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Show Legislators meet to answer questions By CHERIE HUBER FARMINGTON Five legislators legisla-tors showed up for the public forum in Farmington despite the pressures of the legislative session. Davis County residents who attended the meeting had the opportunity to ask questions and tell legislators what action they would like to see taken on various items. Senator Jack Bangerter, Rep. John P. Redd, Walt Bain, Senator Haven Barlow and Rep. Knowlton were in attendance. Congressman Jim Hansen attended as part of the citizens of the county. Com. Bill Peters, acting as moderator mod-erator said, "It's really fortunate that we have the ability to meet with our legislators on a regular basis." He said the legislators never nev-er hesitate to call county officials about issues that will affect Davis County. Alice Johnson, director of the Council on Aging said "For the past 20 years the State Health Department De-partment has been enamored of nursing homes. There are 22 other states who have now adopted a waiver for a choice between money spent at an institution or for care in the home. Utah still does not have this." When nursing home costs are from $1700 to $2000 a month, people are soon asking for help, she added. People should have the choice of spending the same amount of dollars for at-home care, she said. Dr. Leopardi, director of the Davis County Health Department said, "We are all aware that AIDS is a terrible worldwide epidemic. I speak strongly in favor of appropriate appropri-ate legislative action that would allow effective education of school children to cope with AIDS and to prevent exposure to this totally fatal fat-al disease." Senator Haven Barlow said, "I agree with you and we are moving in that direction." He said he saw "A Letter to Brian" on television and that with parent approval most parents would approve showing it in school. Fawn Jensen asked the legislators legisla-tors why one woman could raise such a fuss about the movie so that it could not be shown. "Do we have to legislate everything?" she asked. "Don't we have any common com-mon sense any more?" Dr. Russ Williams shared a re-' re-' port from the University of Utah on the decline in the number of drug users. In 1979 in Utah in the 18-25 year-old group, 21 percent had used marijuana. By 1987 that figure had dropped to only 3.7 percent. per-cent. Cocaine use had dropped from seven percent in 1979 to .4 percent in 1987 and other drug use had shown similar declines. Tax on beer sold in Utah has been used to pay for drug education. Carl Albrecht of Syracuse said that drug and alcohol services were primarily in Salt Lake even though the services are paid for by state taxes. Because we are a bedroom community the population is more scattered and we don't have the demographics for better social services. ser-vices. He said he felt the money was dished out in an unporportion-al unporportion-al manner. "Where do we get the benefit from the money spent in Salt Lake City?" he asked. The legislators commented that legislation was passed to be in place in 1990 that would correct that. However, there is a lot of manuevering going on to work around the measure. Davis County is not getting its fair share of the distribution of funds. Fawn Jensen asked, "Why does the state fight the head tax? Why don't they feel it is appropriate as opposed to property tax?" Senator Barlow said that according accord-ing to the state constitution, Utah is committed to every child receiving receiv-ing at least a minimum education. He said it costs between $2,000 and $2,500 per child per year. If they were to charge $500 per child, how would they collect it and what if the parents couldn't pay. It would be better to decrease the exemptions on the state income tax. "Whenwewentto school someone some-one else paid for us," he said. "I think the system now is as good as there is in the nation. We are in the lower third of the nation in the property tax we pay. We have reasonable property tax." About one-fourth of that property tax money goes to education. Income tax is all dedicated to education. The remainder for education comes com-es from sales tax, he explained. He said he didn't feel that a head tax was any more of a solution than a lottery. We're doing a good job with the resources we have. No state pays less per capita for services than Utah. But we still may have to make cuts. There is a bill that might change exemptions, he said. Mary Ellen Lathrom of Sunset asked, "What about charging fees? I know parents would be glad to furnish things. Are we any closer to have them help pay their way?" "Would you be willing to change the constitution?" Senator Barlow asked. "I would be willing to vote to put it to the people for a vote." Ross Anderson of Bountiful said, "I am not convinced the state government gov-ernment is efficient. There are large amounts of waste in government." govern-ment." He mentioned the state didn't even know how many motor vehicles it owned. Senator Bangerter said they didn't know last week but they do know now how many vehicles are in the motor pool. "They are about $3 million over in the motor pool fund and that is an abuse in government govern-ment and that will be taken care of," he said. Sen. Bangerter said he thought the legislature does a good job with what they work with. He also felt IPP should be audited. He also thought the severance tax with Kennecott Copper should be studied. stu-died. "I think Utah has a bad case of negative thinking," he said. "We feel sorry for ourselves but we have the best place to live." On the other hand, he said, Utah cannot stand more tax. There is a possible rollback on income tax in the works. "We are in competition with other states and with international economy. I believe we ought to put emphasis on industry and innovative innova-tive economic development to create cre-ate jobs with a large tax base. I'm not advocating raising taxes one more dime," he said. "I say, raise the tax base." The court case with the railroad could cost Utah $51 million in taxes. The railroad has never lost a case yet. If the state loses the case with the oil companies, it will lose $200 million. The oil companies want all their taxes to be exempt because the sites are on the Indian reservation. J. Williams of Bountiful said, "Competition is eating Mountain Bell Alive." The 28 unregulated companies in Utah can sell the same thing for less, he said and he urged they allow Mountain Bell to deregulate. He said Mountain Bell is regionalizing into Arizona and Utah is losing jobs. Alice Johnson said phone ser-' ser-' vice was already deregulated in long distance. "U.S. West is DUt- ting a fortune into pushing deregulation," dereg-ulation," she said. "I have to use Mountain Bell, it's a monopoly. I also have to pay an access charge every month. I urge you to vote against deregulation," she told the legislators. Dr. Williams told the legislators "We need legislative help. Local Social Services programs have taken big cuts. Social Services should stop balancing its budget on the back of local programs." Rep. Knowlton said, "He's right. Often it's easier to cut programs prog-rams we don't see or have. We give programs to local government and then don't fund them." Harold Manning said he was opposed to Block Grants to schools. "I don't think a school board should be scot-free with a lump sum of money," he said. Rep. Knowlton said as of yet no bill had been written. He said he shared the concern. "Our biggest concern is if we have the right to turn the program over to someone else. It could bring everything into competition on a local level. We're going to be very careful. We made some terrible mistakes with early retirement last year. It must be done carefully." Carl Albrechts said it was his experience ex-perience that the levels of bureaucracy bureauc-racy that money passes through wears the money out. "It's human nature that if a person gets authority author-ity they don't want to give up their realm," he said. Sheriff Brent Johnson said he had some comments on corrections. correc-tions. He said in the past the jail was a local responsibility and the prison was a state responsibility. A few years ago, judges started placing plac-ing state prisoners in local jails. These are state prisons and the state should pay for them. He said 30 percent of the inmates of the jail are state felons but that the state only pays for 30 percent of their cost. This year Davis County will lose $250,000 because of that. State funds lasted just 2.5 months of a 12 month year. Redevelopment losses were also discussed. In Salt Lake they are losing $8 million that should go to schools because redevelopment is not taxed. Many of the redevelopment redevelop-ment loans have never been paid, either. However there are a lot of dollars there and a lot of lobbyists, the legislators told the group. t |