Transcript-Bulletin Columns

by Bob Henline

Feb 17, 2009 | 17 views | 0  | 1 |  | 

At the end of January, a coalition of police officers, volunteers, and social workers scoured the county as part of a statewide effort to count the number of homeless present in both the county and the state. The results, while appalling, are not shocking. Homelessness in Tooele County is up 68 percent from this time last year.

The worst part of this statistic is what it does not include: people without homes who are staying with family or friends, “couch-surfing” as it is called. The Tooele County School District estimates there are currently 500 children enrolled in Tooele schools that fit this alternative definition of homelessness. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tooele County has a population of 53,552, meaning that almost one of every 100 people in Tooele County is a homeless school-age child.

Anyone that has ever worked or volunteered for a relief agency understands that homelessness is a very complex issue. There isn’t a quick fix that can address this problem. However, as we look at the dramatic jump in homelessness over the past year and correlate that with statewide job loss figures, requests for relief and support services, and foreclosure rates, it becomes obvious that our current economic situation has contributed significantly to this epidemic.

The U.S. Senate recently voted to approve the president’s $787 economic stimulus package. While there is a great deal of debate about the potential effectiveness of this package, the concept behind a large portion of it — putting people back to work by creating infrastructure projects — is one that has worked for us before.

As this debate goes on, however, there are a few things that I don’t understand. First, how is it that Congress can pass an “emergency bailout” in under 48 hours that dumps $700 billion into banks and financial companies to protect them from their own mismanagement, yet it takes months to pass a package that may help working people over the course of the next year?

Just to add insult to injury, a group of conservative lawmakers right here in Utah wants to restore the state sales tax on unprepared food to its previous level of 4.7 percent. Their estimation is that this could generate an additional $180 million in tax revenue for the state. This movement, spearheaded by Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, hopefully doesn’t have the steam to overturn a promised veto by Gov. Huntsman, who shares this commentator’s view that a sales tax on food is inherently immoral and poses an even further danger to the working people of our community and state. This is a group that fervently proposes tax breaks for upper-income people and corporations, but is more than willing to increase the tax burden on struggling families by taxing a basic necessity: food.

As the economy continues its downward trend, I applaud everyone who has volunteered their time and money to assist relief efforts and to all of the people that are helping to house friends and family that have lost their homes. We are in a time of dire need and it is obvious that our government is not going to be able to address these immediate concerns. Our community must come together and work to overcome the growing problem of homelessness in Tooele County.

Bob Henline is a Tooele resident and political activist. He can be reached at bob@nonpart.org.

The Tooele County Planning Commission recently tabled an application to rezone an area of the Stockton Bar to allow for a new gravel pit to begin operation, citing the need for additional study. I applaud the actions of the commission for considering the potential geological, historical and environment impacts of this request.

I’ve been in Tooele now for four years, and have watched the city and the county grow at a phenomenal pace. While some level of growth and development is necessary to maintain a thriving community and provide services to residents and opportunities for our children, growth can also be detrimental to the lifestyle that many of us looked for when choosing to live in Tooele County. Growth is something to be managed delicately, and finding that balance between economic growth, environmental protection and maintaining the quieter lifestyle most of us prefer is not an easy task.

All of our municipal governments are struggling with these issues on a daily basis. In Tooele, Mayor Patrick Dunlavy has done some phenomenal things to help expand the development of the city, yet still manage growth to minimize adverse impacts. The addition of new businesses such as Gold’s Gym, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Walgreens and Sears will greatly enhance the quality of life for Tooele residents and improve our business tax base. Also, these businesses have occupied locations that were quite frankly eyesores on Main Street. Grantsville is dealing with similar issues attempting to balance growth with the quality of life for its residents.

As it has been for several years, Tooele County is the place for the Salt Lake Valley to grow. The valley is full of people, businesses and houses, and many of those people look longingly at the quieter lifestyle that we have out here. Over the course of the next decade, the management of both population and business growth is going to be a primary concern for all of our city and county government offices. It is good to see that our current elected leaders are looking not just to the economic side of this equation, but also to the impact.

The loss of the Stockton Bar represents a loss that can never be replaced for historical and geological reasons. Experts have testified as to the potential environmental impacts of an additional gravel pit on that site, expressing concerns over worsening air quality and other environmental conditions.

However, larger scale impacts such as these, in my mind, are not as important as the views of the people that live in the area. Overwhelmingly the citizens have responded with opposition to another gravel pit. They cite reasons such as noise and dust pollution, as well as increased traffic. I am a big supporter of the rights of property owners to use their property in a manner they deem fit, however, in this case, the rights of several property owners must outweigh the right of one.

