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North Salt Lake City: City Hall Open House

North Salt Lake City will be remodeling city hall and are holding an open house on Thursday, December 4th 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.

I'm told that it could be a partial remodel, or the old structure could be demolished to make way for a new building. Factors that are being considered in making this decision are.

Earthquake readiness
Additional room for the planning commission
Space for court
Security considerations
Room for the police

The planning commission is meeting elsewhere at the moment. The fire station will be moving. If there are other factors that the city council should consider, please attend on Thursday.

Tax Loving Republicans

Davis County Commission Race: SL Trib

The Rumors of My Coma...

Were false...

I started a new job in April that has taken me out of town, and that, combined with new responsibility of the position, and this historic presidential campaign, has left me cold to blogging on local politics. I thought I would blog on the road, but my family is kind of a muse for me. I watched the national campaign with interest as the wind left Mitt Romney's political sails, and as the zombie McCain campaign resurrected--

Don't even get me started about Obama.

I got so far out of the habit, that I had even forgotten I'd ever blogged. I got an occasional reminder of my former life when I saw a guest blog post happen across the screen. (Thank you Natalie). I even got nominated to do some citizen journalism as to what would be done about the unincorporated part of Davis County. Is it too late to refuse? My wife asked me tonight if I'd read a particular political email tonight. I realized that I had not because it had been sent to my blog email, which I had forgotten.

In the time I've been away, the idea has been floated of merging the five southern-most cities of Davis County into one town. North Salt Lake has decided to try a 4 day work week, and I'm seeing local ultra-conservatives endorsing Democrats. (More on this later)

I do think that my best days of contributing to Davis County Watch are behind me.

That being said, I'm accepting applications for more guest bloggers to keep the blog moving. I see the blog as belonging to the community and achieving a consensus of opinion will be less important than having a common forum to share those views.

To qualify for a position on the blog you must meet the following criteria.

1. You live in Davis County.
2. You have a blogger account.
3. You will abide by the Scout Law

Please leave a comment if you want a shot at blogging here.

[Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers] An important property tax fairness point...

that I forgot to mention.

The residents of the unincorporated areas currently pay $350,000 in property taxes. The sales tax revenue the county was using to offset the burden for the incorporated residents was $700,000. It reportedly costs $1,500,000 to service the area.

350+700=1,050. Where is the other $450,000 currently coming from?

I think it's coming from the portion that city residents pay to the county.

And, even if the unincorporated resident's taxes are doubled, the revenue gathered will be $700,000. Where will the other $800,000 come from?

Can someone clarify all this?

--
Posted By Natalie to Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers at 9/04/2008 08:11:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers] Unincorporated residents still getting a...

I have been really bothered by something I read in the Clipper a few weeks ago.

In an article published on August 21st, entitled "Taxes may double for non-city residents," reporter Tom Busselberg states that, "The relative tax bargain that has been in place for the 2,500 people living in unincorporated Davis County likely will go away within the next year." The reason? The county has been using sales tax money to reduce the tax burden of unincorporated residents. The problem? Some of that sales tax money was supposed to go to cities instead of the county. The state has found the mistake, and is correcting it.

Apparently, it costs $1.5 million to service the unincorporated areas of the county. Currently, those areas pay $350,000 in taxes. The tax burden of unincorporated residents has always been much less than the burdens from the adjoining cities. That's why, even though state law says that these areas should incorporate, they don't want to. Who wants to pay more taxes?

The problem? The obscenely low and unfair amount that unincorporated residents are paying. The article states, "Even if the current property tax rate were doubled, it would be less than that charged to homeowners in Layton and Fruit Heights, among other communities."

How much of the tax that city residents pay to the county is currently being used to benefit the unincorporated areas?

My solution? Incorporate the unincorporated areas. Including the Chevron refinery, which is paying the low county rate instead of the fair North Salt Lake rate.

--
Posted By Natalie to Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers at 9/04/2008 03:19:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers] How I am voting tomorrow

By Natalie

Not a lot of surprises here...

State Treasurer: Richard Ellis. He's got the experience, he knows how to do the job, I know him and trust him. Walker seems intent on expanding the role of State Treasurer. We don't need that - we just need someone that knows how to invest money. Ellis does, Walker doesn't.

