Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Should it be harder for initiatives to raise taxes?

1/30/2025

Will the third time be the charm for Utah lawmakers who want to put a 60% voting threshold on initiatives that affect tax rates?
Or will it once again be squeezed out by other ballot measures that were thrown off last fall’s ballot by the state supreme court?
Taken together, SB73 and SJR2 would raise the bar for any citizen initiative that would increase taxes. Anything that establishes a new tax, expands an existing tax, increases an existing tax or even causes property taxes to decrease less than they otherwise would, would require a 60% majority of voters to become law.

Stop calling every bad report a 'Sputnik moment'

1/30/2025

When you have two “Sputnik moments” in the same week, you really haven’t had a Sputnik moment at all.
First, tech stocks took a dive after the little-known Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek created a model known as R1. It supposedly performs well against industry leaders and cost only $5.6 million to train. NPR said other companies have spent $100 million or more to get similar results.

Will we ever stop changing the clocks twice a year?

1/23/2025

If one thing is more certain than death and taxes, it is the twice-yearly changing of the clocks. And if one thing is as certain as bills to cut taxes at the Utah Legislature, it is the constant introduction of measures that would keep Beehive State residents from fiddling with those clocks — measures that ultimately change nothing, especially the hands of time.
At the risk of sounding like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, this time could be different.
The reason is simple. The tug-of-war between daylight saving and standard times has caught the attention of Donald Trump.

Should it be easier to run for office in Utah?

1/23/2025

When I started interviewing state Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, this week about his bill that would drastically lower the number of signatures a candidate would need to get on a primary ballot in Utah, I had one thought in mind.
How would Utah handle elections with all those candidates?
One year ago, Utah Republicans faced the names of four candidates on the primary ballot to replace Mitt Romney as the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate. In the race for the third congressional district, party voters faced five choices.
With five on the ballot, someone might win with a little more than 20%. Would that be considered legitimate?
If his bill passes, I asked him, shouldn’t the state adopt a runoff or ranked-choice system for declaring a winner if no one gets a decent percentage of votes (whatever that is)?
But he stopped me cold.

Should NYC variable tolls come to Utah highways?

1/16/2025

New York City’s new congestion tolling system for vehicles traveling south of Manhattan’s 60st Street will be a test of a long-heralded conservative approach to traffic jams, but only if it’s allowed to play out.
Ironically, many conservatives hate it. Chief among its detractors is President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he would find a way to end it once in office. But polls show the public doesn’t like the idea of tolls, period.
If allowed to take hold and evolve, however, it might even find its way to the Wasatch Front, where a form of it already exists.

Do celebrity fire victims deserve our sympathy?

1/16/2025

A hatmaker in Southern California lost his store and some irreplaceable century old tools in the fires that have raged the past several days. I know because, as a hat lover, I followed his work closely.
The outpouring on social media and on sites dedicated to hat lovers has been universally sympathetic. “What can we do to help?” seems to be the most persistent sentiment in a wave of well wishes.
Contrast this to the way many have reacted to the losses experienced by celebrities and other California residents who are known to be wealthy.

How easy should it be to get on a primary ballot?

1/16/2025

When I started interviewing state Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, this week about his bill that would drastically lower the number of signatures a candidate would need to get on a primary ballot in Utah, I had one thought in mind.
How would Utah handle elections with all those candidates?
One year ago, Utah Republicans faced the names of four candidates on the primary ballot to replace Mitt Romney as the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate. In the race for the third congressional district, party voters faced five choices.
With five on the ballot, someone might win with a little more than 20%. Would that be considered legitimate?

Why do we keep electing senior citizens?

1/6/2025

You don’t have to look far to find essays on the importance of societies learning to value older people.
In one example from a few years ago, contributor Percil Stanford wrote for Forbes that the title “older person” “should be a symbol of strength and a repository of treasured experiences and wisdom.
“We can ill afford to not avail ourselves of all that everyone has to offer throughout their life span,” he said.
Well … I think the United States can check this one off its list. We honor our elders so much we keep electing them as our most important and powerful leaders. Voters just replaced the oldest president in history with someone who is 78. At the same time, they elected the third oldest Congress on record.
It’s unclear whether this is a good idea.

Will Musk's efforts be political theater, or serious work?

1/6/2025

Will Elon Musk’s appointment to head a new Department of Government Efficiency (along with Vivek Ramaswamy) become political theater or a serious effort to stop a runaway debt train?
If it’s theater, the nation will remain on course to implode economically within 20 years or so. That’s when, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania, “no amount of future tax increases or spending cuts could avoid the government defaulting on its debt whether explicitly or implicitly.”

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