Monthly Archives: October 2009

This week I want to talk about Utah’s struggling state budget. Cache Valley’s own State Senator, Lyle Hillyard, is one of the most knowledgeable people about the state budget. He knows it backwards and forwards. He knows it inside and out. When my colleagues at Sutherland want to know how the budget works, they call Senator Hillyard.

My guess is that our current budget crunch isn’t the first time Senator Hillyard has had his mettle tested in about 40 years of service as a state legislator. But I’m sure he’d tell you that no down-turn in the economy is easy on the budget-making process. read more

In 2008, the Utah State Legislature passed SB81 in an attempt to curb the growth of illegal immigration in the state. Many of us who opposed SB 81 warned that there would be many unintended consequences and that we really wouldn’t discover many of these until it became law – which it did last July 1st.

I received a call from a friend last week who helps Hispanics start businesses in Utah. She told me that several of the folks she’s helped recently were being denied a license to pay sales taxes because they were undocumented and did not have a valid Social Security number. In the past, she told me, no one asked for a Social Security number for someone to start a business. She wondered if I’d look into it. read more