This column should be saved by anyone interested in Utah politics. Some of Rolly’s numbers are off (especially the argument that 43% of utahns are likely Democratic voters) but the record of Republican gerrymandering in our state shouldn’t be forgotten. What our Republicans did is a slap in the face to democracy. They really should be ashamed. (I know…it isn’t biologically possible for Utah’s legislature to ever admit they might be wrong about something…but they still should be ashamed.)
UPDATE 12/31/2007 9:15AM: Rep. Craig Frank and Stan Lockhart are pretending to prove Rolly wrong. They attempt to mess with numbers to show that the silly district boundaries Republicans stuck us with in 2001 aren’t benefitting their party. Their argument is that because Republicans run unopposed in so many districts we can’t argue that there are enough Democratic voters in Utah who are being hurt by the corruption they perpetrated on our state after the last census.
This post visits a touchy subject but it is important in the days before the legislature begins revising property tax policy that it be discussed.
LaVar Christensen has a blog which he recently used to advocate for freezing property taxes for the elderly. The current circuit breaker program which helps the poor, both old and young, is important and should be expanded to help even more people. Any efforts to help the less fortunate with their property tax burden should be focused on this existing tool. A blanket property tax freeze that benefits all elderly taxpayers, even the most wealthy, is just plain dumb. We shouldn’t be transferring the burden of taxation from those best able to pay to the rest of us who are often struggling just to get by. I left a comment on Mr. Christensen’s blog yesterday that never made it through his moderation process. I decided to publish it here with a couple spelling and grammatical corrections:
Mr. Christensen,
I’m a father of three young children in a very average home in an average neighborhood in Davis County. My wife and I still owe on our house and often struggle to make ends meet every bit as much as many of the elderly voters you claim you sympathize with.
I pay my property taxes with the knowledge that my local government is spending that money as efficiently as possible (usually far more efficiently than the state uses my income tax and sales tax dollars). I hate paying taxes but I understand why they are necessary.
Your proposal to “freeze” property taxes for the elderly represents a plan to place even more of the tax burden on Utah’s young families that are struggling to make it. You would penalize young families while favoring people who in most cases have decent retirements and rapidly appreciating homes that are already paid off. In short most elderly have already experienced the most expensive part of their lives and have had many more decades than the typical younger family to build up their own wealth. How is it fair for them to get a tax break at our expense?
It is understandable that from your perspective as a politician you’d want pander to the elderly who tend to be reliable voters but that doesn’t change the fact that your policy suggestion would make supporting my family even more difficult than it already is.
We don’t need politicians who are pandering to reliable voters. We need people like those who originally wrote the “uniform and equitable” language into the state constitution. They clearly seemed to understand the importance of a just and fair tax code better than you do.
Mr. Christensen isn’t in our legislature any longer and I don’t know that any politicians currently in office actually pay attention to anything he has to say on this issue but I think it is important that dumb ideas be confronted no matter what their source.
I hope to have more on property tax issues over the next couple weeks.
Do Lobbyists control the Democrats in Utah too? Unfortunately it looks that way.
H/T KNVU’s For The People
Mick Stockinger has an excellent post up today discussing a bit of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and recent charges against my church of racism.
I rarely agree with Mr. Stockinger but his post is very well written and right on target. I encourage everyone to give it a read.
UPDATE: 12/12/2007 10:46PM
JasonThe from The Sidetrack in the comments below:
Yes, it would be nice to say there were no blemishes on the history of the LDS faith, or any other religion for that matter. But there are. And there will be mistakes made today demanding an answer in the tomorrow. We are not perfect in our understanding, but I also believe that is an irrational expectation. Why must leaders of any faith respond to these accusations of the past with anything more than “Hey, we’re a flawed people, just like any people, doing our best to interpret and understand what we believe to be the word of God.”
Very well said.
Today Mitt Romney took advantage of the foolishness of those in the media who have been trying to make his religion a negative issue he needs to deal with. Truth be told there is nothing Romney could say in a speech that would mollify those who won’t vote for a Mormon. Instead of even trying to defend himself from attacks on his faith he crafted a well written attack on the tiny minority of Americans who are aggresively anti-religious. He didn’t bother to defend Mormonism and he got a huge amount of publicity for a speech that nearly every Republican primary voter can identify with. The press and Romney’s opponents may continue to try to use his religion against him but that doesn’t change the fact that Romney made very good use of this issue today in his “JFK style” speech.
I’ve never argued that Romney isn’t a very shrewd politician…in fact…I won’t vote for him because I think he’s too shrewd by half.
I think tax cuts are great. I nearly always support them.
I don’t support tax cuts when they are implemented at the expense of the most needy in our society. The legislature needs to fix this.
