Paul Mero

A couple of years ago, the State Legislature removed the state-portion of the sales tax on most food items. Effectively, that meant instead of paying a full 4.75 percent on tax at the grocery store, we would spend only 1.75 percent on taxes.

Sutherland was a big supporter of the repeal when it passed during the 2006 legislative session. In the summer of 2005, in an Interim Committee meeting, we testified that,

The sales tax is the best tax, if there is such a thing. It is fair – it taxes consumption. It is simple – a uniform statewide sales tax is easy to understand and apply. Wealthier people will pay more, poorer people will pay less. It captures more of the dollars of out-of-state consumers…For these reasons, the sales tax ought to be used more aggressively in tax policy. read more

Basketball season starts today for our youngest son. I’ve spent the past 15 years teaching, coaching, and encouraging my four sons in hundreds of games. I’ve screamed and yelled and complained in nearly every game. I’ve been thrown out of dozens of them. I’ve been angry. Real angry. I have used foul language in front of grandmas and little children. Curiously, I’ve never been in a fist fight at a game. I’ve come close, but no punches thrown.

After each game, after I cool down, I hit my knees and pray to God that I can be forgiven for being such a jerk. Now, I’m pretty sure that real forgiveness is predicated on real repentance and it’s hard to say that I’ve really repented when I’m such a serial offender. One day, I tell myself, I’ll get over it. After all, it’s just a game. read more

As fate would have it, today’s Mero Moment falls right in between the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Veterans Day.

Over the weekend I took my dad to an inspiring Veterans Day celebration. It was a musical mixed with old film footage from World War II. As I sat there with dad it dawned on me that, when I turned 19 years old, I was in Nashville, Tennessee on my way to school in Dallas, Texas. My dad turned 19 at Iwo Jima.

At 19 years old, dad had already been overseas for a year. He celebrated his 18th birthday in San Diego at boot camp. He went from there to the Philippines where, after several months, he contracted malaria and was sent to Honolulu to recover. When he felt better he was back with his naval group in the deep Pacific. He rejoined his group at night and didn’t know where he was. At morning, with the break of dawn, he found himself at Iwo Jima. Eight hundred ships and boats were poised for attack. Dad drove an LCM – those landing crafts that you see in newsreels where the gate comes down and the Marines hop off for battle. read more

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

This week I want to talk about bullies. Evidently, bullies are becoming a big problem. There’s now talk of school board rules and legislation that would prohibit bullying.

Most people who know me even casually probably know that I hate bullies. I don’t know what it is, but if I have a hot button, that’s it. And, for me anyway, bullying takes many forms.

Sally and I were out to dinner the other night with some friends and we were seated near the door so we could see most of the people waiting to be seated. There was this one group of people – maybe three families, all looked related somehow – and they had little toddlers who couldn’t sit still. read more

This week I want to discuss the uncomfortable, but seemingly growing, problem of adults in positions of trust who abuse that trust in their relationships with children. Evermore stories are appearing about public school teachers, many women, who enter into intimate relationships with their students. The latest story from Davis County involved a young boy who was actually involved with two public school teachers.

Is there a growing problem here? Are public school teachers increasingly twisted in their desire to prey upon their students? read more

I am so tired of hearing liberals talk about health care as if it’s some alien life form. Health care is pretty simple: take care of yourself, don’t do anything too reckless, don’t over-indulge yourself (and don’t indulge at all in some things), exercise, eat right, get enough sleep, get married, have kids, and stay married. Do all of those things and you’re going to stay pretty healthy.

Notice that good health has very little to do with health insurance. It has nearly everything to do with living right. read more

The Canadian Hockey League is, arguably, the best junior hockey league in the world. Many of its stars go on to become professional hockey players. But what makes them so successful? As author Malcolm Gladwell writes, “You can’t buy your way into [the league.] It doesn’t matter who your father or mother is…nor does it matter if you live in the most remote corner of the most northerly province of Canada. If you have the ability, the vast network of hockey scouts and talent spotters will find you, and if you’re willing to work to develop that ability, the system will reward you.” read more