Blog Archives

How can Utahns be taxed so much and still stress-free?

3/31/2022

Nationally, the trend is clear. States that tend to vote Republican have less of a tax burden than states that vote Democratic.
Except, that is, for a small handful of red states, and Utah is one of them.
Utah, according to a new study, has the 15th highest tax burden in the nation. It’s got the third highest among Republican-leaning states, right behind Iowa (13th) and Kansas (14th).
This is not a top-20 list you want to be a part of.
Now that I have your attention, a bit of perspective is in order.

0 Comments

How not to fight inflation at the gas pump

3/24/2022

0 Comments

What could be worse than the problem of high-priced gasoline?
How about politicians and special-interest groups trying to solve it?
The past few days have been chock full of bad ideas floating around.
Worst among these (and that’s a close call) is a bill sponsored by a trio of House Democrats in Washington that would send every American a monthly check when gas averages more than $4 a gallon during the month.
The Gas Rebate Act of 2022, sponsored by Mike Thompson, D-Calif., John Larson, D-Conn., and Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., would give every adult $100, plus $100 for each dependent, per month.

0 Comments

The House should act now on Daylight Saving Time

3/17/2022

0 Comments

I have quipped from time to time that people get passionate about Daylight Saving Time only four days each year — the two days on which we change our clocks and the day after each of those, when we stagger bleary eyed through the motions. After that, we move on to other things.
Timing, as they say in comedy, cooking, a March Madness pick-and-roll and politics, is everything. And our newly reset clocks are ticking.
So, I say to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with all the feeling I can muster: Don’t let the moment pass.

0 Comments

A gas tax holiday would be a disaster

3/11/2022

0 Comments

The memory may seem dim in light of current events, but next month will mark two years since you could fill up your car in Salina, Utah for $1.15 a gallon.
I didn’t experience that first-hand, but gasbuddy.com told me that was the price at a station just off I-70. In my own neighborhood on that same day, April 23, 2020, I found regular unleaded for $1.89.
Of course, it didn’t matter much. Like me, you were probably quarantined in your home. Few stores were open. You could drive cheap, but where would you go? At the time, I wrote that it was like having the stomach flu and being told you could eat as much as you wanted.

0 Comments

Misguided protesters made digital licenses less secure

3/9/2022

0 Comments

At one point during a passionate and emotional House committee hearing last month at the Utah Legislature, a woman tried to reassure lawmakers that she and her colleagues in the room were not crazy for opposing a bill concerning digital driver’s licenses.
“We’ve done the research, all right?” she said, as people around her, already admonished against vocal outbursts, nodded or raised their thumbs high in agreement.
Apparently, that research didn’t include actually reading the bill they were opposing

0 Comments

If the pandemic is over, what have we learned?

3/7/2022

0 Comments

A raucous legislative hearing on the final week of the regular session felt like the last-gasp battle in a COVID-19 war that has pitted science against politics and popular, but false, notions about freedom and liberty.
It has, in many ways, been an exhausting two years.
Highway Patrol officers had to drag some people out of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee meeting because they wouldn’t conform to the rules that allow laws to be debated and voted on with civility and order.

0 Comments

How Russia changed and united Europe overnight

3/2/2022

0 Comments

As Bob Dylan said, “The times, they are a-changing.” That is especially true in Scandinavia, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has instilled a new sense of urgency.
Three years ago, I was having dinner with my family outdoors on a part of Sweden’s Stockholm archipelago — a series of islands that stretch east of the capital city into the Baltic Sea.
If beauty were a gold mine, this was the motherload, with forested islands and a golden sun shimmering off blue water. My wife, born in Sweden, has cousins with a summer house that features an elevated view of this scene and trail access to the water. Beyond our field of view, the sea opened up, providing boats easy access to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and, ultimately, St. Petersburg, Russia.

0 Comments

How can Utahns be taxed so much and still stress-free?

How not to fight inflation at the gas pump

The House should act now on Daylight Saving Time

A gas tax holiday would be a disaster

Misguided protesters made digital licenses less secure

If the pandemic is over, what have we learned?

How Russia changed and united Europe overnight

Search this site

Like what you read here?

The author

Archives

Categories

Links