Trasparency in Government Finance Passes Senate

The Utah State Senate passed SB038, Transparency in Government Finance, today. The bill now moves on to the House for consideration. Interestingly enough, my senator, Dan Eastman, voted against this bill. I previously sent him an e-mail asking him to support this bill. Is Senator Eastman against transparency in Government Finance or does he have some great insight as to why this bill is a bad idea? I've sent him an e-mail to ask why he voted against it. If he actually does reply to a constituent, I'll post his reply here.

Update: Be sure to read Senator Eastman's comment posted to this blog.

Why should illegal immigrants get a break?

Yesterday the Utah House of Representatives passed HB241 which removes the capability for illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend colleges and universities. I'm very much in favor of this action. I don't care if you are Mexican, Canadian, or some other nationality, if you are not here legally you shouldn't get a break from the government. To me, this isn't about race, it's about breaking the law and being rewarded for it.

My paternal grandfather came to this country legally when he was 12 years old. Nobody gave him a break, nor did he expect anyone to.

Why do I blog?

A conversation with a friend of mine got me thinking about the question of "Why do I blog?" I thought I would post some of my thoughts as to why I write on this blog.

I post information to this blog that I find interesting. I try to write this blog as if I were talking to friends. I know from watching my logs that I don't have a huge following. That's not why I do it. I also want to make note of the fact that I gain nothing monetarily by having this blog. So far I have spent about $25 to run this blog. That is direct money that I have paid out of my pocket.

So why do I do this? I do it mostly to have a record of my thoughts. I kind of think of it as my own on-line journal.

There's still hope

There is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate, SB38, that would require cities to post financial information to their website. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I'm a big proponent of Woods Cross posting the annual budget on the website. This would be a huge benefit for the citizens and would require very little on the part of Woods Cross City. This seems like a no-brainer to me. The bill is titled "Transparency in Government Finance" and it would seem to me that cities that don't post their budget information on their website, don't want that transparency.

Contact your State Senator and urge them to vote for Senate Bill 38.

HB289 won't increase abortions

Utah State Representative Kenneth Sumsion is sponsoring a bill, HB289, (see here) this legislative session that deals with allowing adoptees to be able to legally find their birth parents after the adoptee is 30 years old. There are those who claim this would lead to more abortions. I disagree. Statistics show that access to original birth information does not cause higher abortion rates, nor does it lower adoption rates. The states with access to open adoption records, Alaska and Kansas, have lower abortion rates (14.6/1000; 18.9/1000 respectively for women age 15-44) compared to the national rate of 22.9 (source: Alan Guttmacher Institute). HB289 also includes several safe guards, including, the adoptee must petition a court to begin the process; the court, after making several findings, apoints a confidential intermediary; the adoptee must pay the costs for the intermediary; and the birth parent can say no to the request.

I think it is interesting that in most cases of adoption, people lobby for "do what is best for the child" until the "child" is an adult. Then it quickly turns to "we must protect the privacy of the birth parent."

I believe that those who are against this bill fall into one of the following categories. They are a birth parent who hasn't been honest with their spouse about what happened in the past, they are somebody who has not been involved with a adoption case at all, or they are a adoptive parent that hasn't told their child that they were adopted.

I would ask you to put yourself in the shoes of an adoptee (like me). How many times have you gone to the doctor for some ailment and he asks, "Does (fill in ailment) run in your family?" To which you must respond, "I don't know, I'm adopted." Maybe you take your child to the doctor for some ailment, and they same thing happens. These are situations that adult adoptees deal with on a regular basis. Do you know your full health history? I don't. Do you know what your mother was doing when she went into labor? I don't. Do you know why you like certain foods? I don't. Do you know if twins are in your genes? I don't.

Passing HB289 makes sense.