News Highlights
Gov. Jon Huntsman will sell all of his stock in family-owned Huntsman Chemical Corp. (Deseret Morning News).
Salt Lake Tribune editorial assails Senate action on IHC bills as “legislative quackery.”
Figuring financial impact of tuition tax credits is highly complex (Morning News).
Bill requiring a price tax on citizen initiatives passes House (Tribune).
Columnist Bob Bernick says lawmakers oddly averse to reform and voters' wants (Morning News).
Quote of the Day
"In what fairy-tale world does (North Ogden City Councilman Steven) Huntsman think the nation's largest company -- a $259 billion behemoth -- would be cowed by 'negative press' in a free-distribution North Ogden monthly, the Weber Sentinel?"
-- Standard-Examiner editorial criticizing Huntsman for threatening Wal-Mart with negative publicity. |
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Friday Buzz
Compiled and
Written by LaVarr Webb |
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It’s not quite white-knuckle time at the Utah Legislature, but it’s certainly high-pressure time. After today, the Legislature begins its “sifting” process, wiping the boards clean and sending only high-priority bills to the floors of the House and Senate for action. With only eight working days left in the session after today, and some of the biggest battles still ahead, lawmakers and interest groups are starting to feel time pressures, wondering if their pet legislation will be heard.
Now is when the high-stakes poker between the governor and legislative leaders gets serious. Now is when the governor can wield the most influence as coalitions build for and against the most controversial legislation and the most important budget items.
Impact of Sales Tax on Services
In her tax reform proposal, former Gov. Olene Walker suggested reducing the sales tax rate, but broadening the tax base by taxing services. The Utah Foundation has studied that issue, producing a research brief that examines the experience of other states that tax services, along with academic studies on the impacts of such a tax.
SLC is “Aspirational” City
In a recent column, George Will refers to a new book by Joel Kotkin, which lists Salt Lake City as among the nation’s "aspirational" cities, along with Atlanta, Charlotte, Reno, Boise, Phoenix, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Fort Myers. These are cities with reasonable taxes and an entrepreneurial spirit, as opposed to cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia, which Kotkin labels as “Euro-American” cities with high taxes and growth-inhibiting government.
Casual Friday
Politics as Sport: Advice for a Tense Legislative Session
Watching the Utah Jazz lose isn’t working for me. Watching BYU stink it up is even less fun. Utah is winning, but I’d just as soon they lose. So sports, for me, isn’t a really enjoyable pastime right now.
I suppose I will just have to consider politics as my spectator sport and get my jollies watching who wins and loses at the Legislature.
I believe it’s actually healthy, even for those deeply involved, to view politics as a game. Otherwise, you can go nuts. Politics is obviously much more than a game. Government can take my money, make all sorts of demands, throw me in jail, and even take my life. Politics is war, peace, life, death, taxes, guns, abortion, law enforcement and education.
That’s all very serious stuff. But if you take it too seriously, if you take it personally, if you get too emotionally caught up, then the weight of it all can become awfully depressing, even debilitating. I believe the best politicians, in a sense, view politics as a game, almost as a sport. Columnist George Will once said that politics is much more like baseball than football. In football, if you lose several games in a season you’re done. But in baseball, even the most elite teams lose dozens of games each year. In politics, you win some and you lose some. Even the best politicians don’t win everything. When you lose, you have to bounce back up and go on to the next inning, the next game.
So if you’re involved in a tense legislative battle as the session begins to wind down, fight hard, be committed and battle to the end. But at the same time don’t take politics too seriously or it will drive you nuts.
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Sponsored Article
Good Public Policy vs. Raw Political Muscle
By LaVarr Webb |
The Utah Senate will soon debate and vote on HJR1, the subject of a massive advertising and lobbying blitz by Utah’s billion-dollar credit unions. It will be very interesting in the next few days to see whether good public policy can hold its own against an attempt to flex raw political muscle.
