This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
No matter who had won Tuesday's gubernatorial election, Utah's to-do list would be the same. Having ended up on the Huntsman rather than the Matheson refrigerator door, the list is a suggestion for what the state government's agenda should look like:
That dilemma will be compounded during the next 10 years, when enrollments will grow by 145,000 students. Yet, as the Utah Foundation has pointed out, the state's commitment to education, when measured as a percentage of state and local tax revenues, actually declined during the 1990s.
Neither candidate advocated raising taxes. Huntsman, like a good Republican supply-sider, emphasized growing the economy to create more revenues. Matheson seconded that motion, but he also proposed an Efficiency in Government Commission to identify waste and duplication. He would have plowed the savings back into education.
* Tax Reform: The education funding dilemma is just one prong of the stick that is goading leaders for tax reform. Another is that the state's income tax brackets have not been adjusted in more than three decades. Another point is the reliance on sales tax in an economy that is increasingly service-driven.
These and other issues led Gov. Olene Walker to launch a tax-reform commission, but unfortunately it did not make port before the election. The income-tax reform bill offered by Reps. Pat Jones and Steve Mascaro is another starting point.
* Transportation: The tax-reform effort must include a discussion of how to fund new roads and transit. Utah County has become so desperate that it nearly put a sales tax for roads on yesterday's ballot, and two of the state's metropolitan transportation planning organizations have jointly called for an increase in the gasoline tax.
* Water: The Legislature cannot repeal the drought, so it should instead promote aggressive conservation.
* Growth: Stretching the state's infrastructure and water resources requires smarter planning. Limiting urban sprawl will help to restrain air pollution and promote efficient use of resources.
Those are the real issues, not gay marriage, not the U.N., not abortion. Maybe Jon Huntsman Jr. will need a bigger refrigerator door.