The blog Utah Education Issues written by “UtahTeacher” is quickly becoming my favorite local blog.
Check out this great post about how HB 35 became the law of the land and how it was changed for the worse through every step of the process. I was especially interested in the description of how Howard Stephenson and Greg Hughes, supposed champions of smaller government, created two new bureaucracies to do work that could easily have been handled under the existing structure. So petty and so stupid.
In another excellent post UtahTeacher discussed HB200, an earmark that Senator/Lobbyist Howard Stephenson got into the sneaky “education” omnibus bill as a sop to one of his business clients. This bill was thrown into the omnibus after it had already been voted down by his collegues in the Senate.
Again…it is important to point out that the law making process is ugly enough without these jokers cramming unrelated legislation together into omnibus packages. Here’s hoping the state supreme court will do something about it!
…despite the fact that I disagree with him vigorously on the topic of acquisition value assessment. [Please See Update Below]
Apparently J. Dell Holbrook has bought into the idea that property taxes should be based on when you bought your home for rather than what its fair market value is.
That is just stupid. Anyone who thinks the amount someone bought their property for should be what they pay taxes on is also in favor of the grossest inequities in the way property taxes are distributed.
I guess I’ll have to go back to looking at Mr. Petroff.
UPDATE 10/24/2008 7:36AM:
Sorry for the somewhat cryptic nature of this original post…I was in a hurry when I wrote it because I was on my way out of town for a couple days on business. J. Dell Holbrook accepted the endorsement of Ron Mortenson and has bought into his incredibly foolish proposal that property taxes should be based on the amount property was purchased for rather than the amount it is actually worth when the tax is assessed.
Rob Miller asked in the comments if I understood the difference between acquisition assessment and “auditor appraiser assessment”. I’m not sure what he means by “auditor appraiser assessment” but I do know the difference between assessing property at its fair market value and assessing it based its original purchase price. The first method ensures that people with similar properties who use similar levels of local government services pay similar property tax bills and the latter method unequally distributes more of the tax burden on those who purchased their homes more recently or at a higher price.
Acquisition value property assessment is blatantly unfair. It is not a method for reducing the tax burden overall…it is only a method of distributing the tax burden onto those who are younger or new to a community. Utah’s constitution requires that our property tax burden be equitable. Proponents of acquisition value property assessment are not only supporting an unfair system but they are supporting an unconstitutional system. I won’t vote for someone who supports such a foolish idea. [ed. This was a stupid statement. I’ll still be voting for Holbrook even though I think his assessment proposal is ridiculous.]
More on the foolishness of acquisition value assessment
UPDATE 10/29/2008 9:40 AM:
Mr. Holbrook left a voicemail message for me at work yesterday in response to a message I left on his website about concerns I have with his stand on this issue. He thinks I just don’t understand the system he is proposing and that the Davis County Assessor’s office has failed to fairly assess the county under the current system as evidenced by the record number of assessment appeals in the county this year and last year.
I appreciate Mr. Holbrook’s willingness to respond to my comment. I have been acting under the assumption that his acquisition assessment system is based on what Mr. Ron Mortenson proposed here. If I’m wrong I’d be happy to take a look Holbrook’s plan but I haven’t been able to find it online. He is absolutely correct about the failure of Davis County to correctly assess property values over the past decade. My concern is that in an effort to help fix this problem Mr. Holbrook is willing to adopt a new program like Mortenson’s with gross inequities built in. I strongly disagree with Mr. Holbrook on this issue but am still happy to endorse him over his opponent.
I’m sorry for foolish statements on this site and in the comments indicating that I wouldn’t endorse Mr. Holbrook over his opponent. There really isn’t any contest here…Holbrook is better for Davis County.
President of the U.S.A.:
Bob Barr–Yeah…he’s not a great candidate but he’s also not a pandering git like both McCain and Obama. I’d feel much safer having Bob Barr in charge of the executive branch than I will when one of those other jokers wins the election.
U.S. Representative:
Rob Bishop — I couldn’t find any information about the Libertarian and Constitution party candidates. Rob Bishop has personally called me every time I’ve asked him a question via his website about an issue or one of his votes. I don’t always agree with him and wish that he was less of a party hack but his responsiveness and willingness to listen are not features of his candidacy I can easily discount. He’ll get my vote this year.
Governor of Utah:
Bob Springmeyer — Because he’s neither the incumbent nor a raving lunatic (a la Super Dell).
Attorney General:
W. Andrew McCullough — The only AG candidate who makes a shred of sense to me is Mr. McCullough. The drug war has become more dangerous than illegal drugs. He is the only candidate who has promised to do something about it.
State Auditor:
Clare Collard — We need a Democratic state auditor to look over our Republican dominated government.
State Treasurer:
Richard Ellis — This office demands an experienced, stable, and reliable office holder not someone looking to score policy points. Ellis is a known quantity and gets my vote.
Representative District 16:
Carol Peterson — Ms. Peterson is the first politician since Harry Browne (my favorite presidential candidate ever) to receive a campaign donation from the Manning family. As former secretary of the Utah House of Reps. she has experience observing the jackals we Utahns tend to send up to the legislature and she knows how to get things done without wallowing in the muck so common at the capital. I’m also supporting her because she is not Kevin Garn. Over the years Mr. Garn has made a lot of money off of Davis County government policy through use of his partisan connections…taxpayers have been on the losing end of his gains.
All Judges:
I nearly always vote against retaining all judges. I rarely have any rational reason for doing so.
Davis County Commission:
J. Dell Holbrook — In Davis County the Democrats are the only party with candidates calling for taxes to be reigned in. J. Dell Holbrook signed the Davis County Citizens For Tax Fairness pledge not to raise taxes. John Petroff refused to sign the pledge. Also…I heard from someone I trust that he is a total ass.
Davis School Board District 4:
I’m not sure yet. I haven’t been able to find much information on either of the candidates running for this office.
Constitutional Amendments:
A — Yes — Clarity in our most fundamental law is always better than confusion.
B — Yes — The trust fund is a great idea and it should be available for the deposit of donations other than the tobacco settlement monies.
C — No — I’m always nervous while the legislature is in session. The fewer days available for those jokers to mess with our laws the better.
D — Yes — Current law requiring redistricting at the session immediately following the census is pointlessly restrictive. Changing the constitution to require redistricting by the end of the next annual session makes much more sense.
E — Yes — As a member of my local community council which is tasked with spending school trust fund money I think it is important that the state be given the flexibility to do whatever needs to be done to increase its return on investments made with School Fund money.
I’m posting this mostly so I’ll remember in upcoming years who I voted for this election and why. I plan on voting Friday morning at the Davis County Courthouse. Any comments from people who agree or disagree with my reasoning are welcome. Go ahead…change my mind before Friday!
This KSL story alleges that Rep. Greg Hughes (R-Draper) attempted to bribe a fellow legislator with campaign contributions from pro-voucher groups.
There is a difference between a direct offer of cash in exchange for a certain vote and a suggestion that a legislator would be more likely to receive donations from certain groups if they voted for legislation supported by those groups.
Here is what former Rep. Lawrence says happened in a letter KSL news has on their site:
In my conversation with Rep. Hughes, he told me that if I were willing to change my position, on the school voucher issue, and vote in support of a bill on vouchers, to be introduced in the next session, he knew where he could get me a large sum of money for my campaign. I think the amount he mentioned was around $50,000. When I asked where the money would be coming from, he was somewhat vague but said enough for me to know it was from those funding and supporting school vouchers. I told Rep. Hughes that there was absolutely no way I would consider changing my position against, or vote for, school vouchers. He then proposed that if I would just be absent for the vote, I would still be able to count on the funding. Again I expressed to him my decision, made before I was ever elected, that my vote would never be influenced by anything other than my conscience and my constituents.
Rep Hughes response:
I think the letter refers to an alleged conversation that happened probably two and a half years ago…there wasn’t a conversation I ever had with Susan [Rep. Lawrence] that was unethical or illegal.
…At the time she was running she had a tough challenger and we were looking to help colleagues as we would help any colleague. We were trying to garner money in support and we talked about some groups that would be…that were more inclined to support lawmakers in terms of how they vote…
Right now it is a “she said/he said” situation but it sure looks bad. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out. The timing of this whole thing is obviously bad for Rep. Hughes and any Republicans in competitive districts who are closely associated with either him or the voucher movement (Speaker Curtis). I tend to believe Rep. Hughes statement that this was an innocent suggestion to a fellow legislator who needed help in their race and not a foolish and damning bribery attempt. It just doesn’t make any sense that anyone would be so stupid…but Utah’s politicians have proven themselves pretty dumb in times past so I could very well be wrong.
