Some of the year's controversies:
Driver license bill: The Legislature voted to replace regular driver licenses for undocumented immigrants with driving privilege cards. We believe the bill was a reasonable measure to limit illegal aliens to the necessary ability to drive without implying the right to vote or other privileges that go with citizenship.
It also put Utah in line with a federal law prohibiting states from issuing driver licenses to undocumented residents. The goal is to prevent illegals from using state driver licenses as identification to travel on airplanes or obtain other access granted only to citizens. Latino advocacy groups opposed the bill, saying it would dangerously identify undocumented residents and relegate them to lower-class status.
Behind this controversy remains this country's failed immigration policy, which will undoubtedly continue to cause problems throughout the country.
Tax reform: In May the state's Tax Reform Task Force, authorized by the Legislature, began hashing out proposals to overhaul Utah's outdated and sometimes unfair tax code, acting on ideas first addressed by a similar committee appointed by former Gov. Olene Walker in 2004.
Over eight months, the group has discussed such things as eliminating the corporate income tax, making individual income tax rates "flatter" but retaining deductions for home mortgages and charitable contributions, overhauling the way sales taxes are distributed, and abolishing the sales tax on food.
At the end of the year, the task force recommendations to the 2006 Legislature are vague and without much meat. It will be up to lawmakers to polish them into substantive changes. We can only hope that legislators have the time during their brief session to salvage real reform.
Nuclear waste: A battle over a federal plan to transport nuclear waste to the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation moved over several political switchbacks during 2005. Despite the efforts of Utah politicians to keep the waste out, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a permit for the Goshutes and their business partners, Private Fuel Storage, to store it.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management still must sign off on the plan, and there are serious objections including the fact that, while Skull Valley is envisioned as a temporary lay-over for 44,000 tons of spent reactor fuel, delays to a permanent repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain could mean the stuff stays in Utah indefinitely. Utah's Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, seeing the way the wind is blowing, has sided with Nevada's Sen. Harry Reid, the nation's highest ranking Democrat, on legislation to keep the waste on-site where it is produced. Sen. Orrin Hatch, to our dismay, has remained loyal to President Bush and his support for the doomed Yucca Mountain repository.
Legacy Highway: We supported the deal reached by environmental groups and state highway officials that ended a five-year court battle and will allow the Legacy Parkway, the first stretch of the eventual Legacy Highway, to be built. Thankfully, the Legislature - with some members claiming duress - went along. Opponents of the settlement said the state caved to legal blackmail, but we disagreed. The highway still will be a four-lane, limited-access road. It still will follow the state's preferred route, but will include a larger wildlife preserve and cycling paths. Light- and heavy-rail transit and more commuter buses will be available sooner than they would have been under the original plan. Those are the benefits of the legal wrangling. A price inflated by about $250 million is the cost to taxpayers for overconfident politicians starting construction before litigation had been settled.
Granite School District closures: The Granite Board of Education voted to close two elementary schools and redirect the mission of Granite High School after weeks of heated debate, pitting east-side against west-side parents. The district had no choice, given budget constraints. We believe closing schools on the east side of the huge district is necessary and sensible, since a population shift to the west has created below-capacity enrollments on the east and burgeoning west-side schools.
We questioned, however, the reluctance of the board to add to its meager debt load to help avoid a budget shortfall and the perennial failure of the Legislature to fully fund education for all of Utah's growing school population.
Real Salt Lake: Utah's new pro soccer team, Real Salt Lake, decided to build a $75 million soccer stadium in Sandy, after a yearlong competition among Murray, Salt Lake City and Sandy for the project. The tactics that made Sandy the winner, we believe, were a tad underhanded.
It started with an agreement among the Legislature, Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County for an expanded downtown Salt Palace Convention Center and a parking garage for the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy. Salt Lake City put in $8 million as its share. Then out of the blue came House Speaker Greg Curtis with the idea that some of the $18 million set aside for the parking garage could instead go to the soccer project. Now the question is how much, if any, of the cost of the stadium should come from the public till.
Our answer: none.
