Tonight on KVNU’s For the People….

The Cache Valley Transit District is in the process of getting a quarter cent sales tax on the ballot across the County. We’ll hear Todd Buetler of the CVTD make the case for the tax hike.

We’ll also hear from Providence Mayor Randy Simmons as to why he believes mass transit in Cache Valley costs more than it’s worth. Then we’ll open up the phone lines to get your reaction to both presentations on mass transit and the proposed tax hike.

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

ADDITIONAL AUDIO:

• Full presentation and Q&A of Todd Buetler of CVTD to Cache County Council on 6/26 – listen
• Providence Mayor Randy Simmons on Mass Transit – listen

ADDTIONAL RESOURCES:

• Cache Valley Transit District official website
  

A few comments about the immigration debate:

A guest on your show last night articulated the damaging effects, stopping
or severely slowing, the flow of illegal immigrants would have on
agriculture.  It really burns me up, when I hear, “Jobs Americans won’t do.”
To be more accurate the expression should be, “Jobs Americans won’t do for
$6.00 an hour.”  To run with Tom’s Pat Buchanan analogy, if we woke up
tomorrow morning and illegal aliens had returned to their homelands, the
economy of America would NOT be destroyed.  Of course the “bull whip” effect
of this hypothetical scenario would cause major problems, however the US
economy would recover.  Guess what? Farmers would still farm, houses would
still be built, hotel rooms would still be clean. How is that possible????
We would have to spend more on these products to make up for the higher
input costs. How much more, 10%, 20%, 30%, …? Lets say that the cost of
American produce doubles. Is that a catastrophe? Can we not recover?  Would
we stop eating? No, No, No! To make sense of this further, If my health
insurance provider, stopped treating un-insured illegal aliens, and my
Health insurance premiums only went up 10% instead of the usual 20-25%
annual increase. I would GLADLY pay 50% more for my produce!!!!! (remember
economic principles, we would probably import more produce from other
countries minimizing the inflationary costs to the consumer, remember ECON
1500?)  It has been reported that it costs the federal government $2,700 per
illegal immigrant family in social benefit programs.  A staggering amount,
how much better would our schools be??? It is estimated that illegal
immigrants make up 30-35% of our prison population who pays for it? YOU!
California claims to be dependant on “cheap labor” however studies have
shown that this ‘cheap labor actually costs each Californian tax payer
$1,183 per year in state taxes,(Dateline: December 2004 found at
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm).

That buys a lot of Produce!!!!

To answer Ryan’s question, the status quo is unacceptable, the recent
proposal was also unacceptable.  What are we to do? We must enforce the
employment laws.   If employers are unable to employee illegal immigrants,
would they still come here to work?

I think that the fear of our reliance on an illegal substance (cheap labor),
which we would surely not be able to live without, is complete hype and
bunk.  Costs would go up!!! However, savings would far outweigh these costs.
Don’t buy into this hype!! Does anyone have a problem with the fact that
Ranchers and Farmers readily admit that they rely on ILLEGAL labor?  But,
they don’t have a choice,.. right? What is lost in this debate and the
reason the legislation failed, is that these people are people, however they
are criminals, they knowingly violated the sovereignty of America!  They
should not be rewarded in any way!! If I went to smiths and stole a loaf of
bread for my family, I would be arrested. But if my family was starving
would they let me go?? If I robbed a bank to get some money for my kids
education to, “Improve their life” would that go unpunished?

Which laws are we going to tolerate being broken in this country?

Andrea

A caller this morning to KVNU’s Open Line Crosstalk argued that IPP3 would be an issue this election, and a liability to the three that are both up for reelection and voted against coal power.

While I disagree with the IPP3 decision- it’s based upon a hopeful speculation rather than known security- I doubt it will hurt Councilmembers Taylor, Swenson and Needham in November.   Infact, I’m pretty confident that it will help them.

I could be wrong, but I believe if we polled Logan residents on the decision, opposition to the IPP3 would run in excess of 2:1.

How do I reconcile this paradox?

