From the president’s ballroom to the Utah Senate president’s data center, to Grand County’s Arches shuttle bus system, your taxpayer dollars are being used to advance the priorities and ambitions of a small group of elected officials who appear to view public office as a position of authority rather than a responsibility to represent the people they serve.
In Utah, one of the most troubling examples is the Stand by Our Land campaign led by Gov. Spencer Cox and Redge Johnson, director of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. Using taxpayer resources, they have promoted a narrative that Utah seeks only to “manage” federal lands, while the underlying litigation seeks a far more consequential outcome: the transfer and potential disposal of those lands by the federal government. Such an outcome could open millions of acres of public land to privatization and raises serious questions about Utah’s own constitutional obligations.
At the national level, efforts by the Utah delegation to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments, and the years of litigation surrounding those decisions, have cost taxpayers millions of dollars and will continue to do so.
Ask yourself: Has any of this helped you or your family? If not, and you care about how your tax dollars are being spent, it is important to pay attention to what is happening with your public lands. Midterm elections are only a few months away, and your vote will influence who holds office and how public resources are used.
Carey Dabney, Moab