Sorry, for the adware pop-up that has overtaken the banner of my blog.  I don’t know how this happened.  My web service provider has been contacted.

Clairvoyant?  Or, just exercising a little rational free-market thinking, the Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Board has seen its predictive powers expose the final steps of the tragic demise of the UTOPIA project.

“We argued against Utopia almost from its founding because we thought it was a bad idea for municipal governments to get into the risky telecommunications business. Not when the likes of Qwest and Comcast were already duking it out with private capital. We also thought it unfair for Utopia to be tax-exempt when its competitors weren’t.

Unfortunately, our misgivings came true. Utopia turned out to be a financial quagmire rather than a technological paradise. And the swamp keeps getting deeper.”

When will government learn that delivering private sector services should be left up to…well…the private sector?!

According to UtahPolicy.com, Mike Lee announced he would be running in the 2010 Utah Senate race.   The announcement was made during a  political training conference in Sandy last Saturday, sponsored by the Independence Caucus, where Lee spoke on Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.

The House Conservative Caucus and the Patrick Henry Caucus, in a joint meeting last month, voted to support the position during the 2010 General Session of “no net tax increase.”  In these difficult financial times, while the state’s rate of unemployment has been slowly but steadily raising, it would be difficult to ask the taxpayers of the State of Utah to increase their household tax burden.  As many find themselves living paycheck to paycheck during the current economic recession, the legislature can’t possibly expect its citizens to dig deeper into their pockets for “spare change” earmarked for the basic necessities of life.

Senator Steve Urquhart has committed 13 others (plus himself) in the “Upper Chamber” to hold a similar position.  With 14 senators willing to consider other methods of addressing the projected $850 million revenue shortfall, the senate is just one vote shy of holding the line…steady as she goes.

These positions by the Urquhart group and the HCC/PHC give some latitude for “tax shifts,”  however.  A proposal by Senator Howard Stephenson to reinstate the state sales tax component on non-prepared foods is revenue neutral, requiring an adjustment to the tax base somewhere else.  And, according to Representative Craig Frank, his proposal to remove the 1% Restaurant Tax and allow Counties to re-impose a .1% tax on general sales, is also revenue neutral.

Read about this issue in Robert Gehrke’s Salt Lake Tribune article HERE.

Just one week after announcing he would run for the US Senate seat held by Bob Bennett, Fred Lampropoulos is stepping aside.
Read THIS Salt Lake Tribune article by Robert Gehrke.

Utah State House District 57 lies entirely within Utah State Senate District 14.  And, John Valentine, former President of the Utah State Senate and Senator for District 14, announced that he will NOT run for Governor in 2010.  Instead, Senator Valentine will decide at a later date weather he will run for Governor in 2012, or some other elected office.

Link to Deseret News article HERE.

[Pictured above:  (l to r) Rep. Craig Frank, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Senator John Valentine, and Rep. John Dougall.]

If ethics reform and campaign finance reform are two issues that should have been addressed along time ago by the legislature, then why didn’t many of the sponsors of the ethics initiative (and the 30+ other former legislators who support the ethics initiative) do something, anything, about it ten or twenty years ago while they were serving in the legislature?  After all, most of the ethics complaints filed in the last 50 years happened before I began serving in the legislature seven years ago.

Certainly, would-be “Super Czars” David Irvine (1973-79), Kim Burningham (1980-94), Jordan Tanner (1991-2000), and Karl Snow (1973-84), had ample opportunity and motivation to enact meaningful legislation while they took contributions without limits…that’s a combined total of nearly 45 years to do something, anything, to “fix the ethics problem.”  [Also, Carole Peterson, primary sponsor of the Citizens' Ethics Initiative, served as the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives and on legislative staff for more than 30 years...and in her position of influence...did nothing.]  Are things really any different now than they were back then?

In my opinion we’re just cleaning up the mess they left behind.  And, clean-up we will.  Yet, they (the ethics initiative sponsors) want to position themselves as judge, jury, and executioner of those who now sit in the very chambers where they sat during their legislative tenure…WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING.

Pot meet Kettle.

McEntee, Salt Lake Tribune article

McKitrick, Salt Lake Tribune article  [Former Governor and Legislator, Olene Walker (House 1981-88) did nothing to "fix" the problem while she served in the House of Representatives for eight years.]

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Merit Medical President & CEO Fred Lampropoulos will join the race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Bob Bennett (R-UT).  Lampropoulos, who ran for governor in 2004, will join a “short” pack of candidates trying to unseat the incumbent during the 2010 election cycle.

The Utah Republican Party will NOT support the Citizens’ Ethics Initiative.  102 out of 103 Central Committee members voted for a Resolution to denounce Utahns’ for Ethical Government’s ballot proposal.

“The state party strongly supports ethics reforms at all levels,” Hansen said Monday, “but did not feel this initiative achieves those goals.”

Salt Lake Tribune article, link HERE.