If you compare the lobbying pressure applied to legislators from both sides of this debate, there’s no contest. It has been highly one-sided. If hardball politics is what is required for victory, then the big CUs are going to win in a mudslide. They have spent more than a million dollars of members’ money on parallel advertising campaigns, and have inundated lawmakers with thousands of phone calls, letters, e-mail messages and petition signatures. They’ve used every lobbying and political arm-twisting technique in the book, and more noisy rallies, press conferences and lots of hand-wringing are yet expected.
In contrast to the in-your-face CU campaign, the low-key approach by supporters of HJR1 is almost startling. While just as strong in their opinions, HJR1 backers have been quiet, calm and professional, relying on the strength of their public policy arguments to carry the day. No advertising campaign. No blizzard of e-mail messages and phone calls. No showy press conferences or demonstrations.
Just the power of being right on the issue.
So who will win? I hope and expect that HJR1 will pass. Two things severely diminish the impact of the enormous, and expensive, credit union arm-twisting campaign.
First, for a political message to work with legislators, no matter how loud and noisy, it has to be based on the facts. On the unvarnished truth. For unsophisticated people, the Big Lie technique of repeating an untruth over and over might work. But for legislators who have been around the block a time or two, who have dealt with this issue in the past and assigned a task force to study it for two years, the Big Lie doesn’t work. They know passage of HJR1, which simply supports current state policy, doesn’t impose taxes on anyone, and calls on Congress to pay attention to this issue, isn’t going to destroy the credit union industry.
An untruth repeated in a million radio and TV ads, phone calls, e-mail messages and petitions, doesn’t magically make it truthful. When HJR1 passes and is sent to Congress and Utah’s credit union industry continues on as usual, I imagine a lot of members are going to scratch their heads and ask the big CU operatives, “Now, tell me again why we were so concerned about this thing? Tell me why we blew through a cool million bucks of our money?” Might be some red faces at that point.
Second, there is a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) threat implied in the big advertising and lobbying blitz orchestrated by the CUs. The threat is this: “We’ll get you in the next election!” The problem with such a threat is that it rings hollow to most legislators. For all their bluster, the big credit unions have not been able to deliver politically. They have lost in elections. They have lost in leadership contests. They have lost in trying to get people fired. They have lost in state courts. They have lost in federal courts. They have lost before regulators. They have lost before legislative committees and task forces. They have lost before the full Legislature. So the threat of political payback isn’t terribly frightening. Legislators willing to stand up to the hardball tactics know that they have plenty of strong, active and smart political support that will be exercised at the right times in the right places.
So here’s hoping that good public policy can win against misinformation, intimidation, and political threats. While HJR1 doesn’t tax anyone, it is crucially important as a statement of principle. Most Utah lawmakers simply don’t believe that enormous, wealthy, highly-profitable businesses that share none of the characteristics of charitable, non-profit institutions, should avoid shouldering a fair share of the costs of education and government.
Most legislators know that it makes no sense for taxpayers to subsidize a billion-dollar credit union that wants to make multi-million dollar loans to wealthy developers to build extravagant homes for rich people. Most legislators know the difference between a traditional credit union deserving its tax exemption and a mega-financial institution that has obviously strayed from the role and mission of a credit union.
Good public policy vs. high-pressure politics. A very interesting contest.
(Sponsored by The Exoro Group)
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Friday
February 18, 2005
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Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com
- Feb 18: Last day for legislators to prioritize bills and other programs with fiscal impact.
- Feb 18: Tooele County Lincoln Day Dinner, 7 pm, Tooele Health Department, 151 N Main Street, Tooele.
- Feb 19: Washington County Lincoln Day Breakfast, 8 am, Gardner Center.
- Feb 19: Utah Democratic Party 1st Quarter State Central Committee Meeting, 10 am, Bountiful City Council Chambers, 790 South 100 East, Bountiful.
- Feb 22: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 E 2100 S.
- Feb 23: Final meeting for the Executive Appropriations Committee on all budget matters.
- Feb 24: Libertarian Party of Utah Salt Lake County Meeting, 7 pm, Bohemian Brewery & Grill, 94 E 7200 South, Midvale.
- Feb 25: Massachusetts Gov. and 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks at Salt Lake County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, 7 pm, Little America Hotel. For ticket information see: www.lincolnclub.net.
