Two seemingly unrelated articles in today’s (9-14-10) SL Tribune have convinced me that (a) a person should never, under any circumstances, commence to read the paper without first having had coffee and, (b) sometimes you may need a stronger drink than coffee to get past the bullshit!
So here it goes; the dots may be a little hard to follow but please bear with me. Do you remember the $101 million (Utah’s share) in school funding that was authorized by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on August 12th? (dot 1). Now, can you recall the stuffed shirts in Utah’s capitol saying they did not want or need the federal money (dot2), and that Utah immediately joined with 6 other states to sue the federal government to allow us to refuse the money (dot3)? Even though we have a $44 Million shortfall in our education budget?
Ok, start your head scratching. Seem our “States Rights” governor could not wait to apply for the federal money; he filed on September 7th. Utah was one of the first states in the country to do so. (dot4)
That’s right, folks. Utah’s Attorney General filed to sue the US Government to keep us from taking the money (dot3) and the governor applied for the money (dot4). I’m a little confused, how about you? But..hang on..it’s gets more interesting. State Senate President Michael Waddoups, one of the senators that opposed the money and asked AG Shurtluff to file a suit, now says the legislature will be meeting in special session to decide how to spend the money (dot5)! Now, don’t misunderstand me; I am all for taking the money! Seems we have a “shortfall” of $44 million in our “balanced” budget educations funds. So how do you balance a budget when you have a $44 Million shortfall? (dot6) I also realize the State AG does what his boss tells him to do. So, his boss is the governor? Why would the governor sign off on filing this suit if he knew we were going to apply for and accept the money?
Let’s see..first we said we did not want the money, then we applied for it rather quickly; then we joined in a lawsuit (which Utah will lose) to keep the money out, then our Senate President wants a special session to decide how to spend the money. Where is my drink?
Now, to the other “unrelated” article. Seems our state awarded a bid for $1.1 BILLION contract to FOG (Friends of Gary’s) for the rebuild of I-15 in Utah County (dot7). Only problem is, the bids were not fair and not fairly applied for, so one of the other bidders filed suit. Utah, rich and magnanimous state that it is, paid $13 MILLION to settle out of court (dot 8). That’s right, we paid $13 MILLION to avoid the lawsuit; but we are still on the hook for an untold amount for the right to refuse federal aid to schools, which we have already de facto accepted!
I’m confused, I will admit it. We, as a state, are broke, revenues have fallen dramatically due to the recession, and yet we want to (a) refuse money for education and (b) want to spend money we don’t have to lose a lawsuit we should not be in to begin with?
If you can explain this to me, please do so. No amount of coffee can get this one past my mind.
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