In the last couple of years, our state legislature has passed several bills which I believe have been very much opposed by a majority of our citizens, and have caused a much greater distrust than normal of our state politicians. The three bills that stand out the most to me are the failure to fully expand Medicaid, relocating the prison and establishing the Inland Port.
The Medicaid issue is still up in the air, and it is still possible that there will be a fully expanded Medicaid, but in the meantime a lot of people will have gone without insurance coverage for too long.
The prison will end up costing us at least double what it was estimated it would cost, and if completed as planned, it will have 400 fewer beds than the old prison. Even with the revised rules for incarceration, the increased population and density of population in the state will increase the amount of criminals needing to be incarcerated. So it is fairly obvious that there is already a need for more beds in the new prison, and most likely an addition will be made which will add many more millions of tax dollars. But we are too far in the construction process to cancel the new prison project.
The Inland Port hasn’t really started yet, and besides the unfairness to Salt Lake City, people are not excited about what the increased truck, train, and airplane traffic will do to our already overcrowded roads and already exhaust polluted air. But this project could be cancelled. And doing that wouldn’t completely restore lost trust, but it would help. I am surprised that we haven’t heard any such proposals from our legislators.
Fred Ash
Sandy