Senator Wayne Harper's Response

 In my last post "Your Public Education money at Work-For Private Business" I ended by stating I had emailed State Senator Wayne Harper a copy of the post, and would post his response. Here, verbatim, is his response; it is posted with his permission: 

Yes Bob, I do read all my emails, not my intern nor a machine.  I appreciate your email and your concerns.  Feelings are intense from all positions on this bill.  The substitute bill that passed the House did make significant improvements, especially in accountability, testing, auditing and qualifications.  Likewise, for anyone whose child receives a scholarship, the local property taxes stay with the local school and school district as does about 20% of the WPU allocation for the student.  The other 80% is portable.  The 2022 bill failed because it had flaws. I continue to listen to each call and read each email to acquire more information and positions.

I thank Senator Harper for responding, and for is permission to post his response. 

My best efforts, and your, notwithstanding, this unacceptable  bill has now passed the Senate and is headed to Governor Cox's desk for signature. 

Please join me in calling/emailing the Governor to oppose this bill, the phone number is 801-538-1000; to send a comment to the Governor, go here: https://cs.utah.gov/s/submit. I could not find a valid publicemail address for Governor Cox. 

Thank you for reading, please comment by clicking the word "comment" in the white box below. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

Your Public Education Money at Work-For Private Education

This blog belongs to me, but I promised myself (and my wife) that I would not stoop to foul language, etc., because my grandchildren might read one or more of these posts.  But right now, I would really like to dispose of that ban. 

But I will not do that. 

It's just that the Utah so-called Legislature has only been in session for 4 whole days and already I am so mad I can not type properly. Might need to check my blood pressure. 

Utah voters, citizens like you and I, rejected school vouchers in 2007 by forcing the issue to a referendum on the ballot. The voucher bill in 2022 failed to pass the state house of representatives as the governor had threatened to veto it. But Big Republican Government and its financial supporters like big business and private schooling wants vouchers, so Candace Pierucci (R-Riverton) is trying again. Oh, wait a minute, this is not a voucher bill; it is a pay raise for teachers! (With a "scholarship" fund for charter, home school, or private education.)  That's right, a pay raise for teachers! The initial proposal is for a $6,000.00 raise for teachers, a raise that is well past due and still not enough, in my humble opinion. BUT, the raise is tied to final approval and signature from the governor to allow an "Utah Fits All Scholarship" payment of $8,000 to parents for use as payment of private school tuition fees, or other uses, such as home schooling.

Eight Thousand Dollars! $8,000.00 per student in scholarship funds from public tax money going to send children to private schools. Should the student need to go back to public school for any reason, the $8,000.00 does not follow the student to the public school, but goes back to the scholarship fund; and, as the student was initially enrolled in private schools, there is no weighted pupil unit for his education at the public school. 

To understand one part of the multitude of mistakes in HB 215, here's a quick brief on the Weighted Pupil Unit in Utah education. WPU is the amount of money each public school is allowed for each student. Currently in our great state, that WPU is $4175.00. That is all the Utah State Tax Money that is provided to public schools by the Utah legislature.

One more time: The State of Utah, a state that prides itself on family values, etc., etc., only provides $4175.00 per year to educate each and every child. BUT state representative Pierucci, a Republican from Herriman, wants the state to send $8,000 of YOUR TAX MONEY to any charter school or private school, or private educational service provider, so little John Smith or Sally Young do not have to go to public schools. 

As of today, Jan 22, 2023, this bill has passed the house and is on its way to the State Senate, where passage is deemed very likely. 

Rep. Pierucci is playing a high stakes game of chicken here, and the teachers and education in Utah will lose no matter what. In 2022, Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated "When teachers are making $60,000 a year to start, I will fully support vouchers. I'm all in on vouchers. But we have a long way to go before we get there." (February 2022 PBS monthly press conference.) Currently, the starting wage for teachers in Utah is $45,000 annually. So, Pierucci is betting the Governor will not veto this bill as it does raise teacher salaries about $6,000 per year. If the bill fails to pass the state senate, or if Governor Cox vetoes the bill, the teacher raise will only be $3,000. Sadly, Governor Cox is not known for his steadfast approach to government, so he might just sign away some of your tax dollars.

Right now, this bill has not been acted upon in the Utah State Senate; so you still have an opportunity to let your state senator know how you feel about this important issue. To locate your senator, go to le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp. 

There are other issues in this bill that are also worth examination, but this is the major battleground. To read about the other impacts, go here: https://myuea.org/wp-content/uploads/HB215-Issue-Brief-FINAL.pdf

Thank you for reading; if this issue is as important to you as I hope it is, please let your state senator know how you feel. 

Your comments are always welcome, please click the word "comments'  in the white box below and write away! 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

A follow up- I received a form e-mail from my State Senator, Wayne Harper, asking what I thought about this issue. I emailed him a copy of this article. I'll let you know if he responds. 