At the time of the IPP3 decision, nearly every person that spoke out on the issue to the Council was in opposition to coal power.   The Council was merely responding to their constituency as well as the persuasive arguments of Dr. Robert Davies.

If the voices heard at the time the decision was made is an indicator, among those who oppose coal power, the IPP3 decision will be given a greater weight in how they vote than among those who disagree with the decision.   If I was one of the “IPP3 Three”  I would not make it a point to bring up IPP3 during the election and aggravate the passive majority, but I would not shy away from the topic if brought up either.

In discussing the potential return of the Fairness Doctrine, by which the government would regulate political content on the radio, Tom has often pooh-poohed the possibility, even saying:

“[T]he Fairness Doctrine isn’t coming back. Ever. Talk of its return is nothing more than a boogey man creating [sic] by Rush and Hannity.”

I beg to differ. We have had a parade of liberal all-stars express support for the Fairness Doctrine in the last week:

• Senator Feinstein: “Well, I’m looking at it, as a matter of fact.”
• Senator Durbin, #2 Democrat in the Senate: “It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine.”
• Sen. Kerry, the party’s most recent presidential candidate: “The Doctrine ought to come back.”

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has also expressed support. The Democrats’ most likely 2008 Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is also said to have spoken favorably of it, although she denies it. To further beat the drums for this abomination, a group run by President Clinton’s chief of staff released a report claiming that factors other than the free market have kept liberal radio down, and that government regulation is needed.

That’s a pretty powerful lineup supporting the Fairness Doctrine. If the Democrats control Congress and the White House in 2009, I fully expect them to attempt to re-implement it. Heck, they may even try to do it this year. If they do try, I believe that the new media and the citizenry will rise up to defeat it, just like they did to the immigration bill. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a serious possibility.

Craig

The immigration bill is dead. It fell 14 votes short of the required 60.

This is a victory for the American people, a strong majority of whom opposed this bill. The volume of calls received by Senators about this bill was huge, and overwhelmingly negative. Apparently, the Senate phone system crashed this morning because of the large volume of calls. Despite this, the Senate resorted to unprecedented tactics to attempt to ram this bill through. It did not go through the committee process; instead, it was written behind closed doors, and released less than 48 hours before it was brought to the Senate floor. The ability to offer amendments was limited. The extremely narrow debate that took place yesterday began before the final text of the latest amendments was released. The Senate was anything but “the world’s greatest deliberative body” this week.

One of the heroes of this episode, Sen. Demint (R-SC) had this to say this morning:

“This immigration bill has become a war between the American people and their government. It’s a crisis of confidence…This vote today is really not about immigration. It’s about whether we are going to listen to the American people.”

My suggestion to our elected leaders: get to work on border security. The laws are already on the books. Build some trust before trying to do this again.

Craig

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

Logan City Councilwoman Laraine Swenson explains why she would like to serve on the Council for another term.

Utah House Majority Leader Steve Urquhart issues a challenge to Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to pressure presidential candidateJohn McCain to fire staffer Chad Workman for his alleged anti-Mormon diatribe or to drop their endorsement of McCain.

Senator Orrin Hatch sides with Democrats who wish to subpeana the President on the warantless surveillance program.

You see an abandoned backpack outside a Carl’s Jr. What do you do? Ignore it? Call the bomb squad? Go to Wendy’s and forget about it?

Cache County Councilman Craig Peterson will be live in studio to talk local politics including the fairgrounds, mass transit tax and more

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• 6/27 Salt Lake Tribune: Hatch sides with committee Democrats in subponea of White House, Cheney’s office
  
• 6/27 Herald Journal: City Council filing deadline nears
• 6/25 Rep. Steve Urquhart: Huntsman and Shurtleff need to step up

Due to the general jackassery of Capt. Mark Towner and his inability to function as an adult in the Bloghive, KVNU’s For the People has removed our link to the political spyglass on our blogroll.    This is not a move taken lightly, however, preservation of decorum in discourse requires that the obnoxious and immature be ignored.  We urge our friends all across the Bloghive to follow suit.