The Tooele County Planning Commission made the right choice in tabling this motion pending further review. While I would personally rather just see the application denied, the commission took a prudent step in slowing the process to such an extent as to allow for study and deliberation, perhaps even letting time take some of the emotion out of the discussion.

The Utah State Legislature is now looking for ways to trim roughly $1 billion from last year’s budget. The Republican majority is proposing an across-the-board ax of expenditures by 15 percent to make up the anticipated shortfall, attempting to avoid using the state’s “rainy day fund.” Gov. Huntsman is proposing cuts of roughly 7 percent, using bonding and some funds from the rainy day fund to backfill some of the cuts.

While the budget shortfall certainly needs to be addressed, the Legislature and the governor are looking in the wrong direction with a myopic vision.

First and foremost, any across-the-board budget cuts are ridiculous. This is akin to using an ax for brain surgery, cutting indiscriminately instead of actually making hard choices and determining the state’s real budgetary priorities. As is the usual case, necessary programs, such as aid for autistic children, meals for the elderly and other HHS programs could be decimated. It’s always those who can’t stand up for themselves that are victimized by “necessary” budget cuts.

Secondly, perhaps to make up for budgetary shortfalls we should be looking at new ways to increase the state’s incoming revenue. Over its 19-year history, the Idaho Lottery has raised $402.3 million for Idaho public schools. How much of that revenue comes from Utahns driving across the border to purchase lottery tickets? How much revenue do Utahns contribute to Nevada’s public schools by gambling in Wendover? I don’t think Utah is ready to legalize casinos, but we certainly need to take a hard look at the lottery as a revenue source.

Another way for Utah to raise much-needed funds would be to eliminate property tax exemptions for churches and fake non-profits. How much revenue would be raised if church properties actually paid taxes on their property? Take a look at Intermountain Health Care. How much property do they own in Utah that is exempt from taxation because of their non-profit status? This is an organization that collects hundreds of millions of dollars annually and pays no taxes. However, according to their 2008 disclosures, they could afford to pay contracted lobbyists $210,000 last year. That’s right, a non-profit that makes millions of dollars annually in “excess revenue” and doesn’t pay any taxes pays professional lobbyists to influence public policy.

Utah does have some expenditures that can be cut. I understand the importance of tourism dollars to Utah’s economy, but realistically we can trim our tourism advertising budget. The best thing we can do to help increase our reputation for tourism is to rewrite our liquor laws to be a bit more sensible. How about the $8.2 million Utah spent on anti-tobacco programs last year? While this is a nice, feel-good kind of expenditure, it’s really not a governmental necessity. If you want your kids not to smoke, teach them not to smoke. Be a parent, don’t rely on the government to advertise it for you. How effective is this advertising? How many people hear these ads and say to themselves, “Gee, smoking is bad for me? I had no idea. I better quit now.” People that want to smoke are going to smoke, end of story.

This Legislative session is going to be a tough one. Our legislators are going to need to make some difficult decisions about our budget priorities. It’s time to take off the blinders and look to real solutions instead of swinging an ax blindly across the budget.

As America welcomes a new president to the White House, we always hear about the most pressing issues to be covered in the first 100 days. This year, America faces more issues than usual with the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic crisis, terrorism, and America’s declining international reputation.

Unfortunately, the most important issue facing America today seems to have taken a back burner to these other issues. Education is the key to solving the vast majority of social problems facing America today. No, it’s not a quick fix. It’s an actual solution. Our social problems have been years, if not decades, in the making and they will not be fixed overnight, during a two-year congressional term, or during a four-year presidential one.

Right now, America’s education system is a shambles. We are failing to fulfill our most fundamental responsibility to future generations.

I read with great interest the story of Ernie Nix being selected as the first director of the county’s new charter school, Excelsior Academy (“Charter school names Nix as its new director,” Jan. 20). Over the past several years, I have been somewhat ambivalent about charter schools, fearing that they represented, at some level, an abandonment of our public school system. As I have read more and more about Excelsior Academy, however, I find myself becoming a supporter of charter schools.

We have seen a number of “reforms” to our educational system over the past several years, none of which has made any real difference in the quality of education we are providing our children. The entrenched education establishment of school districts, teachers’ unions, and government bureaucracies has prevented real change at almost every level.

Department of Education officials have long proposed different accountability standards to be tied to funding increases, which have been opposed by the teachers’ unions, creating an environment of stagnation. As this stagnation continues, I see out-of-the-box solutions such as charter schools as the only real hope we have of making change that is visible, tangible and real. We are now at a point where simply reforming education is not enough. We need to revolutionize the way we educate our children. We need new curricula, new standards and new methodologies. Our teachers and administrators need to be free, at the school level, to work with students in a manner best suited to them as individuals.