Dark Skies Over Heber

 The bucolic Heber Valley, home to approximately 30,000 residents, has a building code designed to protect it's clear, dark skies; that code is now under attack. While the citizens enjoy some of the best star-gazing views from their own back yards, and three state parks in the region are in the process of being accredited as "Dark Sky Parks," a force greater that the public is unleashing its attack dogs on the famous dark skies. 

No, it's not the deep state, it's not East coast elitist socialists, not some Hollywood moguls, gay liberals, communists, Antifa or anti-gun activists, its not even a big box retail shopping center.  

It is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which doesn't want to be known as Mormon anymore). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is building a Temple in the Heber Valley, and they have asked the county to change the existing codes regarding upward pointing outdoor lighting; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has submitted a proposed new law that will allow the building to be lit with upward pointing bright lights to showcase the Temple and allow it to be seen for miles during the evening and early morning hours. 

This new Temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is being built east of the city boundary on a rise on the horizon, where it can be seen from the entire city and a large part of the Heber Valley. It will become a focal point in the skyline, and using uplights during the evening and early morning will give it great visual prominence in the Heber Valley, which from a business standpoint, is easy to understand. 

All of the other buildings, commercial or private, in the Heber Valley conform to the existing county building code, which is keeping with the rural atmosphere in this mountain valley. The residents seem to like it this way.

Sending the Wasatch County Council a proposed law changing the building codes to benefit The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, while destroying the dark skies of this pastoral community, illuminates the excessive hubris of the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Kind of like "asking" (telling) the media only to refer to them as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in all references in print or video and not to use the easier to type and say nickname "Mormon". 

Thank you for reading! Your comments are always welcome, please click on the word "comments"  in the white box below and write away!

R.M. "Bob" Hartman    

Imports and Exports

The Keystone pipeline transports Canadian synthetic crude "Syncrude" and oil sands products known as "heavy crude" to American refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. Why there, one might ask. Well, in the 1990-2010 time frame, refineries were built to handle the least expensive raw material they could buy, which was heavy crude. Most of these heavy crude refineries were built in the Port Arthur-Houston area of Texas, to make use of the ocean ports, allowing shipments from Venezuela, Russia, and Canada; although Canada was at a cost disadvantage vs Venezuela. Bear in mind the "nationalization" of all oil exploration, production, refinement, and distribution by Venezuela was completed by 1976; it's US and European refineries were, and still are, under the name "Citgo." As Venezuelan production and exportation began to falter in the late 1980s, the refineries were looking for more heavy crude to produce; although it costs more to process, the construction of additional refineries to handle the light sweet crude produced by most American wells was considered prohibitively expensive at the time. Processes were developed that allowed the mixing of the two different crudes at one point in the refining process, which had the desired effect (at least to the oil companies) of increasing the use of both types, reducing overall cost of finished product, and avoiding the construction of new refineries. 

But now the search was on for more heavy crude. The oil sand products became "of interest," and Canada had the most developed and available oil sand products, and a reasonable prices.

Enter the Keystone Pipeline, by TC Energy and the Government of Alberta. Long story (or pipeline) short: it is a 2,972 mile pipeline consisting of 2,147 miles of 30" pipeline buried at least 4' deep, and the remaining 825 miles is 36" pipeline, again buried at least 4' deep. The pipeline construction began in 2008, and delivered its first oil to refineries in Patoka, Illinois in 2010, and to Cushing Oklahoma tank farms in 2011; it reached Port Arthur in 2014, and Houston in 2016. As constructed, it can deliver 590,000 barrels of oil per day to the refineries; as a point of comparison, the United States consumed 18,684,483 barrels of oil per day in 2021. (Incidentally, that is higher than any other nation on Earth. China is second, with 15,442,094.) 

The United States exported 11,324,000 barrels of oil per day in July 2022.

So, what was Keystone XL? Keystone XL was a replacement pipeline proposed by TC Energy and the Government of Alberta. It would have replaced the existing pipeline from Hardesty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska with a 36" pipeline, increasing total capacity to 700,000 barrels per day, a net increase of 110,000 barrels per day. In theory, American Light Sweet Crude from the Bakken formation would have been mixed in at Baker, Montana; however, the technology for this was not fully developed at the time. Due to  Native American activism, politics, and environmental activism, the Keystone XL pipeline was cancelled before construction was begun.

While doing research for this article, I came upon some interesting facts I'd like to share with you. These figures are from 2021, the last full-year figures available. 

Canada is still the United States largest foreign oil supplier, at 3,800,000 barrels per day. (51% of our crude oil imports.) Mexico and Russia tie at 8% each of our imports, Saudi Arabia is 5%, and Columbia is 2% of our total imports. Venezuela did not even make it to 1% in 2021.  It's interesting to me why OPEC, from whom we procure very little oil, has such an overstated effect on American energy prices. 

All data in this article was complied from the U.S. Energy Information Administration articles and bulletins. 

Thanks for reading, as always your comments are welcome! Just click the word "comments" in the white box below. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman