While waste, fraud, and abuse are common adjectives describing government spending of our hard-earned tax dollars, this does not have to be the case. Fortunately, we have a champion. Our Utah state auditor, Tina Cannon, is an advocate for government transparency, and she has established the website transparent.utah.gov/mida/. The site informs citizens about the formation of MIDAs (Military Installation Development Authority).
A significant hurdle for MIDA opposition is the public’s unfamiliarity with MIDAs. In order for Ms. Cannon to help us, we have to help her. And we can do so by requesting an audit. The official email address for Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon is [email protected] (or [email protected]). In your contact with Auditor Cannon, request that she audit the state’s MIDAs and all of its subsidiary tentacles. A MIDA will finance and oversee the massive Box Elder County data center if it receives approval.
To gain an educated understanding of MIDAs I recommend watching “America’s Biggest Skiing Expansion Is Way Sketchier Than You Thought (youtube.com/watch?v=NGpNQULmssw). Through this documentary, you will become informed about the scheme that was instrumental in the substantial growth of Deer Valley Ski Resort. This documentary is brief but in depth and exceptionally researched and cited, with many credits to the Park Record and KPCW. And this is just one example of a MIDA!
We can apply this situation as a lesson learned on the feasibly of future implementations of MIDAs. Initially, the Air Force had planned to allocate a small 26-acre plot for a hotel intended for military personnel’s recreational opportunities. That small package triggered by a New York developer a land acquisition of 4,000+acres, with the taxpayers of Wasatch County bearing the project’s risk.
I find equally unsavory to MIDAs are public improvement districts. And MIDAs begat PIDs. Both methods are instruments of obfuscation, the antithesis of transparency and the most blatant macroscopic example of corporate welfare.
The elites have access to the public purse, and if the scheme does not go as advertised, we, the deplorables, are left holding the bag. And did I mention that the evil plotting is behind closed doors? MIDAs are agencies gone wild. A rogue bureaucracy devoid of oversight.
How did MIDAs ever get enacted into law? Check out this inconvenient truth: (What would Al Gore do?) The Utah State Constitution, Article VI, Section 28. [Special privileges forbidden]: The Legislature shall not delegate to any special commission, private corporation or association, any power to make, supervise or interfere with any municipal improvement, money, property or effects, whether held in trust or otherwise, to levy taxes, to select a capitol site, or to perform any municipal functions.
Is it not common practice for a bill to be reviewed by an attorney prior to being enacted into law? We might have a constitutional problem here, Houston.
Jerry Heck
Oakley