As I read Nix’s biography, I was impressed not only with his accomplishments but with his attitude and desire to be a part of something special, something that will positively impact the lives of Tooele’s children. I look forward to watching the development of Excelsior Academy and seeing the impact that it has on the quality of education in Tooele County.

As the quality of our education improves, the quality of our local economy will improve. Education is the life blood of our communities, our nation and our future. Our personal, local and national priorities need to reflect the importance of redesigning our educational system to enable our children to succeed in the modern world. Providing effective modern education must be our No. 1 priority moving forward — for ourselves, our children and generations to come.

The battle over the importation and disposal of foreign nuclear waste continues in Utah. On one side: EnergySolutions, owner and operator of a low-level nuclear waste disposal facility in Tooele County. On the other: Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Jim Matheson, and thousands of American citizens that don’t want to see our landscape become an international dumping ground.

While part of the battle is being fought in the federal courts, another part is being prepared in Washington, D.C., where Matheson is pushing legislation to ban all foreign nuclear waste imports into the country.

EnergySolutions would have us believe there is no safety or environmental risk to this waste being transported across the country and then permanently deposited in their Clive facility. Granted, I’m not a nuclear physicist, but it’s obvious that these are dangerous materials, or else a secured disposal facility such as the one operated by EnergySolutions would not be necessary. How then can one say that there is no environmental or safety risk in transport? No transportation system is perfect, and accidents do happen.

While it may be true that the amount of foreign waste currently being discussed is relatively small, this situation represents a potentially dangerous precedent. At what point do we draw the line and tell the world that they need to be responsible for the disposal of their own waste? How much of our environment are we willing to sacrifice in the name of EnergySolutions’ bottom line?

Our line should be drawn right here and right now. Huntsman took a bold step when he used an interstate compact to block the importation of waste — a step that is currently being challenged in federal court by EnergySolutions. And Matheson is working on a more permanent solution through legislation in Congress. But every resident of Tooele County, Utah, and the United States should be standing firm with the governor and congressman in support of these measures.

This is an issue that transcends political party and impacts the lives of not only ourselves, but our children and grandchildren for generations to come. Tooele County should not become the world’s dumping ground for nuclear waste, nor should any other location in America.

Much has been made of the current economic crisis, especially in relation to banking, lending and the various financial companies that have been given multi-billion dollar bailouts. What continues to astound me is that there has not been a mass public outcry about this reckless and fiscally irresponsible new “plan.”

When liberals talk about redistributing the wealth with tax policy — i.e., increasing corporate and higher-bracket taxes in exchange for lower- and middle-class tax cuts — they are accused of being fiscally irresponsible. Some critics even suggest such liberals are socialists, trying to even the economic playing field.

However, we are not hearing any such accusations from corporate America today when hundreds of billions of tax dollars are being taken from every American taxpayer to finance the most massive corporate welfare scheme ever devised.

In addition to the obvious abuses of these funds, such as Chrysler taking out full-page ads in the nation’s largest newspapers to thank Americans for the bailout, what does this bailout mean?

It means that corporations that have been grossly mismanaged and engaged in shoddy — if not unethical or downright illegal — business practices are allowed to continue in business, with their expenses being paid by you.

How many small businesses in America go out of business or bankrupt every year? Even in Tooele County, we see businesses fail all the time. These are generally honest and hard-working people trying to live the American dream. I don’t see the Department of the Treasury swooping in on a white steed with a large checkbook to save these businesses.

The bottom line is this: We have a gross number of corporations that have been living beyond their means, inflating stock values, issuing uncollectable loans, and making generally bad business decisions. As was the case with Enron a few years ago, sooner or later this behavior will catch up to them — and it has.

The government’s role in this debacle should be to assist the innocent workers and other citizens that are adversely impacted by these businesses failing, not to toss our tax dollars at the feet of the “managers” who created this problem to start with. Even though the government prints the money, the supply isn’t limitless, and this bailout is the epitome of government (read: your) money being wasted.

Nov. 4, 2008 — a day that will forever echo in American history. On this day, Barack Obama was elected to the presidency of the United States — a first for America, a first for African-Americans. However, the most important aspect of this remarkable accomplishment is not that Obama was elected president, but how it happened.

Sen. Obama mobilized millions of people, registered thousands — if not millions — of new voters, and energized America to vote. He did this all not with a message of fear and blame, but with a message of hope and change.

He sold us a belief in a restored America, an America that has the ability to unite and overcome any obstacle, a return to the America that came together to defeat Germany in World War II. We bought it. We contributed money and time to this historic campaign, and we voted for him.

