Dynamic Range

Alexander The Great

This morning I learned that Rep. Jeff Alexander was preparing to retire from the legislature after 16 years of dedicated service.  It was a great shock and I felt a lot of mixed emotions -- happiness that he will be able to spend more time with his family, friends, and business associates; sadness that we will lose his leadership, experience, and humor within the House as well as the fact that he's going over to help out that "other branch").

I always found Jeff to be honest and straightforward.  Often times, legislators are accustomed to people telling us one thing and doing another, mischaracterizing an issue, or sugar-coating a problem, rather than addressing it head-on.  Jeff wasn't like that.  He was direct and didn't waste time beating around the bush.  At times, some people took offense at this directness.  I found it to be quite refreshing.

Jeff's quick wit could have everyone in stitches at one moment, then his complete grasp of the legislative process would have everyone focused on the task at hand.  Love him or hate him, Jeff was his own man.  He didn't shy away from the difficult issues or the hard work.  He was a great representative for his constituents and the citizens of the State.  Jeff's leadership and camaraderie will be sorely missed.

Happy Constitution Day!

Today, September 18, 2006 is officially Constitution Day (since September 17th fell on Sunday this year).  Constitution Day celebrates the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America which took place on September 17, 1787.  Here's a few recommendations for celebrating:

1. Read (or reread) the U.S. Constitution in its entirety
2. Discuss the purpose of the Constitution with your family and friends
3. Identify what you are doing to preserve the Constitution
4. Watch the BYU production "A More Perfect Union: American Becomes A Nation"
5. Assist your local school teach students about the Constitution
6. Tell your Congressman how the federal government has exceeded its Constitutional authority
7. Read "The Proper Role of Government" by Ezra Taft Benson
8. Read "An Enemy Hath Done This" by Ezra Taft Benson
9. Read "The Making of America” by Dr. Cleon Skousen
10. Read "The Federalist Papers"
11. Participate in the Conversations On The Constitution (Convocon) with my good friend Oak Norton
12. Contribute to The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource)
13. Visit the National Center for Constitutional Studies
14. Read "Miracle At Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention" by Catherine Drinker Bowen
15. Read "The Law" by Frederick Bastiat

The U.S. Constitution is one of the greatest documents ever written.  It has served as a shining example for good throughout the world.  It's vitality and viability  is dependent on our vigilance in upholding its principles.

Happy Constitution Day!

Not So Fast, Mary -- Pres. Bush on Line 1

Just when she thought she could settle into life in the private sector, President Bush nominated Mary Peters to replace the retiring Norman Mineta as secretary of transportation.  Mary was the former federal highway administrator, stepping down a little over a year ago.  She was also a former director of AZ DOT (and a coworker and friend of Utah's own Mr. Transportation, Tom Warne).

Here's a little excerpt from the DNews article:

Peters said that if confirmed, she would try to improve a transportation infrastructure that is showing signs of aging.

"We are experiencing increasing congestion on our nation's highways, railways, airports and seaports and we're robbing our nation of productivity and our citizens of quality time with their families," Peters said. "In some cases this is the result of systems and structures that are more suited to a bygone era than to the 21st century."

Peters is an advocate of user fees, or tolls, for building new highways. In a recent interview, she said that the federal highway program will run out of money by decade's end without substantial changes and, rather than raise taxes, some states are turning to toll roads already to fill gaps.

"You just can't depend on the federal government to bring the money in that was around when the interstate system was first built," Peters said.
(Bush picks former highway administrator as next Transportation secretary)

Based on Mary's comments, you can see why Utah has been taking proactive steps to shift our transportation policies in a forward-thinking manner.  With the highway trust fund scheduled to go bankrupt before 2010, it's important for states to address their transportation needs without heavy dependence on the federal governments.  Times are changing and strong leadership is needed.  Mary Peters is a great choice.

How To Deal With A Media Whore

Regularly, I hear people expressing outrage and concerns about the actions of one public figure or another, whether in politics, entertainment, or sports.  Their big concern?  They want to know what should they do and how they should respond.

Here's a 2-step program for dealing with the "media whores".

