Use some of that wealth to help those who live in a whole different world right down the road? Or let the rich keep it and hope it eventually trickles down to those without?
The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board favors the former philosophy. Thus it supports the candidacy of Democrat Trisha Beck, a former member of the House, over that of Republican Wayne Niederhauser, a former employee of Mansell's real estate firm who was appointed to the Senate when Mansell retired over the summer.
Beck is a long-time advocate for the disabled who carried that cause to the House for five years before she lost a newly gerrymandered district in 2002.
Beck knows that tax cuts, such as those no-look cuts passed in a special session last month, should come after the state has met its needs in areas from education to health care. And she knows that, as a magnet to attract new business, an educated workforce beats a flat tax any day.
She has seen education and other human services take cut after cut when budget times were lean, always with the promise that it would be made up when times were better. And she has seen those promises broken.
"They've applied one band-aid after another," Beck said. "Now they've decided to take the band-aids off altogether and let people bleed."
Niederhauser does favor reducing class size and raising teacher pay in the public schools. And, as does Beck, says he would have voted for the $2 million to restore vision and dental services to the state's disabled and elderly, an idea the Legislature unconscionably voted down last May.
But, despite being a certified public accountant, Niederhauser's number-crunching ability seems to desert him when he says he would be open to vouchers or tuition tax credits to put public money into private schools, something Beck strongly opposes. And it takes total flight when Niederhauser argues that cutting taxes gives government more money with which to meet the very needs he promises to address.
If they wish to strike a balance that is both humane and rational, voters in Senate District 9 can vote for Trisha Beck.
SENATE DISTRICT 9 includes much of Sandy east of I-15, parts of Draper east of 1300 East and north of 12300 South, along with unincorporated area to the east of those cities.
