Prison sale bonanza | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Re "Utah State Prison bill jumps ahead amid questions of conflict" (Tribune, March 1):

Who's kidding who? The ultra-fast-tracked prison relocation bill, SB72S2, is nothing more than an old-fashioned 690-acre land grab being guided by past and present Utah legislators, certain of whom are real estate developers. And all being done under the watchful eye of former developer Gov. Gary Herbert. Whew! What an odor.

Making things even more smelly is the makeup of the proposed Prison Land Management Authority. Aside from being favorably stacked with real estate types, it does not appear that the interests of Utah taxpayers will be singularly represented. No surprise there.

My prediction: After "reviewing" the skewed and inflated projections of benefits and the equally skewed but understated estimates of cost to the taxpayers, the prison will have a new home and our pious leaders' unfettered romp through the public treasury will end in millions added to developers' fortunes; the average Utah schmo will be stuck with the bill, again.

How dumb do they think we are? Worse, how dumb can we be?

Richard Ewing Davis

Stansbury Park