Quote of the Day: Virtue and Faith

"I do not think America's condition is hopeless; an alliance in the cause of virtue is still possible. By linking arms with all those who believe in God or adhere to high moral standards, the Saints can help preserve the Constitution and free agency. But it is more important still to nourish the ground from which these men and women of America spring, that ground of faith and conviction from which virtue ultimately grows. The highest kind of political activity, then, is to teach virtue and faith. Ultimately there is no other way to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the freedom which it was established to protect."

Richard L. Bushman --Virtue and the Constitution
"By the Hands of Wise Men" --Essays on the U.S. Constitution

Socialism; Quote Of The Day

I was reminded by one candidate of this quote I had, one time, posted to my blog. It bears repeating.

"Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task."

--Frederick Bastiat, 1850 The Law

Quote Of The Day: UTA Tax

"I just feel like UTA is already a tax-generated agency, and here we are creating a county tax that supplements something we're already taxed for, which in general, is something I think is bad government."

North Salt Lake City Council Member, Matt Hardy

Hat tip: Deseret News

Hyperbole Of The Day: 'No Brainer'

"This is the biggest 'no brainer' in the history of the Earth."

--Steve Handy, spokesman for the Northern Utah Transportation Alliance on the proposed transit tax hike.

Setting aside the possibility of exaggeration, Is there anything about taxes, or tax increases that should be a 'no brainer'? This should raise a red flag about the proposed transit tax hike.

Spending Your Childrens Future

If the board approves the local tax increase, it would mean homeowners would pay an additional $17 a year on a $190,000 home, which is estimated to be a median-priced home in Davis County. Board members are trying to be cautious about raising property taxes, but they need the money for the $555 million budget for the 2007-2008 year to work.

Davis County Clipper

[italics are mine]

Translation: Davis County School Board has budgeted for money that is not there. When private citizens do that, they end up in the poor house. I'm anticipating a pay raise this summer, but if I put in a pool on that assumption, I'd have to send my crazy cousin Eddie to kidnap my boss.

Hat tip: UtahRattler

And That Means What?

"We talked about several concerns in [closed] executive session"

--Councilman Lynn Ballard on why he dissented on Gravel Pit development.

Bigot

"I called you a bigot because it was rather obvious that you feel skaters are somehow inherently of less worth than others. You can go ahead an deny your feelings on this if you want to, but you are not fooling me, bigot."

--Jason Bunting

If Rob Bishop Gets Within Striking Distance

I may not have the verbiage exactly right, but at the Davis County Republican Convention last Saturday, Rob Bishop was at the podium handling business on amendments to the party constitution. One such amendment would have given the Vice-Chairs, the Davis County Republican Women, and the Teenage Republicans both membership and a vote on a crucial body. One substitute amendment would have removed two of these groups from the amendment.

Bishop summarized the motion this way.

'So we're clear, the vote we are now having is to strike the women and the children.'

Pornography Police Pursue Chilling Statute

"I provide free access to Salt Lake City and to the city library. They can do that, and I'll just shut down my free access zones, and Utah's reputation will be damaged as a place that is restricting technology rather than expanding it."

Pete Ashdown, Founder, Owner of Xmission

Lawmakers need to understand the distinction between the possible implications of regulating the technology and stemming the message. Restricting global pornography by regulating, exclusively, local providers is ludicrous.

Desnews:Lawmakers seek ways to block Net porn

Voucher Referendum Lunacy

One more time into the breach that is the 'voucher war'. KSL is reporting that, despite the recent opinion offered by the AG that a referendum will do nothing to end vouchers, that referendum supporters are forging ahead to collect signatures. As such, the following becomes the 'quote of the day'.

"I don't think it suggests a huge endorsement of vouchers or against vouchers. I think what it suggests is they've got abilities to collect the signatures and will likely do that."

Doug Holmes-Utahns for Choice in Education

This essentially creates a new category of people known respectively as pro-referendum, and anti-referendum. Do you, A support the referendum just to prove to the Lege that you have a 'voice'. Or do you, B, not sign the referendum. Are we even worried about vouchers anymore, or is this becoming a spitting contest?

Another point. The AG points out in his legal opinion(pdf) that the Voucher program could yet be challenged in court on Constitutional grounds, yet the pro-voucher (or is it pro-referendum) folks couldn't care less. They are too busy decrying the AG for being obtuse to the fact that we can, in fact, collect 90,000 signatures.

Well, we can collect that many signatures. And, we must because we are referendum people!

Number One Myth On Utah Voucher Legislation

The sneakiest bit of misinformation that is now being disseminated in the voucher debate is this.