Randy T. Simmons
Mayor, Providence City, Utah
Professor of Political Science, Utah State University
June 21, 2007

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels applies what he calls the “Yellow Pages” test to all public services. The Yellow Page test is that if you can find a service advertised in the Yellow Pages, maybe government should not try to do it itself. He applies the test to a host of activities, ranging from janitorial service (annual savings = $500,000) to debt collection of delinquent taxes (achieving a return of 16:1).

The Yellow Page Test is far different than the test usually applied by city and many state officials. They apply a “feel good” test when they ask if government should provide a good or service. The feel good test has three parts:
1) Do I have good intentions?
2) Will I make some people happy—make them feel good?
3) Will I feel good for having done it?
If the answer to all three is “yes,” then they favor the policy. The problem is that having good intentions, making others feel good, and feeling good yourself are poor bases for making policy. Far too often good intentions and good policy are strangers—that is why our Founders wanted limited governments.

I am going to take a moment to praise Rocky Anderson. Not because he always believes he is the smartest person in the room—any room. Not because he believes that a sky bridge will fatally wound downtown Salt Lake City. He and I will almost always disagree on policy questions, but at least he has a clear ideology. He believes government is good and should be used to do all the good possible. Pick an issue and you can be sure how he will respond.

Show me any elected city official in the state whose vision of limited government is as clear as Rocky’s vision of unlimited government. Maybe the Mayor of the most conservative city in the most conservative county in the most conservative state in the Union has a limited government vision to match’s Rocky unlimited government vision. That would be Provo where Mayor Billings promotes iProvo, Provo’s municipally owned and operated, city-wide, fiber optic network. iProvo is losing money, it owes more than its assets are worth, is not projected to make money in the next several years, and competes with tax-paying private industry. A private company would be bankrupt. But Provo simply takes surpluses from elsewhere in the city and keeps a failure in business.

Maybe Logan City’s mayor Randy Watts offers a limited government perspective equal to Rocky’s unlimited government perspective. After all, his family and Rocky’s made their fortunes in the lumber business. Alas, Mayor Watts does not measure up. He insisted Cache County pass a county-wide, mandatory recycling program, “because it is the right thing to do.” It will cost millions and will extend the life of the existing landfill from 15 years to about 16 and a half. But “it is the right thing to do.” When several cities explored leaving the county sanitation district and contracting for private garbage collection, Mayor Watts said he would close the landfill to private companies, because forced recycling “is the right thing to do.” When Hyrum Mayor Howard asked Logan’s environmental department director why he believed he could run garbage better than private companies, he replied, “Because I am a professional garbage man.” I responded that if being professional was all that was needed in competitive markets, Mayor Watts’ family would still be in the lumber business—they closed when Lowes and Home Depot came to town.

What about Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan? He advertises himself as a Republican. But he and others got the legislature to fund a soccer stadium for a team that still has not won a game this year. Every study I have seen regarding government funded sports stadiums or arenas shows they lose money. But for some reason, Mayor Dolan, like Mayors Billings and Watts, is passionate about government competing with the private sector.

I look around the state and despair. We have Rocky socialism in Salt Lake City, fiber optic socialism in Provo, garbage socialism in Logan, and sport socialism in Sandy. Why? How can this be? Where is the Yellow Pages Test in Utah?

Let me suggest one answer—as soon as someone is elected to city office, he or she is infected with the insidious Goo-Goo fever. Goo Goo fever is the belief that all we need is need “good government.” Someone infected with Goo Goo fever is known as a “Goo-Goo.” Goo-Goos believe that government is good and can be used to do good things—sound familiar? It is what Rocky believes. Goo Goos want to use government to give people what they want or what a Goo Goo thinks they should want—fiber optics, recycling, stadiums, golf courses, electric trains, electricity, and on and on. They do not think about efficiency and they certainly do not ask the most important question—“is this a service or product government ought to provide?”