1. Identify The Media Whores -- If its actions or words are different when the cameras are running, it might be a media whore.  If it make outlandish claims specifically for the benefit of the press, it might be a media whore.  If it come running whenever the media is present, is might be a media whore.  If it is consumed by protecting its image and portrayal in the press, it might be a media whore.
2. Ignore The Media Whores -- Once you have identified a media whore, starve it of its influence:  media attention.  Ignore its antics  Don't discuss what it says or does.  Pretend like it doesn't exist.  The media enjoys controversy -- controversy sells -- so don't give the media the satisfaction.  They will eventually look for another story.  Starve the media whore's platform by ensuring that your attention and resources aren't being funneled to its benefit.  Your anger just builds up more energy which fuels the media whore.  Your silence and complete disregard ultimately becomes a big wet blanket.  Without a platform, the media whore becomes an also ran, quietly forgotten by the media.

Out of the Closet

Well I knew it would just be a matter of time before some enterprising reporter outed me.  I just didn't expect it would happen today.  The culprit?  The Salt Lake Tribune's Glen Warchol.  (Some reporters just can't leave family secrets well enough alone.)

Many citizens recognize me as a tight-fisted protector of the taxpayer's hard-earned money.  At times, friends affectionately call me Scrooge.  But today Warchol revealed my alternative lifestyle.  Yes, Warchol, there is a Santa Claus!  And occasionally it's me.  (See Utah's oldest care center thrust into fight of its life)

--------------

About two weeks ago, Glen interviewed me for his story about the Developmental Center.  The next day, after further research, he called me wanting to double check his facts.  His question?  "Do you play Santa Claus at the Developmental Center?"  How should I respond?  I don't know how he found out my secret.  I've lived this double life for years.  What would my penny-pinching conservative friends think of me now?  They'll probably assume I've gone soft.  (Truth is, I've always been a big, soft teddy bear.  It's just that occasionally it's necessary to bare my teeth.)

Well, here's the rest of the story...

For the past 6 years, my wife and I have hosted Christmas for the residents of the Developmental Center.  It's the highlight of the year; an annual tradition that our young family and many great citizens in our community look forward to with excitement and eager anticipation.  There's nothing like preparing Christmas for 240 individuals (that's big even for Utah families), soliciting donations, purchasing gifts, caroling, visits with the Jolly Elf, and the camaraderie of everyone working together for a worthy cause.

Why the double life?  Sandy and I can be as free and giving with our time and money as we choose and we appreciate those that generously share our vision for making our community a better place.  No one has the right to tell us how and where we should make our contributions.  But with the taxpayer's money, it's a completely different matter.  I believe that I have a responsibility to levy as small a tax as possible to accomplish the critical responsibilities of government.  It's not my job to spend your money on the "nice-to-haves" and the pleasant, but non-essentials.  Confiscating your precious resources and spending it on my pet projects or someone else's charitable causes doesn't make you charitable.  I believe it's only through freely giving of our time, talents, and resources that we can truly experience the joy in helping our fellow men and women.

I'd rather be a Santa when it comes to spending my money and a Scrooge when it comes to spending yours.  I hope you don't mind if  I keep living my double life for a while longer.  (And I'd appreciate if you'd just keep this as our little secret.  I've got an image to uphold!)

Truth-In-Taxation 101

A couple of weeks ago, the annual Property Valuation Notices arrived in the mail.  Some Utahns, particularly those of us that live in Alpine and Highland, received some shocking news.  With the explosive housing market our property valuations have shot up tens and even hundreds of percentage points (I'm up 40% in 1 year and that's below the city average.  I have a friend with a vacant lot that's up 500%.).  With these sudden increases in valuations, most of these citizens are seeing large tax increases, even in the column labeled "No Change".  The natural assumption is that cities, counties, school districts, and special service districts are seeing huge windfalls in new revenue due to the revaluation.  Although that is the case in many other state, it's not true here in Utah.

Utah has a process affectionately called "Truth-In-Taxation" (see 59-2-918 through 59-2-924) which requires several steps to protect people's property and to limit property taxation:

1. Truth-In-Taxation limits a local taxing entity (such as a city) to a dollar constant property tax revenue, except for new growth.  What this means is that as valuations rise, property tax rates (certified tax rates) drop commensurately to provide the same amount of property tax revenue.  These entities do get extra revenue as new home and business are built ("new growth"), but they do not receive additional revenue as a result of increasing property valuations.
2. If a taxing entity wants to grow property tax revenues by increasing the certified tax rate it must publicly notify the citizens within that taxing district (you typically see this in the newspaper).  The legislature wants to make sure the public is aware of this desired tax increase.
3. A taxing entity must also hold a public hearing to discuss the justification for the tax increase.  The public is notified of the time and location of this hearing by newspaper, the Property Valuation Notices, and sometimes in the city newsletter.  Often these hearing have the largest public turnout of any public hearing.

