“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
As I helped gather signatures for the tax referendum last month, I saw a pattern in what motivated people to sign.
First, they were outraged by the tax reform law itself: the 177% spike in the sales tax on food and the decrease in the income tax which funds education.
Second, they were fed up with Republican state legislators’ repeated disregard for the will of the people and the shameless process by which they ignored it.
Make no mistake, Democrats had no part in the now repealed tax reform law. Not a single one voted for it, and their proposals for correcting the revenue imbalance were rejected by the majority. Nor did Democrats support the “we’re smarter than you” overturning/rewriting of the 2018 ballot initiatives. (Remember Medicaid expansion?)
When the referendum reached enough signatures, the embarrassed Republican pushers of SB2001 (task force co-chairmen Sen. Lyle Hillyard and Rep. Francis Gibson, House Speaker Brad Wilson, Senate President Stuart Adams and Gov. Gary Herbert) assured the public that they had finally listened.
But even then, they threatened that “we will be back” in 2021 and, in a stunning lack of self awareness, arrogantly scolded referendum supporters for following a “ruinous” path!
Politics is more about priorities than revenue. When corporations and “economic development” are continually prioritized over peoples’ needs, peoples’ needs continually go wanting (i.e. clean air, public lands protection, healthcare access, etc.).
Come November, Utah voters will have a chance to fix all of this for good: vote in Democrats who actually do listen and have their priorities straight to begin with.
Or we can keep re-electing Republicans and insanely expecting a different result.
Steve Camp, Murray