Jay Evensen - Opinions

Would the U.S. be better served by a dictator?

11/13/2019

Do you think the United States would be better off with a dictator in charge?
K, that’s a harsh way of putting it. How about this: Would the U.S. be better off with “a strong
leader who does not have to bother with Congress and elections?”

That’s a different way of asking the same thing, and in a 2017 survey by The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, 24% said this would be either a fairly good or very good way to run the country.

Tax reform: Why is Utah picking winners and losers?

11/12/2019

Conservatives like to warn against government tax policies that pick winners and losers, so it seems a bit curious that the Utah Legislature’s Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force, controlled by Republicans, has spent the past several weeks doing just that.

What began as an effort to extend sales taxes to services has now become an effort in picking who gets hit and who doesn’t.

Veterans Day: Is the American idea still valid?

11/6/2019

In Chautauqua County, New York last week, a state route was officially renamed the Lance Corporal Aaron M. Swanson Memorial Highway after a local young man who joined the Marines and was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Utah has seen its share of casualties in these conflicts. One year ago, the mayor of North Ogden, Brent Taylor, died when a member of the Afghani special forces he was training turned his gun on him.

Don't forget how dire the Rio Grande situation was

11/5/2019

When the house is on fire, you can’t afford to be delicate. Unfortunately, things will get broken. Saving lives and the structure are what count, in that order.

And while it may be difficult to remember more than two years later, the area on and around Rio Grande Street in Salt Lake City was, metaphorically, on fire during the summer of 2017. Crime was rampant and criminals were audacious. They controlled the street, to a large extent, and many truly needy people were scared away. The month before politicians decided to begin Operation Rio Grande, one person died when a woman drove her car into a group of pedestrians, and another died in a series of assaults near a freeway overpass.

Will the twice-yearly time change ever go away?

10/30/2019

Let’s look at the list of chores Congress has given itself before the end of the year.

Make sure inaction on the budget doesn’t lead to a shutdown.
Impeachment

That’s about it, and they wouldn’t worry about the budget if not for the looming shutdown, which might actually end up being a weapon in the battle against impeachment.
So … no room for Daylight Saving Time — the one thing that will be on most of the nation’s minds this weekend.

Halloween crazy — have we lost our minds?

10/29/2019

I make a point of staying away from banks on Halloween. Something about handing a deposit to Little Bo Peep or the Big Bad Wolf or, heaven forbid, Al Capone, just doesn’t seem right.

But clearly, I’m in a minority. Those associated with the Halloween industry are making bank in a big way these days.

The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $8.8 billion this year on the holiday, or $86.27 for every shopper. If that doesn’t spook you, consider this: Writing for Theconversation.com, Jay L. Zagorsky put this figure in perspective by noting it far outstrips the entire yearly budget for the National Park Service, which, according to my research, is a requested $2.7 billion for 2020.

Are you ready to try term limits again?

10/23/2019

Would term limits energize politics in Utah, restore trust in government and make legislative races more competitive?

If you think you’ve unwittingly gone through a time warp and returned to the mid-90s, that’s understandable, but wake up, Rip Van Winkle, the issue is suddenly relevant again.

However, before you answer with your heart, consider this: Only 10 of the 104 people currently serving in the Utah Legislature have been there 12 years or more (four in the Senate and six in the House), and while the governor will have served 11 years by next fall, he has voluntarily decided not to run for re-election.

A tooting whistle may get attention, but it's not an argument

10/22/2019

The First Amendment never was intended to be pretty.

Mark Sanford, South Carolina’s former governor and, most recently, Republican congressional representative, remembers a particularly raucous town hall meeting years ago that was dominated by a left-leaning group intent on pressing a point about health care.

As he recalled it for the Deseret News/KSL editorial board on Monday, the meeting lasted 4½ hours which, he said, was about as long as it took to begin getting somewhere.

“The first hour was horribly unproductive, second hour more productive, third hour actually quite productive, fourth hour you’re in the golden hour,” he said.

Would you want a sales tax added to the price of gas?

10/16/2019

Those of you who voted against the idea of a 10-cent per gallon gas tax hike for education last year (and that was roughly 65% of voters who cast ballots) may not be too happy to hear that some Republicans lawmakers are talking about adding about 12 cents to each gallon as a part of the ever-stirring Utah tax reform effort.

As the Deseret News reported Wednesday, Senate President Stuart Adams said adding the state’s sales tax to gas purchases — amounting to about 12 cents per gallon on top of the already 30 cents per gallon state gas tax (and the 18.4 cent federal tax) might be a temporary way to increase funding for transportation. At least, it could be for “the next little while,” until something better comes along.

Why are new homeless shelters too small?

10/15/2019

From the start, the math didn’t work. Add up all the beds at three new homeless shelters — 300 at a men’s facility and 200 each at separate ones for women and mixed genders — and you still fall several hundred short of the 1,000 or so the Road Home shelter currently holds.

That’s in one of the nation’s fastest growing metro areas, where the need is sure to grow.

Whenever I asked officials about it, whenever I wondered what would happen on a bitter, cold night when even the most reluctant vagabond knew to come inside, the answers had to do with finding room here and there, with granting motel vouchers or with vague promises that the homeless would be quickly transitioned out of shelters and into more permanent housing.

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