Many local official may complain about the difficulty of the Truth-In-Taxation process, but protecting people's property is of such importance the legislature requires this highly visible process and these stringent limitations.

So, once citizens understand that local governments don't receive any windfall proceeds, the next question naturally is "well if there was no change in the budget, why am I seeing a tax increase."  This is an excellent question.  Since we are talking about a fixed size pie, as valuations rise (or fall), the distribution of how the tax burden is shared gets distributed differently based on rates of valuation increases (or decreases).  For example, if the property valuations of all homes and business rose at the same rate, for a given taxing entity, the "No Change" tax amount would be the same, year-to-year.  But, if some properties rise at a faster rate than others, those properties rising faster than average would bear a greater share of the property tax burden (a tax increase), while those rising slower than average would shoulder a lesser share (a tax decrease).  One of the weaknesses of even the truth-in-taxation process is that some property owners can still see large property tax increases when their valuations are skyrocketing compared to others in the taxing entity.  Much of this could be mitigated by having smaller taxing entities and limiting the reliance of the property tax to fund government services.

Citizens who are aware of Prop 13 in California also ask "Why can't we just cap property taxes like they do in California?"  These citizens assume that the legislature could just make this "simple" change.  It's not that easy.  Currently our state constitution requires that all (nonexempt) tangible property in the State be:

1. assessed at a uniform and equal rate in proportion to its fair market value, to be ascertained as provided by law; and
2. taxed at a uniform and equal rate

(See Utah Constitution Article XIII, Section 2)

So, the citizens of the state have placed limits on the legislature that prohibit capping rates and assessments.  The constitution allows the legislature to provide some property tax relief for the poor as well as for disabled veterans, but the constitution has some strict requirements regarding property and property taxes.  The legislature can only operate within the bounds of what is permitted by the constitution.  (Note:  The constitution can be changed.  It requires an affirmative 2/3rd majority vote in both the house and the senate and then a majority vote by the citizens of the state.)

So, what can you do?

1. If you think your property tax valuation is incorrect, appeal it to your county board of equalization.  This can be a simple as submitting a property appraisal.
2. Attend your public budget hearings.
3. Help your taxing entities determine ways to find improved efficiency and/or cut unnecessary government programs.
4. Seriously consider whether a property tax increase should fund additional services (such as the property tax initiative in SL Co. for transit) or whether there is a better way to fund those service (such as a user fee at the fare box).
5. Identify for your elected officials what services should and shouldn't be funded with the property tax.
6. Let you legislator and fellow citizens know whether additional property tax reforms are necessary and what you recommend.  (I'm starting to hear rumblings that the actions of SL Co. may lead to a  renewed call for a Prop 13-like change to our constitution.)

I hope this basic tutorial helps.  I've tried to hit the key points without losing you in the finer details (exempt properties, residential homeowner exemptions, etc.).

Update (Sunday Aug 20th):  See the Salt Lake Tribune report: Nasty surprise in the mailbox?.

Real Learning Experience

With all the wrangling over the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium, there's a couple of real key points we shouldn't forget:

1. Rocky only hates the back-room deals to which he isn't invited.  He seems perfectly fine with all the other ones.
2. Despite the statement that "... it's all tourist money...", I suspect that more than just tourists will be paying for the stadium deal.  Every visiting businessman and businesswoman paying the Transient Room Tax (a.k.a. hotel tax), regardless of their interest in soccer, will see his/her cost of doing business increase, making business less competitive (and that includes local businesses).  Local citizens will also be paying the tax whenever they decide to spend a night on the town or are lucky enough to escape for a weekend without the kids.
3. Rocky loves transit except when funded with the hotel tax, disrupting the spending frenzy for "environmentally friendly" soccer stadiums (wouldn't that just be a grassy field?) and downtown performing arts facilities.
4. Dave Checketts is now "the man" according to Mayor Dolan.  So much for Larry H. Miller. (We knew that guy!)

