The Democratic Response to the Governor’s State of the State Address
By Senator Pat Jones, D—Holladay
Good Evening. I’m Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones.
First, I would like to thank the Governor for his presentation tonight. We share his concern about the needs to keep our economy strong, invest in public and higher education, and to enhance Utah’s important energy resources.
Legislators receive an abundance of emails and calls begging us to protect services. Programs that help serve the disabled, assist those who otherwise may have no options, allow caregivers much-needed respite care, keep our best and brightest students stay in Utah with scholarships, and provide programs that help our young people learn to read are just a few of the programs that have served us well, but are in jeopardy because of limited funds.
Utah’s Democrats believe in fiscal responsibility. We must first look at every way to improve efficiency in government. These efforts have taken place over the past several years, as budgets have been slashed and department heads asked to judiciously cut personnel and services. We are now at a critical juncture.
Tonight, I’d like to ask YOU, our citizens, some hard questions.
- Are you okay with increasing the class sizes in our schools because we are NOT paying for the 11,000 ADDITIONAL students that are flooding our public schools this year alone?
- How important is it that our schools expose our young people to music, foreign languages, and the arts?
- Is it acceptable for your college student to be blocked out of classes because funding is not there?
- Is it okay that more college-bound students are NOT choosing to become teachers because statewide low pay and increasingly difficult conditions?
- What do you want to do about the growing number of dentists who donate their services to children on Medicaid but who are dropping out of the program because they simply cannot afford to meet the growing demand?
- Half of Utah’s Medicaid recipients are children. Which children do you want to turn away?
- Shall those who devote their lives to serve people with disabilities and earn less than $9 an hour be cut back on hours in order to accommodate budget cuts?
- Would you rather invest in helping the frail elderly remain in their homes by providing such services as in-home care, wheelchair ramps and grab bars, or would you prefer to send them to nursing homes at FIVE TIMES the cost?
- Substance abuse is a growing problem for Utah’s families, would you rather put the sick in jail cells, or put them through the drug court systems that have been proven effective at a fraction of the cost?
Utah has the youngest population in the country. We also have one of the highest elderly populations. Both are valuable assets. Unless we invest in our most important resource – our HUMAN CAPITAL, we are at risk of falling to average, to mediocrity. I know that average is NOT acceptable to our state, our communities, or our kids.
We cannot tax our way out of this problem, nor do we want to. However, raising the tax on tobacco is one responsible way to increase revenues to address the critical needs in Health and Human Services. Other alternatives for new revenues are being floated by organizations such as the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, who as much as anyone, understands the connection between a quality education system and economic viability.
I hope you will consider these hard questions. I would encourage you to contact your state representative and senator to let them know what is important to you. Good night.