politicalcivility.com Blog

A recent report by the Tax Foundation puts Utah in the top 20 states in terms of friendly business tax climate.  That is down from #15 in 2007.  Perhaps the best news is that Utah ranks #5 in terms of the corporate tax rate index.  More than any “corporate welfare” program or the investment boondogle that is the Utah Fund of Funds, a healthy tax climate will attract business.  In addition an environmental policy that emphasizes conservation versus a strict “preservationist” or land lock up mentality will create an attractive environment for business and manufacturing to come to the state.

The one downside of the report is Utah’s ranking 30th as it pertains to personal income tax.  This is after the record tax reductions over the past couple of years.  In 2004, Utah was ranked 42nd, so we are seeing some improvement.  Unless Utah keeps moving up in the personal income tax area, the great corporate environment we’ve created may be wasted, because who wants to work in an area with high property taxes and high personal income tax.  Companies will have to offer higher salaries or find ways to locate employees elsewhere.  I saw this happen firsthand in Ohio.  The tax burden was so ridiculous that business looked for ways to locate facilities in unincorprated areas so employees could avoid city or county personal income taxes.  So Utah needs to work on both ends, not just on corporate tax breaks.

You may remember how GE and other fluorescent bulb makers lobbied successfully to force consumers to switch to their earth-saving bulbs.  Well, now the EPA has come out revising their recommendations for where homeowners should use the bulbs, because mercury levels in the bulbs could put your little ones at risk if they break the bulb and are exposed to the mercury in the bulb.  (There’s a story about this report on www.thebostonchannel.com)

I don’t know about you, but I get the sick feeling that energy saving bulbs, ethanol and the rest of the long list of earth saving technologies are actually going to do more damage than produce any carbon offset.  It’s what we deserve when we allow bad science and a big government approach to helping us be good stewards over our private property and natural resources.

Here is a link to an OpEd written by my co-worker, Derek Monson, here at Sutherland: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/256596/58/.

I am hopeful that this legislation not only passes, but gets funded. 

Paul Johnson’s Modern Times makes a clear connection between relativism, nihilism, and Naziism.  Clarence Thomas builds on Johnson’s assertion by saying:

The common idea that you can do whatever you want to do, because truth and morality are relative, leads to the idea that if you are powerful enough you can kill people because of their race or faith.

Thomas then asks the question:

So ask your relativist friends sometime: What is to keep me from getting a gang of people together and beating the hell out of you because I think you deserve to be beaten?  Too many people think that life and liberty are about their frivolous pleasures.  There is more to life.  And again, largely what relativism reflects is simply a lack of learning.

Why is this idea important to me as a conservative, because as a conservative, I believe that not all ideas are created equally, not all “ways” of life are correct and moral.  There does exist a higher moral order, which cannot be violated without grave consequence for mankind.  I do not determine that moral order, God does.  Thus only an order which is not one man’s preference versus another has the chance to be truly just, moral, and equitable.  Relativism in practice leads to the worst forms of tyranny and inequity.

I think Clarence Thomas (Imprimis, October 2007) hit the nail on the head with this quote:

“There may be a disconnect between my world and yours, because when my grandfather was raising me, people didn’t talk about their rights so much.  They talked about civil rights, yes, but they didn’t simply talk about rights and freedom.  They talked more about the responsibility that came with freedom–about the fact that if you were to have freedom, you had to be responsible for it. 

Then..

“What my grandfather believed was that people have their responsibilities, and that if they are left alont to fulfill their responsibilities, that is freedom.”

We’d all be better of and more free if this is how we legislated and this is how we lived!

If the union is to be judged on its intended purpose: working conditions and pay for its employees, then Utah’s teachers should ask for a refund.

Most Recent Case: There is a bill (HB212) being considered right now up on the Hill to give Utah’s teachers across the board $2,500 raises to improve salary competitiveness.  Guess who testified against the measure because it wasn’t EXACTLY they way they wanted it?

THE UEA. (http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695253672,00.html)

So much for representing the best interests of their union members.  Memo to new teachers: think twice about joining a union that thinks more about tenure than capability.

“Good law is that which binds the conscience.”

I think one of the things that bugs me most as I talk to those advocating for adoption of the Al Gore enviroment plan is that I constantly hear them say that the science is settled or that the only discussion left is what we now do about it.  To me that is intellectually dishonest and prevents any sort of real dialogue about what we should or shouldn’t be doing about climate change. 

For those thinking the science and scientific community is settled, I recommend taking a look at this website: http://www.globalwarming.org/research.

Also, global warming is another one of those “wars” that I referred to in my post quoting Joseph Story.  Advocates are following the pattern perfectly at present.  Makes you wonder how much freedom we lose when they win.

Here’s a link that gives a nice quick overview of what the Grace Commission found about taxation and governement spending.

http://www.freecanadian.net/articles/grace.html

This is a follow-up on the $55 dollar tow job post.

If I had any lingering thoughts that government should be involved with health care, they went right out the window today.  You might say what does a tow job and government run health care have in common.  Well let’s take a look at why what normally would be a $55 tow job on the regular free market, becomes a $200 tow job under state regulation.

I live in Lehi and last night was one of the most amazing wind storms and drifting I’ve ever seen.  Frankly to watch how powerful mother nature is was pretty awesome notwithstanding the danger it posed on the roadways.  Anyway I got stuck in a drift, like hundreds of others, on my way home and had to abandon my car or else spend a cold night in the old accord.  I choose to walk the mile or so home.  When I went with some neighbors to dig out my car early this morning, we found it had been towed.  I called Vern’s Tow Shop (which is about two miles from where I was towed), and was informed that my towing fee would be $198.  I was blown away, so I had my wife call in and get a quote for our other car from the same place.  We were told it would cost $55.  For those keeping track that is a $143 difference in cost for the same work.

How does this happen?  Well the state legislature thought it would be a good idea to “regulate” towers by setting standard baseline fees for towing companies anytime they towed an abondoned car.  Now either they didn’t care to take a look at market prices or the towing lobby worked some smoke and mirrors, because the base fee to tow a car you have to abadon in a snow storm is $121 plus a fuel surcharge, plus a milage fee, plus a housing fee, etc., etc.

Now let’s look at what this looks like in a government run health care system.  Let’s say for example, that I have a common cold and need to go to the doctor.  With the current market, it probably costs $75-100 depending on if they give you a test or not.  In the government run “price” controlled system, based just on a simple towing example, I (the taxpayers, because government run health care is NOT FREE) would be paying between $270-$360 for the same visit.  So much for “affordable” government health care!

Don’t believe me…may I recommend the book “A Taxpayer Survey of the Grace Commission.”  This book outlines how a Home Depot hammer costs the military several hundred dollars and many more examples of how when government gets involved affordable goes out the window