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore doesn't understand the power of the Internet.  I know it's harsh to say that about the father of the Internet, but it's true.

How do I know this, you ask?  Just look at the promotion of his new blockbuster "An Inconvenient Truth".  It's traditional old school media with your basic run-of-the-mill website.  Rather than audio and video access through iTunes, YouTube, or TiVo, he directs individuals to select theaters (I can't even access a theater from his website to buy the tickets online.).  Instead of being able to download  the book or PowerPoint presentation, he's got nifty ecards, jazzy desktop images, cute little screensavers.  The power of the Internet is letting anyone produce (possibly useful) content and distribute it in when I want it, where I want it, and how I want it.  Even Hollywood is finally starting to figure that out.

If Gore really understood the power of the Internet, he'd leverage the widest array of available (and often free) resources to distribute his message to get maximum exposure for the broadest array of individuals and companies.  He might even go interactive -- possibly a virtual world where we interact and simulate various envonmental conditions or an networked, interactive shoot-em up game where teams of environmental commandos raid earth-bound polluters.  Who know, he might even let us select whichever earth destroying capitalist or Bambi hugging environmentalist we'd like to vote off the planet.  The ultimate planet survivor.  Even I might logon for that!

p.s.  I thought about including the link to Gore's website, but what's the point?

Minutemen Miss Mark

It's been interesting to watch the immigration debate, particularly the past few months.  With all the talk of closing the borders, erecting fences, and deportation (sometimes I wonder if their talking about legal, illegal, and even those of us that were born here), I wonder whether the discussion is really focused on a symptom, rather than the underlying problem.

When I discuss immigration and with the Minutemen and their supporters, and listen to the many interview, I get the impression that many are opposed to all immigration -- legal and illegal.  Why is that?  Immigration, like innovation, is a wonderful growth opportunity.  It's a chance for new ideas from individuals who aren't afraid to take a chance and try something new.  It's the ultimate entrepreneurial venture -- recreating your life in a new environment, learning a new culture, and leveraging the best of both.  That's part of what makes America so great and something we Utahns have some experience with.

Instead of making legal immigration painfully difficult, we should be making it straightforward and simple.  The immigration process should take hours or days, not months and years.  Let's make sure that each immigrant has local citizens and business hosts that are willing to be responsible for them and an effective system for tracking where the immigrants are living and working.  (Citizenship, unlike immigration, should require a significant, long-term, dedicated commitment.)

We should be looking for every opportunity to inculcate the world in democracy and the American dream, whether here or abroad.  Building a wall and isolating ourselves will make us more defenseless.  It's only through extending ourselves and building networks of mutual benefit, support, and communication that we will make our country strong.  It's not without risks, but I think they're preferable to the alternative.

So, what the real problem?  It's the unbearable burden of our disastrous welfare state.  That's what's escalating taxes, crippling our competitiveness, and elevating the cost of illegal immigration to such visibility.  Pull yourself up from your bootstraps and make something of yourself -- Good!  Fleece the public and live on the dole -- Bad!  Whether illegal immigrant or not, that's good policy for everyone.

The Minutemen should rally the troops to battle the crippling welfare state and the culture of entitlement.  That will have greater impact on preserving the American way!

Run, Baby, Run!

Thomas L. Friedman's book "The World Is Flat" (previous review) is the hottest read within state government these days.  Whether its the Governor's office or the Legislature, the State Office of Education or the System of Higher Education, Republican or Democrat, almost everyone is talking about the book and discussing the impacts of a global economy in shaping public policy.

Last Friday, KCPW reporter Julie Rose, had a nice news report on the the books influence on Utah politics with a diverse array of perspectives from key players shaping policy.

The one point I wish she would have shared the following African proverb from the book:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
(The World is Flat)

This proverb conveys a key success factors in the global economy -- you must run to survive.  With competitors at every turn, if you're not always at the top of your game, someone is ready and willing to knock you out of the game.

Some may interpret the proverb to mean that government must do more to ensure people's success.  For me, it says don't wait around for someone to take care of you, instead take care of yourself.  It means getting government out of the way so it doesn't slow down our citizens and businesses, making them less competitive.  To be competitive in the global economy you must be quick and nimble, not slow and bureaucratic.  And government by its very nature and design is slow and bureaucratic.

Welcome to the realities of the "flat world" -- eat or be eaten.  So, run, baby, run!