Utah Government Information

	Thursday, May 15, 2003

Utah with 808 Millionaires
The Children's Defense Fund, recently released a series of state comparisons to promote their position that President Bush's tax cuts would hurt children at the expense of huge tax cuts for millionaires. According to their figures Utah has 808 people who filed their taxes with an adjusted gross income of over a million dollars. That's more millionaires than Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.
[Children's Defense Fund]comments or questions [] 9:17:09 AM

Government DayBook 5/15/2003

Sen. Orrin Hatch delivers remarks at today's PRISM Awards, an event by a group promoting accurate depiction of drug, alcohol,, and tobacco use and addiction in film, television and music in Washington.
As mentioned previously, Gov. Mike Leavitt participates in a panel discussion on Homeland Security at the McGraw hill Homeland Security Summit and Exposition in Arlington.
The House Judiciary Committee narrowly approved a bill outlawing internet gambling. Rep. Chris Cannon voted against the bill yet sponsored an approved amendment that eliminated an exemption for states with in-state gambling. Cannon said he sponsored the amendment because of his concern that the bill could make gambling legal in Utah and because he did not want to regulate the credit-card industry.
Funds will be made available from the Department of Agriculture in a program to promote preservation of grasslands to drought affected states, including Utah.

comments or questions [] 9:07:34 AM

Provo Foundry Focus of Federal Probe

McWane Inc. has been in the spotlight recently, the subject of television documentaries and newspaper features, for its remarkable record of workplace safety and environmental pollution. Now the federal Justice Department has opened a probe of the company which has one of its foundries, the Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company, in Provo. A former executive of McWane said that in 1999 and 2000, the Provo foundry was falsifying air emission tests. The New York Times reports today than a former engineer for Pacific States said that the plant had systematically lied about smokestack test results to Utah air quality officials. The company is one of the larger employers in Utah County, with 300 employees. (Utah County Web Site).
An info.utah.gov search of Pacific States shows that the company has received several violation notices from the Division of Air Quality, on 10/15/99, 8/11/00, and 11/14/01. Pacific States was issued a new 5 year operating permit (required by Title V of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments) by DEQ on April 10 of this year. (Title V Permits Issued). Utah compliance inspector Robert Simine told the Times, If a company intentionally wants to falsify records or produce more than they are allowed to produce or burn a lot of hazardous waste, then there is no way we can catch them unless an insider decides to report it.
[Allowables for Companies within the PM10 SIP Domain (Excel spreadsheet)
[New York Times (Registration required)]

comments or questions [] 8:54:05 AM