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Exacerbating the “Divide”
A few thin-skinned acquaintances couldn’t handle my erudite U.
of U. rumors comments in yesterday’s Policy Daily, so they
thought they would respond. This is what passes for U. humor. It’s
obvious that these guys (like most U. students) weren’t smart enough
to get into BYU.
From Bart Barker:
LaVarr listed several outrageous rumors in yesterday’s column.
He needs to understand the importance of differentiating between
rumor and fact. For example:
Rumor: BYU
Fact: Utah
From Paul Hollingshead:
Since LaVarr is in the business of creating rumors for the upcoming rivalry game, I thought I’d take this chance to share some interesting news just in from Provo.
In honor of their favorite decade, BYU’s pre-game entertainment
will include performances from top 80’s stars Dire Straits
and John Cougar Mellencamp.
BYU has agreed pay Rush Limbaugh his speaking fee of $150,000
to lead the Cougar faithful in ‘Rise and Shout’ after which
he will distribute samples of his special “pain medication” to the
BYU players and coaches to help dampen their inevitable agony.
In other news, Cheerios has backed out of sponsoring BYU this week and is now searching for a new team. When asked why, a Cheerios spokesman said “Cheerios needs a team it can identify with—one that, like Cheerios, actually gets into a bowl.” BYU’s new sponsor, Kleenex, will be handing out their new Cougarblue tissues to the first 1,000 crying BYU fans. Kleenex expects to be out of stock by the end of the first quarter. The tissues will also be used during the BYU post-game press conference by special request of Cougar QB John Beck.
All Quiet on the Leavitt Front
As expected, President Bush’s cabinet is getting a major makeover, with as
many as 8 or 9 cabinet secretaries having resigned or expected to
resign before the shakeout is over. As a relatively new cabinet-level
appointee who joined the administration well into the first term,
Mike Leavitt clearly wants to stay on with Bush. The question
is whether he stays at the EPA or ends up somewhere else.
With all the shuffling, it’s certainly possible Leavitt could move into a more prestigious role than EPA. However, his name has not been prominently mentioned in the speculation. Some Washington insiders say Leavitt has a very good relationship with Bush, but Bush likes Leavitt where he is and feels that he has done a very good job at EPA.
“If you are the President and you have someone doing a good job in one of
the most difficult positions in government, why would you want to
mess with it?” said one Washington insider. “Mike is doing a great
job, so I don’t expect any movement.” Certainly by political standards
Leavitt has performed well at EPA because the environment was essentially
a non-issue in the election. John Kerry and the Democrats
were never able to damage Bush on environmental issues.
I have absolutely no inside knowledge about what the future might hold for Leavitt. The Utahns with Leavitt at EPA are as mum as mummies, saying they’re just pleased the election is over and they’re ready to continue their work at EPA.
Transportation Revenue Calculator
Transportation funding is going to be a monumental issue in the next legislative
session. How to come up with more revenue for highways and transit
will be a top concern of lawmakers. At a recent meeting of the Legislature’s
Transportation Task Force, UDOT Director John Njord and his
finance experts delivered a cool tool to each member of the task
force.
The tool is essentially a sophisticated financial spreadsheet listing every current and potential source of revenue for transportation. The spreadsheet shows amounts currently being derived from various tax and fee sources, and allows lawmakers to play around with a variety of possibilities, lowering and raising rates and levels to create different funding options and scenarios.
The spreadsheet even includes formulas for local road funds. The lawmakers can run different scenarios for all or any counties in the state, using variables such as registration fees, local option fees, the gas tax, imposing a new sales tax on gas, sales taxes on vehicle sales, drivers license fees, impact fees on new housing (both local option and statewide), local option sales tax, bonding, and so forth. Scenarios can be run for one year or multiple years and by changing one fee or tax they can see how it impacts the total amount available for transportation.
Legislators had a lot of fun joking about how easy it was to raise
billions of dollars via the spreadsheet. If only the real thing
was anywhere near that simple.
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