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Letter: Stop the insanity of wasting tax dollars on grossly mismanaged UTA

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People go about their day as the Salt Lake City Council, Salt Lake County, and the Utah Transit Authority gather on the North Temple Bridge/Guadalupe TRAX station in Salt Lake to announce Free Fare Friday to encourage greater use of transit during periods of poor air quality. On Friday, Dec. 22, no cash fares will be required on trains or buses in an effort to get infrequent or first-time riders to try out transit and use it more frequently.

By Richard Mucha | The Public Forum
  | Feb. 15, 2018, 2:41 p.m.

Questions for the UTA management team:

1. Why/how is UTA $2 billion in debt? Tax dollars last year ($88 million bond) and seeking additional tax dollars this year? Where does it stop?<br>2. Should UTA default on its bonds/debt, who is responsible for the mismanagement? Utah taxpayers?<br>3. Why are there 33 employees at UTA receiving higher compensation than Gov. Gary Herbert?<br>4. Why are there 70 of the top 200 earners at UTA having their names withheld from disclosure on the Utah’s Right to Know (salary) website? The website states, “If a name is protected by law, the name will be displayed as ‘Not Provided.’” After researching employees of Utah Department of Corrections, Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, and The Unified Police Department, I thought there would be a similar number of names withheld for personal safety reasons, but I was surprised to find that none of the names of the top earners in those departments were withheld.

Stop the insanity of wasting tax dollars for an entity that is grossly mismanaged.

Richard Mucha, Salt Lake City

By Richard Mucha | The Public Forum