Now for the bad news: America, the battle has just begun. Electing Obama, as he told us in his address on Tuesday, got us to the base of the mountain. Now we need to climb it. We have a long and uphill battle to restore America, and President Obama cannot win this battle alone.

Conservative pundits are already lining up with their “I told you so” failure-of-Obama speeches in hand. In a recent Associated Press column, Jim Drinkard pointed out that “With his victory in the presidential election on Tuesday, those goals will collide with daunting realities.”

This is a very real warning to the millions of Americans that have embraced Barack Obama’s message of hope and change. The past eight years have created a train-wreck vision of America, both domestically and internationally. Just as George W. Bush doesn’t carry sole blame for the problems, Barack Obama doesn’t shoulder sole responsibility for the solutions.

Obama made it not just his campaign, but all of America’s. He has offered America leadership, hope and inspiration, and we have started to embrace it. It is now the responsibility of every American to act upon that hope and inspiration to begin the real struggle, the struggle to right the ship of American policy.

The economic, social and international problems facing America today have been years in the making, and they will be years, if not decades, in the fixing. There is no magic-wand cure, but the solution is a simple one: unity. Every American must come to realize, as Mr. Spock so wisely stated, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

The single greatest challenge facing President Obama will be the challenge of uniting America to abandon selfishness, partisanship, and apathy. Now is the time for America to unite, to come together to overcome the greatest challenges that have ever faced this country.

America’s greatness is predicated upon our unity — our ability to bring together people of different nations, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds to create our own unique American culture. When we embrace this, America is unstoppable. There is nothing we can’t accomplish. Now is the time to seize the moment and use this inspiration to restore America.

On Oct. 1 there was a “Meet the Candidates” event at Tracks Brewing Company. At this event, Josie Valdez, candidate for lieutenant governor, mentioned that Utah ranks dead last in voter turnout and third from the bottom in percentage of registered voters. Those statistics create an interesting discussion.

Voting is one of the most fundamental freedoms that we enjoy as American citizens. Without the right to participate in the politics and governance of our communities, states and nation, none of the other rights we are guaranteed by the Constitution mean anything. By participating in the process, supporting, voting for, or being a candidate, we help to influence the decisions that shape the future of our world for ourselves, our children and their children for generations to come.

People give all sorts of reasons for not voting. We hear them all the time: I’m too busy. My vote doesn’t matter. Politicians don’t listen. Well, there is a reason that politicians don’t listen. They don’t have to unless you vote. Do you know why your vote doesn’t matter? Because you didn’t cast it.

I know my position on the issues facing Tooele, Utah, and America today, and I know how I’m going to vote. My purpose isn’t to tell you how to vote, or for whom. My point is simple: Just vote. Research the positions of the candidates and decide for yourself who best represents the world as you want it to be, then vote for that person.

People often claim that they don’t vote as a protest against all the candidates. That is a lazy and sad excuse. Not voting doesn’t send a message that none of the candidates are what you want, it sends a message that you’re too lazy to vote or that you just don’t care. It tells the elected politicians that they can do whatever they want because you won’t vote them out of office for failing to deliver on issues that you support.

Why is America in the mess that it’s in right now? It’s very simple. Government has lied to us, businesses have cheated the American people, pensions are in jeopardy, people are losing their homes and savings every day.

Who is to blame for this? We can blame Congress or the president, but at the end of the day, it is you and I that are responsible. We elected these people, we allowed the policies that have failed us, and we have failed to act during elections to make significant changes. The enemy we face is ourselves — our own apathy. It’s time for all of us to take a stand and make our voices heard. It doesn’t matter what you say or what you believe, only that you act on that belief and cast your vote. That is the nature of a democratic system of government.

Voting is a tremendous privilege, but with that privilege comes responsibility. Voting is our greatest civic responsibility — our duty to ourselves, to each other and to the future.

The first election of the 21st century demonstrated just how antiquated the U.S. electoral system is. This is not to comment one way or another on the outcome of the election, but to point out the breakdowns in the process that occurred in the 2000 election. At the time of its inception, the American electoral process was the first of its kind, and it created a solid foundation for our democracy.

However, America has now grown beyond the wildest dreams of our founders. Combined with modern technology that enables instantaneous global communication, this growth has rendered our electoral system obsolete, and to be honest, unfair. The current system fundamentally denies the principle of “one person, one vote,” a principle that the U.S. government attempts to enforce in other nations by means of election monitoring.

In 1870, the United States took its first major post-Revolutionary War step toward electoral equality with the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which provides the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, finally securing the right to vote for all citizens, regardless of sex. However, we still use electoral methods that discourage voter participation and dilute the voice of the people. The first Constitutional Amendment of the 21st Century should reiterate America’s commitment to real and lasting democracy: election of the President by popular vote.