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Tax Reformers on the Right Track
Utah’s tax base needs to be broader, tax rates need to be flatter, and Utah’s tax reformers seem to be making progress toward those goals. (See Morning News story) It appears that real tax reform could occur for the first time in many decades. However, there is yet a long road ahead with many obstacles and challenges looming the in 2006 general session.
With services becoming a much bigger part of the economy than was the case when our current tax system was devised seven or eight decades ago, it makes sense to assess sales taxes on services to capture revenue from a broader base. Legislators will, no doubt, structure tax reform so the final result is revenue neutral. Lawmakers are unlikely to raise taxes. But with serious education, transportation and other needs, it doesn’t make sense to cut taxes, either. Investments in such things as USTAR, which is a significant research and development initiative, and transportation infrastructure, will pay off in a big way with a stronger future economy, more jobs, and thus more revenue generation.
Ashdown’s Collaborative Campaign
U.S. Senate candidate Pete Ashdown has unveiled new features on his Web site that he says make his campaign the most accessible and collaborative ever in Utah. The first feature is an online “Collaboration Wiki,” allowing everyone to give input on issues and campaign strategy. The second feature is a personal campaign journal, authored by Ashdown, also known as a blog. These are in addition to Pete's weekly chats on the issues and the other sections of his website.
The Collaboration Wiki is modeled on the popular online Wikipedia Encyclopedia. “More than ever before, the Internet is breaking down the barriers to candidate communication,” Ashdown said. “We're giving everyone who visits my website the opportunity to help my campaign without having to leave their home. My campaign has received numerous offers for volunteers and this is a way we can reach out to those volunteers no matter where they are. In addition, it enables the public to tell me how they feel on issues that affect them.” The blog will cover campaign activities, plans, and observations written by Ashdown himself.
“My knowledge and experience in technology is demonstrated by these additions to my website,” Ashdown said. “My campaign is about interaction, openness, and a new future for citizens to be a part of their government. These new tools on peteashdown.org are about inclusion of the people rather than the exclusion.”
Utah, Maine Lead in e-Government
Utah and Maine top the list for e-government in the United States, according to an Ascribe.org Newswire story reporting on Brown University’s sixth annual e-government analysis. Researchers examined 1,620 state and federal web sites for the presence of various electronic features, disability access, privacy policy, security policy, online services, digital signatures, credit card payments, e-mail addresses, comment forms, automatic e-mail updates, Web site personalization, PDA accessibility, quality control, and readability.
The top ranking states include Utah, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee, Delaware, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Nevada. The most poorly performing e-government states are Wyoming, Alaska, and Alabama.
Washington Watch
Judiciary Committee Approves Reauthorization Hatch’s VAWA
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a 1994 law sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Joseph Biden (D-Del.). Hatch is now calling on the full Senate to pass the reauthorization.
Casual Friday
This is the time of year when I look forward to rooting for BYU and anyone the U. is playing. The last few years haven’t been particularly fun, and this year isn’t showing a lot more promise. But while the Utes may be dominating the college football scene, BYU can at least brag about being the nation’s “fittest college campus”. A Thursday Washington Post story
reporting on a study published by Men’s Fitness Magazine, so ranked the Cougs. Working with the Princeton Review, Men's Fitness surveyed more than 10,000 university students from 660 campuses and released the (non-scientific) rankings in its October issue, out this week. Go Cougs…put some of those fit students on the football field!
High Mountain Lakes, Greyling, and War
(Publisher’s Note: My father, LaVarr B. Webb, was an avid fisherman and prolific writer. He passed away a number of years ago, but in his later years he wrote dozens of essays and stories about his life, particularly his outdoors experiences. This is one of them.)
In September, 1939, my friend Jake and I coaxed and pushed the old Model A Ford over the ruts and rocks of the dirt road that twisted up the mountain face north of Soapstone in the high Uintas. We were looking for fishing lakes that we knew were in the area.
We parked our fishing buggy, the Ford, at the end of the road, found a trail, and hiked through the towering timber, lush meadows, and rocky humps to Hour Glass Lake. There we set up camp, and started fishing on one of the most picturesque lakes in Utah.
We were using dry flies. On my first cast, I saw the swirl of water as a fish broke the surface, and then hit my fly. I tried to set the hook, and lost the fish. The next cast produced the same result – the fish breaking the surface, the strike, the setting of the hook, but no fish.
I hollered at Jake to see how he was doing. “I can’t hang on to them,” he said. “They strike, then throw the hook or something. I’m going to let them run a little before setting the hook.” We tried that, but with little success. We finally figured out that we were too rough. We were jerking the hook out of the mouths of the fish. So, we just barely twitched the end of the rod when we set the hook, and we played the fish gently.
I brought the first fish to net. It wasn’t what I expected. It looked like a cross between a flying fish and a rainbow, with big, paddle-like fins, a tall, sail-like dorsal fin, and a body as streamlined as a torpedo. They were greyling, the first we had ever seen. We discovered that, unlike trout, they had very tender mouths. It was necessary to use a light touch when setting the hook or it would literally tear through the lips of those fish.
Those greyling were fun to catch because of the skill required to bring them in but also because they were scrappy. They fought right up to the net. Neither Jake nor I had ever eaten one, so we decided to fry some for supper.
I was chopping wood for a fire when a man, a big, bearded, rugged outdoor type, walked into camp. He said, “Howdy. You fishermen?”
I answered, “Yes, and you?’
“Oh, I do a little fishing,” he said. “I’m a sheepherder. My herd’s over the next ridge. Then he asked me, “What are you hacking on that wood for?”
A little surprised, I answered, “I’m cutting wood for a fire. We’re going to have fish for supper.”
Our visitor laughed. “One thing you learn as a sheepherder is that you don’t have to cut wood for a campfire. You put three long logs on a fire, let them burn through, and you have six pieces of wood. You keep burning through the longer pieces and you have shorter pieces. I never chop wood. I let the fire do the work.” Then he asked, “What’s going on in the world?”
I answered, “What do you mean, what’s going on? You don’t know there’s a war in Europe?’
“A war,” he yelled, “Who’s fightin’?” He explained he had been with the herd for more than six months and hadn’t heard any news.
We told him that the Germans had invaded Poland from the west, and that England and France had declared war on Germany. We also described how Russia had entered the war by also invading Poland from the east.
The news bothered him, and he grumbled, “I never did trust those Ruskies.”
Then, we talked world events as we cooked the greyling, prepared the rest of the evening meal, and ate as the shadows of the pine trees lengthened. We debated whether the United States would, or should, enter the war, and we wondered whether we, rather than fishing and herding sheep, might soon be slogging through the mud of Europe and dodging German bullets.
Now, as I look back at that period in our history, the mud, grime, fear and the destruction and devastation of Italy, where I served, hangs behind curtains in the dark corners of my mind. But I can still see clearly the calm waters of Hour Glass Lake, and the aspen and the firs, and I can see the boil of water, and the strike of a greyling, and I can even feel him fight and dive. And I am glad that the joys of that fishing trip are still vivid, while the hell of war has been buried deep in the dark recesses of my mind.
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