"Vouchers take away money from the public school system and hurt those schools.”

Joann Hansen--volunteer for "Utahns for Public Schools"

Try reading the legislation again.

Clipper Not Biased?

"Readers sometimes accuse us of bias. The trouble is that more than 95 percent of the time the stories people object to aren’t biased — the facts reported just don’t square with the way readers want the world to be. Often, when we ask people to indicate the specific parts that were inaccurate so we can correct them, they can’t point out any factual errors."

--Rolf Koecher

This sounds like Rolf is throwing down the gauntlet. Have at him!

Attempt To Resurrect 'Careless Driving' Bill

The Salt Lake Tribune gets the quote of the day, today. They paraphrase the sentiments of Jenkins, the Sponsor of the 'Careless Driving' bill that got slapped down by the house. As I suspected, Jenkins didn't care at all about increasing the speed limit. He probably put it in the bill to make the whole thing more palatable to drivers.

"Sponsor Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City said he didn't so much mind the House hacking out the increased speed provision, but was upset over some of the other cuts. "The part that hurts is [taking out] the careless driving part."

Well, duh!

SLTrib: Legislative Briefs

Careless Driving Bill: Failed House

The House unanimously voted against the Careless Driving bill that cruised through the Senate.

"I think we are overdoing it here, representatives."

Kerry W. Gibson, R-Ogden

Hat tip: Salt Lake Tribune

Quote Of The Day: NSL State Of The City

Mayor Schaefermeyer on being fiscally conservative(pdf).

Probably one of the biggest changes this year was my selection to replace Kay Briggs as mayor. We applaud Kay for his service and wish him success in his professional endeavors. It’s an honor to serve our community and I desire to stay the course by being fiscally conservative with our city revenues.
Many of you read that I and one other mayor opposed a $10 motor vehicle registration increase.
Unfortunately, the county commissioners will put this into effect. The money is earmarked for corridor preservation – basically buying property along the Legacy corridor. I’m not opposed to preserving this corridor or other transit corridors, but I think we are imposing too many small fees here and new taxes there and our citizens are feeling that there is a crisis with government spending. I know I feel this way.
I think we are often short-sighted and do not sufficiently explore other options and research other funding sources rather than create new funding sources.

Quote of the Day: House Defeats Repeal of In-State Tuition

"A controversial bill that would repeal a state law that allows eligible undocumented students to pay resident college tuition failed today in a tied House vote. Lawmakers voted 37 to 37 on HB224, meaning it died. Rep. Keith Grover, R-Provo, who co-sponsored the bill, was the only lawmaker not on the floor to vote.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Glenn Donnelson, could be reconsidered within 24 hours, perhaps as early as this afternoon, and people who oppose the repeal are nervous."

Jennifer W. Sanchez
Salt Lake Tribune

If you want to win, make sure all your supporters show up to vote!

House defeats repeal of resident tuition for undocumented students

Quote of the Day: Boundary Decision

"She is cheering at a basketball game right now and crying."

--Trish Swanson of her 15-year-old daughter Elleny

Now, that is what I call some mixed emotions.

Long story short. It appears that, in this case, the board did listen. There were minor changes to the boundary proposal of January 2. Compromises on the proposal include allowing Seniors to remain at the same school and redrawing lines to allow some neighbors to attend the same school.

It would be impossible to please everyone.

Hat tip: SLTrib

Update: From Deseret News

"Incoming sophomores in the fall of the 2007-08 school year, who have two or more siblings attending the high school outside the new boundaries, may apply for a variance that will be automatically granted."

Quote of the Day: State School Board

"This (allegedly had) been going on a number of years, and the system did not detect this. So what we need to do is ensure we design a system that will detect these type of things. If not, I predict this could happen again, and the state is going to be embarrassed."

Randall Mackey, at a meeting of the State School Board

I love how the Deseret News was so kind as to insert parentheses with an 'allegedly' to protect Mr. Mackeys credibility. They should have done one better and had Mackey say "...this could happen again, and the state is (allegedly) going to be embarrassed."

Can districts avoid financial misdeeds?

Quote of the Day: Dannie McConkie

"I enjoy the protection of the the county government just like every other citizen in the county."

Davis Property taxes to rise 37%

[Davis County Watch: Citizenship] The best policy: School boundary panel should operate in open

The Tribune editorial board has weighed in against the Davis County School District asking for more transparency. My favorite quote is this.

"The district counters that the 39 committee members included parents and that there had been ample opportunity for them to have their say."

My first chortle of the day.


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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Citizenship at 11/21/2006 11:02:00 AM