To the editor:
If constitutional government isn't good enough for the citizens of Salt Lake City, neither is there anything about the office of the mayor of the city that is "good enough" for Deedee Corradini.When people whose lives will be most affected by the development of a speed-skating oval in their neighborhood gathered to discuss the question, they were told to disperse and to submit their objections in writing.
Taking their cue from the mayor's brazen abridgement of freedom of speech and the right of peaceable assembly, the "neighbors" are now exercising their indignation by getting up a petition to recall the mayor; they are circulating the petition for signatures, and they will present it to the city attorney's office.
If Corradini's ears are burning now because of what is being said, she hasn't begun to hear what the people of Salt Lake City think of her tigerish demand for an increase in her salary, from $50,000 to $65,000, with an additional $60,000 for her aides.
Wasn't this the lady who was weeping copiously because her department was insolvent and she could do nothing for the police who earn $16,000?
Taxation is intended to provide for the common defense, the security of personal liberties and the mutual and general welfare of the body politic. The riots in California suggest that the rookie police may be the first to confront invasion and domestic violence.
As for the speed-skating oval, taxes are also burdens imposed by the Legislature upon people or property to raise money for public purposes. For reasons that are well-known to Mayor Corradini, the building of a skating oval is not a public purpose, nor is it in the public's interest.
Money solicited for this purpose is a burden imposed upon a large class of consumers for the benefit of a special class of producers, most of whom are foreign. Can the power of taxation be used for any such purpose under the pretext that it is for the general welfare? Ask the natives of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, what they think of the abandoned remains of the monolithic Olympic village of 1988.
The appropriation for private enterprise of public money obtained by public taxation is robbery, even if it is done under the force of law and is called an "appropriation." The end is not legitimate, and such a "law" is therefore unconstitutional.
M.J. Freebairn
Salt Lake City