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May 24, 2006

Is UTA Finally Stepping Up?

Last week the media reported that UTA has a unique plan to help Utah County with their transportation woes. It is about time. A year ago, after no assistance from UTA, Utah County had to put together their own task force to begin looking at alternatives for transportation in Utah County.

And all this time the political leaders and newspapers in Salt Lake and Davis counties couldn’t figure out why Utah County has been so slow in wanting to increase mass transportation. They have wanted to say that Utah County is holding up progress for the whole state. I say, “What progress?”

Davis County, after six years of paying an additional sales tax and not knowing where the money was going, is finally getting some work started on their commuter rail. Maybe misery wanted company. All Utah County wants is an alternative that will work for our communities. Even UTA is now admitting there should be some changes to future plans.

I don’t want to be one that holds up progress. I hope the county commissioners give the citizens the opportunity to vote on additional sales tax to be used for transportation, but I am glad we have the ability to hold the money as a county and know how it will be allocated in the future. That way we should have better control of our own destiny.

Posted by Jeff at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

What Makes this Special Session so Special?

The much talked about special legislative session is finally here. I say “finally” only because it will be nice to have the session completed and out of the way. I always am surprised at how excited the media and some political types get over a special session when, for most legislators, a special session is not needed.

This year there are only a couple of items that really should be considered in the special session, and Transportation is one of those issues. We need to deal with the transportation issues so UDOT can start planning for next year.

On the other hand, I am very concerned about the Medicaid issues that have been placed on the agenda. As a result, several legislators want to open bill files on budget issues because this section of the budget will be open. This problem is just what we were concerned about and why we didn’t want to deal with this issue now. We have a task force that will be meeting to discuss Medicaid and give direction to the legislature next year. Why couldn’t we have waited until then? Well, I guess that isn’t our call.

It should be a very interesting day or two.

Posted by Jeff at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)