I stand firmly against the proposed leeway tax in Grand County. This tax is huge, despite descriptions to the contrary. It is permanent, will get larger, and will never go away. It is totally unfair to the poor, working people, and renters. It certainly is a burden to struggling businesses, large and small alike. The taxation and "large government" haters are right about this issue. This is a threat to us all!

    Moab and Grand County simply can't generate enough money to make up for the shortfall caused by the state and federal greedheads, so why should our local government punish people like you and me, who struggle to pay bills and can't cut expenditures any more? If there were a way to make extremely wealthy people and large corporations pay their fair share to improve society, I would be all for it, but grossly raising property taxes in a poor neighborhood, which is what Grand County is, simply stinks. Making scarce jobs flee even faster hurts more than one's nostrils. This tax is heavily regressive, and not at all like its proponents portray it.

    We have many more problems that need to be paid for first, before solving the shortfall for education. If people want good education for their kids, they shouldn't come to the Utah ghetto. Now, if those well-fed state and federal pork barons care about our beautiful, charming, safe, and quite livable little mini-slum, they can always improve it by paying their fair share.

    Making the already high cost of living here even higher by huge local tax increases will turn Moab into a true slum, and it will no longer be charming, safe, or worth raising a family in, good schools or not.

    It is very sad that education is a luxury. Medical care is also a luxury. Jobs that pay for the gas to get to work are a luxury. Maybe some time we can be responsible and care for our kids better, but now is not that time. Utah usually rates dead last, or close to it, in quality of schools. This is not the fault of Grand County, our schools, or our teachers, and we shouldn't have to fix it ourselves. This problem is forced upon us from higher up. Education stinks in America, and stinks worse in Utah. There is hope, but it can't come from the poor taxpayers here.