heritage Center and was done by High School Students in the Cedar area. Eva Dean says it was delightful and she enjoyed every minute of it. After the ballet they drove to Parowan and stayed with Eva Dean’s daughter, Helena Mortensen and got her hair done. In all she said it was a great trip. Hope you all and a lovely Valentine’s Day and shared your love with family and friends. Have a safe week and travel with safety. Please call or email your news to me and I will write it up. Thanks VS In conjunction with “hannah’s Humanitarian Newborn Kit Project,” Joanne Steveson, (daughter of Gail and Bonnie Miles), will speak and present an informative and interesting slideshow about her experience volunteering with the organization “Mothers without Borders in Zambia”. Joanne traveled to Zambia in July of 2008 to help at a newborn orphanage there. All are invited to attend Joanne’s presentation at the Tropic Town Hall on Wednesday, 18 February, at 3:10 P.M. Later the same evening Joanne will be giving the same presentation to the “Quilt Retreat” participants. A reminder: “Hannah’s Humanitaria Newborn Kit Project” will take place at the Tropic Town Hall and at the Quilt Retreat at Ruby’s Inn, the three days following Joanne’s presentation. The schedule for Tropic Town Hall is: 10-4 on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th; Saturday 21st from 10-until we finish up. Everyone who would like to participate and/or donate kit items is welcome--call Rebecca at 679-8406 for more information. |