- Feb 25: Weber County Lincoln Day Dinner.
- Feb 25: Carbon County Lincoln Day Dinner with Lt. Governor Gary Herbert, 6 pm, Price Holiday Inn, $30/person.
- Feb 25: Bonding bill available to legislators by noon and final action taken on it by calendared closing time.
- Feb 25: Last day to pass bills with fiscal note of $10,000 or more.
- Feb 27: Last day to consider bills from own house.
- Feb 27: Last day for a motion to reconsider.
- Feb 28: General appropriations bill, supplemental appropriations bill, and school finance bill available to legislators by calendared floor time and final action taken on each bill by calendared closing time.
- Mar 2: Second supplemental appropriations bill available to legislators by calendared floor time and final action taken by noon.
- Mar 2: 2005 legislative session ends.
- Mar 5: Libertarian Party Utah County Meeting, 10 am to 12 pm, Golden Corral, 225 West University Pkwy, Orem.
- Mar 4: Box Elder County Lincoln Day Dinner with Lt. Governor, Gary Herbert 6 pm, Maddox Lodge.
- Mar 12: Davis County Democrats “No Host” breakfast/monthly food drive, 8:30 am, Grannie Annie’s restaurant, 286 N 400 W, Kaysville. The public is invited and everyone is asked to bring a non-perishable food item to benefit the food banks in Davis County.
- Mar 22: Last day governor may sign or veto bills.
- Mar 22: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 E 2100 S.
- Mar 24: Libertarian Party Salt Lake County Meeting, 7 pm, Bohemian Brewery & Grill, 94 E 7200 South, Midvale.
- Mar 26: Republican Women Federation Fundraiser and Auction, "Heroes of the Heart," 5:30 pm, McKay Events Center, UVSC, Provo. Speakers: First Lady Mary Kaye Huntsman and Sen. Orrin Hatch. For more information, please contact Suzanne Merrill - 801-796-0831.
- Apr 2: Libertarian Party Utah County Meeting, 10 am to 12 pm, Golden Corral, 225 West University Pkwy, Orem.
- Apr 9: Davis County Democratic Party Organizing Convention, 11 am, Farmington Jr. High School,150 S. 200 West, Farmington.
- Apr 13: Garfield County Republican Convention, 4 pm Teenage Republicans Convention, 6 pm County Convention and Dinner featuring former Gov. Olene Walker, Escalante High School.
- Apr 19: Tooele County Republican Convention, 7 pm, Tooele Health Department, 151 N Main St.
- Apr 23: Davis County Convention, Davis County Conference Center
- Apr 23: Morgan County Convention
- Apr 23: Washington County Convention, Gardner Conference Center
- Apr 26: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 E 2100 S.
- Apr 28: Constitution Party National Executive Meeting, Best Western Garden Inn, 154 West 600 South, Salt Lake City. Open to the public for observation - seating very limited.
- Apr 30: Libertarian Party of Utah Convention and Annual Memorial/Awards Dinner.
- Apr 30: Salt Lake County Republican Convention
- Apr 30: Utah County Republican Party Organizing Convention, 7 pm, Canyon View Junior High, 950 N 700 E, Orem.
- May 1: Last day a veto-override session may begin.
- May 2: Normal effective date for bills.
- May 2: First day to file bills for the 2006 General Session.
- May 14: Davis County Democrats “No Host” breakfast/monthly food drive, 8:30 am, Grannie Annie’s restaurant, 286 N 400 W, Kaysville. The public is invited and everyone is asked to bring a non-perishable food item to benefit the food banks in Davis County.
- May 21: Republican Central Committee Meeting, 9 am, Gardner Center, St. George.
- May 24: Green Party of Utah Roots Local Monthly Meeting, 12 pm, Sprague Library, 1100 E 2100 S.
- June 11: Davis County Democrats “No Host” breakfast/monthly food drive, 8:30 am, Grannie Annie’s restaurant, 286 N 400 W, Kaysville. The public is invited and everyone is asked to bring a non-perishable food item to benefit the food banks in Davis County. |
| - See the entire calendar
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