UTA, Rep Dougall; Bikes vs Segways

The Federal Stimulus money comes with some strings attached.

For UTA, those strings required that some of the money they got be spent on security.

They opted to buy six Segways.

And Rep Dougall (R-Highland) doesn't like it:

"Sounds like they got some fun toys," said state Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland. "Wouldn't bicycles be more effective? If they're talking downtown Salt Lake, bikes would be healthier and more cost-effective."

Not that Dougall would support federal dollars for bikes, which UTA cops already had before the stimulus grant.

Bikes are illogical. Think about it: They either have to stay on their bikes or stop to lock them up.

Reading the article in the Trib, I started out against them (even though they were more effective than bikes), but grew to think it wasn't a bad idea from UTA.

What do you think?

Rep John Dougall calls 62% of Utahns ignorant

Actually, he more or less calls all of us ignorant:

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
-- Thomas Jefferson

There were many valid reason to support and oppose Referendum 1. My question is: Did you read the bill (HB148/HB174)? If the answer is no, then note the quote above. When the decision is placed on your hands, your duty is to be informed. Listening to outrageous commercials (from either side) is insufficient and likely counterproductive. Attending debates and reading the voter pamphlet can be helpful. But if you didn't read the bill (and voted), you shirked your duty.

I read both bills forwards and backwards. OK, so not backwards, but I read the bills several times. All I saw was a program that helped very few Utah families while raising taxes on all Utah taxpayers. I saw taxpayer monies going into the private sector with minimal accountability to the taxpayers. I also so nothing that worked with Article X, Section 9 of the Utah Constitution.

These bills, as with all legislation, are written in legalese. I can fake legalese well enough to understand the bill, but most Utahns can't. It's a simple fact of life. However, the Office of the Lt Governor published a voter information pamphlet. I read the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's statement that in year 13 the savings would be less than the expenditures. That's on page 5.

Let's face it, 300,000 of my fellow Utahns decided for themselves that vouchers were bad.

-Bob