Another story illustrates Goo Goo thinking. Just after the Berlin Wall fell one of my friends went to the Soviet Union for an extended trip. When he returned I asked what it was like. He replied, “It looked like the whole place was run by the Bureau of Land Management.” His point was that government, any government, will run enterprises poorly. When I told this story in a public meeting the head of the Utah Farm Bureau, a strong proponent of private enterprise and private property, said, “How dare you compare those Communist bums to the hard working people in our BLM?” Communist bureaucrats are really no different than American bureaucrats. They are insulated from competition and prices so they produce similar results. Goo Goos believe that American public officials will somehow be better than communist ones. They are wrong. The big difference is that we do not allow government to run as much of the economy as the communists did.

What Goo Goos do not understand is that since government enterprises operate outside of market pressures, they never learn the precise values citizens place on activities and goods. Without a market, the economic value of political goods and services is impossible to determine. In the context of the market economy, comparative costs and relative prices continually provide guidance to market participants on the least cost methods of production, the most urgent consumer demands and the opportunities for mutually beneficial exchange. Political actors have no such guidance, and without it efficient choices are impossible.

Is there anything that can be done to vaccinate oneself against Goo Goo fever and its attendant inefficiencies and failures? One vaccination is to adopt and practice a clear political ideology. This ideology must be the opposite of Rocky Anderson’s but believed in and practiced just as fiercely. There really is a difference between limited and unlimited government visions. A limited government vision avoids the traps of “the right thing to do” or “the people want it” or “I have good intentions” or “It will make me and others feel good.” Limited government means that government’s actions must be done within a very narrow scope—maybe to water, sewer, roads, parks, police, fire protection, and a judiciary at the local level. Everything else can be found in the Yellow Pages, and at a better price.

Some years ago I discovered that Idaho Falls, Idaho used the Yellow Pages test. They used private contractors for as many services as they can find—even snow removal. They took bids for snow removal each fall and when the snow started to fall they started calling bidders, beginning with the lowest cost providers and, if there was enough snow, ending up at the highest cost bidders. They did the same for street, water, and sewer repair.  Idaho Falls is roughly the same size as Pocatello. Each city has about the same number of miles of roads and water and sewer lines. Pocatello spent TWICE what Idaho Falls spent for public works. TWICE.! The Yellow Page test works.

There is a huge range of products and services that would be provided privately if government would just get out of the way—retention pond maintenance, street sweeping, recreation centers, golf courses, campgrounds are just a few. But getting government out of the way will require that you insist that your elected officials become more like Rocky—that they believe in and practice, fiercely practice, an ideology. They need Rocky’s passion but for the ideology of limited government.

The right thing to do is not good government managed by good people. Mayors Billings, Watts, and Dolan are good people, really good people. They mean well. They want to make people happy. They just believe in fiber, garbage and sports socialism while claiming to be conservatives. Remember, the right thing to do is to limit government by getting it out of the way of competition and market prices and market ingenuity.

Tell your elected officials about the Yellow Pages test. Tell them government enterprises cost twice as much as private ones. Tell them and tell them and tell them and tell them and tell them. If they do not listen, run against them and run to win. When you win, make sure you take the limited government vaccination against becoming Utah’s next Goo Goo. As Jim Rome said to his radio callers, “Have a take and don’t suck!”

I wish to close with some of the words of someone who is my model of a politician with a passionate, fiery limited government vision– Barry Goldwater. This is from his 1964 acceptance speech. It seems especially appropriate for tonight’s topic:
We see, in private property and in an economy based upon and fostering private property, the one way to make government a durable ally of the whole man, rather than his determined enemy. We see in the sanctity of private property the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society. . .  We do not seek to lead anyone’s life for him – we seek only to secure his rights and to guarantee him opportunity to strive, with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.

Barry Goldwater is the vaccination for being a Goo Goo. He looked in the Yellow Pages. Find and support people like him or become one yourself.
Thank You.

A good friend thinks I was too harsh on Ryan in my post of June 21. Since I value his judgment, and since I have been known to go overboard at times, I read that post again. My friend was right.

So, I apologize to Ryan for my harsh words. I have gone back to that blog and deleted the offending paragraphs. I hope he can forgive me.

Perhaps there is food for thought in some of our discussion that will lead us to explore some of these ideas further at another time.