State Senate: I will be voting for Dan Liljenquist. This letter explains my concerns with Ron Mortensen. The tone is harsh, but it is all true.

State House: Becky Edwards. South Davis County needs a representative that is a leader; someone that will fight for our schools, our children and our families. Our current representative has not led out on these issues. I trust Becky. We get to choose between business as usual or something new. Business as usual isn't working for anyone except Greg Curtis. And, people keep talking about how responsive our current representative is. I was a state delegate. I never heard from him. Not a letter, not a phone call. Yeah, I get his email updates, but he doesn't answer my letters, or the letters from my friends. I'm ready for a change.

Davis School Board District 1: This is an easy one now, but a hard one in November. We get to vote for two candidates to advance. I am supporting Barbara Smith and Polly Tribe. Both are honest, hard working, intelligent women who want the best for our schools.

--
Posted By Natalie to Davis County Watch: Guest Bloggers at 6/23/2008 03:56:00 PM

Who is Running a Frugal Campaign?

Dan Liljenquist is into overkill. He appears to have outspent Ron Mortensen more than 12:1 on his campaign for things like $400 for Google Earth Pro. Purpose: Voter mapping software. So, Dan took advantage of Google Earth Pro's ability to import spreadsheet data in order to visualize and target the right demographic. While I'm certain that the result he got from the software was stunning, there are cheap as in free ways of doing the same things that I've used myself using Google Maps. Clearly not as cool, but just as effective.

Is Liljenquist going to be as liberal with taxpayer dollars as he is in his campaign expenditures? Also, note the $11,000 loan he gave to his own campaign.

Family Empowerment?

I received the pink flier from Edwards campaign some time ago and have come to some conclusions on where I differ from her. If I had to vote just on this one piece of literature, here is why I choose Neuenschwander.

The section subtitled 'Family Empowerment' lists bills that if decided the way Edwards wanted would have done nothing to empower families. The first graph in this section says:

"SB 53 - Initiative and Referendum Petition Amendments. Most of the time, local elected officials get it right. But when they don't, initiative and referendum are the citizens' recourse for undoing unpopular decisions by their government (example: the voucher referendum last Fall). This bill took away the rights of citizens to challenge land use and zoning decisions that might have huge impact on their families' way of life. Whether the issue is big-box stores or other developer-driven issues, the public's control over their established neighborhoods has been lost."

I ask, what does this have to do with families specifically? The campaign seems to be painting with some broad strokes, or they expect that people won't read far past the words, "Family Empowerment" before they decide Edwards-good, incumbent-bad. The mention of vouchers, where vouchers don't appear to apply to the overall bill is just code for this sort of thing.

The second paragraph:

"HB 17 - Child Support Bond. A big problem when marriages fail is delinquent child support. This bill would have given the court the power to order a parent, chronically delinquent in child support monies, to post a bond for up to 36 months of child support. Where agreements to pay child support are made as a condition of granting a divorce, taxpayers have a substantial interest in their enforcement, because otherwise children suffer and costs of welfare go up."

It looks like Edwards should have created a category called "Court Empowerment", because that is exactly what the flier claims this bill would do. Again, no "Family Empowerment" here.

The remaining three examples of bills would have created more government programs, government training for court personnel, and additional categories of conduct--all to do things that individuals, and in particular, families are capable of doing themselves.

If Edwards really wanted to empower families, and more specifically, parents then she would support things like home schooling, or school choice based more upon "a parents say-so" than government red-tape. However, she considers the activity of parents moving their kids between Woods Cross and Bountiful to be "..."gaming" of school residency requirements".

Edwards does not cite a single instance in which she supports empowering parents over empowering the nanny-state.

Is Becky Edwards a Democrat?

There's a bit of controversy stirring over whether Becky Edwards is or was ever a Democrat. Check the comments on a recent post of mine for a reference.

Well, this could be settled if Becky would just come out and lay out her past votes, and party affiliations.

Becky?

Child Identity Theft

KSL has a story on the risks of child identity theft. I neglected to announce the Identity Theft evening on this blog, so as penance here is KSL's take on it.

KSL