Recently, the Deseret News ran a story (“Is COVID-19 the ‘great accelerator’? Utah set to win big as big cities continue to lose residents,” Nov. 14), which suggests that Utah will continue to gain population as people move here from the large urban areas. This begs the obvious question: Can we handle that much more growth?
My first duty as an elected official is to preserve the quality of life for those citizens who are already here, not those who might move here. I suggest that quality growth, the pursuit of which is a popular “buzzword” among community leaders, is one which does not negatively affect our traffic congestion, jam-packed canyons, air quality and already overcrowded schools.
With this in mind, perhaps the time has come to dial down the tax-funded incentives we offer businesses to move here and concentrate on catching up with our infrastructure needs first.
Richard Snelgrove
Murray