OCR Text |
Show Legislators report Bonding made for high interest The bonding concept proposed by Gov. Scott Matheson for water and building development made for one the most interesting yet "full of pressure" sessions of the state legislature in years, Rep. Garth Jones and Sen. Ivan Matheson said in a news conference Monday. "Philosophically," Jones said, "the water bond was the right thing for the state to do at this time." The total bond proposal was cut about in half . from the governor's expectations, he added, "which has to be considered a responsible fiscal sound approach." Matheson indicated that many "long-range" items were considered in the budget session, such as designation of many public roads state Class-D, and decisions made against the Warner-Allen Valley Power projects. Slurry set back "Killing the bill which would allow for water to cross state and county lines in coal slurries will have far-reaching far-reaching effects," Matheson said. The bill was killed on the theory a railroad coal line would produce more jobs, he added, but now the project may die, reducing dramatically future employment for the entire project. Designating many small backwoods back-woods roads as Class-D, Matheson said, will keep the roads out of the hands of the Bureau of Land Mangement as the public lands are designated "study areas". As the areas are so termed, he explained, often large areas of roads are closed to public usage, such as private miners, cattlemen and recreational uses. "This appears to be a movement in response to the Organic Act," Matheson said, "to let the state maintain many of the public land roads. It too, is a far-reaching piece of legislation." The water bill for the St. George area power projects was killed by some last-minute lobbying by railroad and labor interests, Matheson said, and some "party-line" "party-line" maneuvering. Gas tax okayed The two cent gas tax increase was passed by the state legislature, the men said, after some alterations were made allowing cities and counties to get the revenues from one-half of one cent on the increase. The amount will amount to about $4M million per year, they said, while the state will get about $14 million. In making the decision to alter the allocations from the gas tax, the legislators dropped the proposed $5 increase in vehicle registration which would have given the counties and cities about the same amount for improvements and construction of roads. The gas tax bill, as passed, also did not allow for $5 million to be taken out of the general fund for state road improvements. "There was more bartering in more ways over the gas tax than any other thing," Matheson said. "The Utah Department of Transportation got what they wanted, now its on their back to do something with it. They made a committement to repair and improve roads if they received the increase, so now we'll be watching them." The funds for improving state parks, which included in the original proposal $500,000 for Iron Mission (continued on page 3) legislators report (continued from page 1) State Park, were allowed by using surplus state funds, rather than the governor's full bond. Surplus used Existing state surplus will he used for park development and future budgets will include a "pay as you go" system of building parks within the state, the legislators said. The surplus funds, $5.6 million, will go to improve the South Shore of Great Salt Lake, South Shore of Bear Lake, Iron Mission Park, and the Miles Goodyear park in Ogden. When ' a future surplus becomes available, the men said, the rest of proposed state park improvements will be funded. The water bond was accepted by both houses in nearly the same package as proposed by the Governor. Gover-nor. The Kolob Reservoir-Cedar City project was allocated $2 million for future development. The allocation "doesn't mean immediate action." Jones said, "but it does mean that planning can begin." Budgeted into the Higher Education Alterations, Repairs and Improvements Im-provements bill was $5 million, some of which will go to improvements on the SUSC campus, such as drainage, track improvements and tennis court expansion. Tuition hiked The legislature also okayed a 9.1 percent tuition increase for Utah colleges and universities. The rationale, Jones said, was that those who benefit from the colleges need to start adding to the revenues, and reduce the general fund allocations. University faculty members, however, received the lowest salary increase of any state employees. ' Dixie College received $739,000 for land purchases, the legislators said. The two citizen legislators emphasized em-phasized that the entire session should be termed "fiscally responsible." respon-sible." They said the state constitution con-stitution requires a balanced budget, so although there were increases in most areas of appropriation, some areas were cut to allow for changes. The cooperative masters of education program between Utah State University and SUSC received about $31,700 to go to SUSC, along with a supplemental appropriation of $160,000 to upgrade the SUSC Library to a higher level. |