C. R. Batten

The first cloture vote on the immigration bill succeeded today by a tally of 64-35.  Sen. Hatch voted no, Sen. Bennett voted yes.  The Senate now proceeds to consider amendments to the bill.  Another cloture vote could occur Thursday or Friday.

I called Sen. Bennett’s SLC office this afternoon, and they told me that which side he takes on the next cloture vote depends on what amendments pass this week.  It sounds like he’s particularly interested in the additional $4.4 billion for border security.

Craig

It’s bad enough that Hafa Araujo, who showed up just in time to replace the loathed Greg Ostertag, wears the uniform of my beloved Utah Jazz. Now there is talk that the Jazz may pick up Nevada’s Nick Fazekas with the #25 pick.

That would be a mistake of biblical proportions for the Jazz. Nick Fazekas might be one of the most over rated college basketball players in recent years. The guy has no body strength, no stamina and no guts. He was an overrated college player who simply doesn’t the heart or the body to play in the NBA. He fatigues easily and pathetically.

During the 2005-06 season, I argued ardently that Louisiana Tech’s Paul Millsap, now kicking trash with the Jazz, was 10x the player that Fazekas was. Millsap should have recieved WAC player of they year in 2006 instead of Fazekas.

I hope another team picks up Fazekas and that my boy Paul Millsap gets a chance to go one on one and totally embarass him. That and the fact that Millsap is bound to have a more successful NBA career is redemption for the way Millsap was ignored as a collegiate player. Millsap has the heart, strength and drive that Fazekas lacks. Paul Millsap is the antithesis of Nick Fazekas.

So, my beloved Utah Jazz, please do not burden this loyal fan with another utter bust like Ostertag and Araujo. I can handle one on the roster at a time, but not two.

UPDATE:

Nick Fazekas has been working out with the Jazz.  From today’s Tribune:

Nevada forward Nick Fazekas, a borderline pick between the first and second rounds, also worked out. Fazekas, who averaged 20.4 points and 11.1 rebounds, is one of the best shooting players for his size in the draft.
“I feel like I can shoot just as good as any big [man] in the NBA right now,” Fazekas said. “A lot of people might say that that’s wrong, but if you want to stick me in the gym with any big in the NBA, I’ll shoot with you.”

Right, Nick.  Reminds me of the last arrogant player the Jazz drafted out of Nevada- Kirk Snyder who proclaimed at the draft he would be Rookie of the Year.   

The guy hasn’t played a day in the NBA.   He hasn’t proven anything and already he thinks he’s ready to run with the big boys.   Absolutely ridiculous.

Kevin O’Connor-  please, please, please, please don’t draft Fazekas.  He and Araujo on the roster will be more than Aggie/Jazz fans can take.    I have watched Fazekas closely through his college career and can assure you he is not NBA material.  He will be in Europe in 3 years.

That’s right. This is the year that the stars have aligned and the oppurtunity for Joey “The Jaws” Chesnut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Chestnut
to bring home the title of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating contest at Coney Island on July 4. You heard that right Joey Chestnut is ready knock off the reigning champ Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi

Kobayashi has won the contest six years in a row and has recently said on his blog that he suffered a serious medical condition while he was conditioning for his seventh straight title. He has arthritis of the jaw. Also on his blog he said “My jaw refused to fight any more.” He added

“I feel ashamed that I couldn’t notice the alarm bells set off by my own body,” he said. “But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn’t stop my training so close to the competition.

“I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw.” So basically Kobayashi is listed as Day-to-Day. People are questioning whether or not Kobayashi is just scared to go up against Joey Chestnut. Chestnut, of San Jose, California, recently smashed the “Tsunami’s” record of eating 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes, by downing 59 1/2 hot dogs in the regional qualifier to compete on Coney island. So the question is will Kobayashi be able to compete? All I know is that if the United States of America is the fattest country in the world Chestnut better be able to bring the trophy home and keep it here in the states. So while you’re eating your hot dogs on the 4th of July this year just remember that Chestnut is going to be downing around 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes to bring home the title and bring back some integrity to the U.S.A.

-Hurricane John Newbold