Utah
Utah Taxpayers Association releases 1st ‘Pork Barrel’ report
The Utah Taxpayers Affiliation on Wednesday launched the primary version of what they are saying might be an annual report titled “The Pork Barrel” — an evaluation of the Beehive State’s finances to offer “transparency and accountability.” (Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 2-3 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Taxpayers Affiliation on Wednesday launched the primary version of what they are saying might be an annual report, titled “The Pork Barrel.”
The 12-page report consists of an evaluation of the Beehive State’s finances to offer “transparency and accountability,” in line with the affiliation’s web site.
It “summarizes information collected from the state finances to offer taxpayers with a complete take a look at current tendencies in state authorities spending,” stated Rusty Cannon, president of the Utah Taxpayers Affiliation, in a press release.
This 12 months’s inaugural report examines the final six years of total common fund and schooling fund ongoing spending, and a complete record of all “one-time” spending for the final two fiscal years.
“The primary version of ‘The Pork Barrel’ seeks to shine a brand new mild on state authorities spending in Utah,” the report states. “Our hope is that this sunshine will permit taxpayers to think about and debate the assorted drivers of spending in Utah.”
Moreover, the report says that simply as “uncontrolled” spending can result in greater taxes, “constrained spending progress” and “self-discipline” can ease the burden on taxpayers.
The primary objects mentioned within the report are one-time spending and ongoing spending.
One-time spending is mostly outlined within the report because the expenditure of funds which can be believed to be short-term, or “one-time,” in that they don’t seem to be anticipated to be ongoing sooner or later. Conversely, ongoing spending is the expenditure of funds which can be believed to be recurring and dependable and are anticipated to proceed into the longer term.
“Every year, elected officers on the state degree decide on how a lot income is one-time and the way a lot is ongoing. This resolution is crucial for taxpayers since tax discount ought to at all times be paired with ongoing income and never one-time income,” the report states.
Whereas trying into the continued common and schooling fund spending — two of the finances areas this 12 months’s report examined — the report reveals there was a virtually $5 billion enhance in spending between fiscal 12 months 2018 and financial 12 months 2023.
Between these years, ongoing spending elevated by greater than 74%.
Along with ongoing spending, the report states that one-time spending totaled $6.5 billion over the 2021 and 2022 legislative common classes, growing by 38.35% between the 2021 and 2022 common classes.
“Ever for the reason that first version of our e-newsletter was revealed 100 years in the past, in January 1923, the Utah Taxpayers Affiliation — realizing that taxes are a direct operate of presidency spending — has been analyzing the expenditure of taxpayer cash. This new, annual report will assist educate and inform taxpayers as to how that’s unfolding, permitting them to think about and debate the assorted drivers of spending in Utah,” Cannon stated in a press release.
The complete version of The Pork Barrel report, containing extra info and additional evaluation, might be discovered on-line, at utahtaxpayers.org/the-2022-pork-barrel/.
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Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Utah
Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters
WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.
This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.
“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.
On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.
“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.
The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.
“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.
The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.
“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.
The colonel calls it a major step forward.
“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”
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