CONSTITUTIONAL ALERT Tonight’s PG City Council meeting agenda item up for a vote is to consider for adoption a Resolution encouraging the State of Utah to address “comprehensive transportation funding”. Comprehensive transportation funding allows for ‘additional ways’ to TAX the private property of citizens to pay for mass transit (trains, bus, subway) bike and walking paths and trails, etc. Currently, Utah uses the gas tax, which by law can only be used for roads and nothing else. Gas tax is user based. Those who use gas pay the tax, those who don’t, don’t. Our state gas tax hasn’t been increased by the legislature since 1997. This should be addressed and increased every few years to adjust for inflation and increases in products. The biggest road problem we are dealing with today is the funding of the gas tax and the second is PG City has to take approximately 75% of the gas tax funds we receive and to pay off an old road bond debt which leaves us with a little over 25% to work with. This bond will be paid off the beginning of 2018. Those two reasons are why our city roads are not looking great today. In order to fund mass transit, additional “comprehensive” taxing paths must be found and taken. The most popular idea they are throwing around is to increasing the sales tax citizens pay in Utah County instead of increasing the gas tax. Once sales tax is increase, all citizens will be subsidizing mass transit, whether they use it or not. Once this sales tax is increase, it will never go back down. Then, other taxing avenues will be needed to subsidize new building and maintenance. Mass transit in Salt Lake City is deeply subsidized by taxpayers. Those who ride the bus and trains pay a discounted fee and confiscating the private property of the citizens pays for the rest. Why not spend the time and money pushing the Utah legislature to increase the user fee gas tax that funds our roads instead of using that same energy and funds to push a tax increase on sales tax that will open the door to force citizens to fund mass transit? Utah County is currently pushing this $85 billion dollar mass transit program in our county that will be funded by you and me. I often hear the words “the federal government will give us a matching grant”. Who is the federal government anyway? Where do they get their funds? From US. We are the federal government funds. The feds take our private property in taxes and give to the other states and do the same to them. We as Utah citizens will fund the entire mass transit that is being discussed and voted on right now in our county using the lobby arms of the Utah League Of Cities and Towns, SL Chamber of Commerce with their Transportation Coalition, UTA, and Department of Transportation are all pushing each city to vote in resolution that agree to ignore the gas tax and spend time and money to fund ‘comprehensive transportation’ in our county. In a meeting at Utah County Commissioners in September 2014, it was said by certain commissioner that if we don’t use the government to tax, fund, build and maintain mass transit we won’t be able to get from here to there. That is not true. We can and should spend our gas tax funds on roads. We can always build new roads to accommodate the growth in our areas. Not many citizens take mass transit anyway they use automobiles because they are faster and more convenient. We live in a mountain area and will never have a mass of people trying to ride a bike up and down the mountain to get from here to there or get to the mass transit stop…. we have, do and will always favor automobiles. In Salt Lake City, they are not able to fill up the tax funded trains, people are still using their automobiles. Unfortunately, the government is now locked into funding the mass transit and the new roads are not getting built. Come down and see if the city council will allows you to speak out against this city resolution or send an email to the city council and mayor. We need everyone to stand for constitutional principles at all times and in all places and to never let a socialism law find it’s way into our governments. Subsidizing for government to provide production or distribution of goods is socialism. Lisa Liddiard Individual, PG Citizen
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:29:58 +0000
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