Corrunicorn: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! Peter Corroon's new campaign strategy

Insider Poll: Peter Corroon's ads too negative? YES!!!

Governor Gary Herbert and Salt Lake County Mayor Corroon were in FOX 13's studio for a governor debate. Utahpolicy.com FOX 13 political insiders seem to say negative ads are in the eye of the beholder. About 79 percent of Republicans say the ads from Peter Corroon showing a sale sign in front of the Governor's Mansion are too negative. 78 percent of Democrats say they raise legitimate issues.

Corroon’s Negative Attacks Backfire

Any press is good press, right? Maybe not. This week, Utah Policy released poll results showing that Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Corroon’s well publicized attacks against Republican Governor Gary Herbert may be backfiring. In recent weeks Corroon has fixated on campaign finance reform, continually lashing out at Governor Herbert for accepting large campaign contributions from companies with state contracts and tax incentives. The poll shows that Corroon’s attacks may be causing the public to view him unfavorably.

Utah Policy reported that a poll was conducted of 600 registered Utah voters on favorable and unfavorable views of the candidates. About 39 to 40 percent of the people in the study gave Corroon a favorable view, but about a third of voters gave him an unfavorable view.

Discussion of the issues in a campaign is obviously imperative, but negative campaigning is never pretty and often backfires.

Corroon’s Negative Attacks Backfire

Any press is good press, right? Maybe not. This week, Utah Policy released poll results showing that Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Corroon’s well publicized attacks against Republican Governor Gary Herbert may be backfiring. In recent weeks Corroon has fixated on campaign finance reform, continually lashing out at Governor Herbert for accepting large campaign contributions from companies with state contracts and tax incentives. The poll shows that Corroon’s attacks may be causing the public to view him unfavorably.

Utah Policy reported that a poll was conducted of 600 registered Utah voters on favorable and unfavorable views of the candidates. About 39 to 40 percent of the people in the study gave Corroon a favorable view, but about a third of voters gave him an unfavorable view.

Discussion of the issues in a campaign is obviously imperative, but negative campaigning is never pretty and often backfires.

Corroon accused of breaking campaign finance law in suit

STORY FROM DAILY HERALD

The former chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party has filed suit against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Peter Corroon, accusing him of violating campaign finance laws that he signed as county mayor.
James Evans filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Utah's 3rd District Court. He wants Corroon to be ordered to return more than $300,000 in donations he accepted through his Corroon Leadership political action committee.
Salt Lake County prohibits individual contributions that exceed $2,000. Contractors that do work with the county are prohibited from donating more than $100 to county officials' campaigns.
Among others exceeding those limits, Corroon's PAC accepted $10,000 donations from the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Utah AFL-CIO and AEB Enterprises.
Corroon campaign manager Donald Dunn claims the limits only apply to county races.
"There is absolutely no truth or merit in anything that James Evans has put in this lawsuit, and James Evans is notorious for having his trick-or-treat campaign surprises and being a negative dirty trickster," Dunn said. "It doesn't surprise us that we're seeing his head pop up right before Halloween."
Corroon has made campaign finance reform one of the signature issues in his race against GOP Gov. Gary Herbert. Corroon has proudly touted the county's campaign finance limits and said he would seek to put caps in place on a statewide level if he were elected governor.
Herbert has said he opposes campaign contribution limits.
Evans contends Corroon was effectively using his political action committee as a second mayoral campaign account in 2009, although Corroon had already said he wasn't seeking re-election as mayor.
Corroon didn't formally announce he was running for governor until earlier this year.
"That [PAC] was filed before he ran for governor in 2009," Evans said. "People gave significant amounts of money because he was county mayor, and he benefitted from it because he's county mayor."

Corrunicorn 4: Peter Corroon says his plan sucks, controversy sells

Peter Corroon's Style of Ethics

PETER CORROON'S STYLE OF ETHICS
Written by Utah Blogger Holly On the Hill

What is with these candidates who trumpet their support of ethics and then show their lack of? Last week, Salt Lake County mayor, Peter Corroon said he was going to run a positive campaign for governor. That lasted two days when he then released a 54-page document attacking Gary Herbert. Today, he allowed his press secretary to send around an email to all county employees ragging on the governor.

Jim Braden sent out an email entitled “Special Edition: Who’s In Charge” to all county employees. The politically motivated email links to every negative news article about Governor Gary Herbert – and of course nothing at all unfavorable to Corroon. Hello?!

Corroon is vocal in his support for ethics UEG style, yet he abuses his office as county mayor, says the governor’s mansion is for sale and that contributions of $50,000 should raise red flags, he himself is – wait for it – taking contributions of $50K from a company doing business with the county.

Kem Gardner’s company – Gateway Associates – developed & owns the Gateway as well as residential, commercial and retail in Salt Lake County. Salt Lake County owns property at the gateway including Clark Planetarium. The county pays Gateway Associates, Kern Gardner pays Corroon’s campaign. Nice.

Fox 13: Kearns residents surprised, angered over police fees

KEARNS - A new bill for the increase in police fees is expected to arrive for property owners in unincorporated areas. A crowd of angry residents had the opportunity to ask council members and sheriff questions in the last of three open houses Thursday night. Despite extensive news coverage and packed public comment hearings, many were caught off guard by a flyer in the mail announcing the additional fee.

"I'm fine with paying taxes for it but i'm not fine paying an additional fee and an additional tax that is disproportionate to some citizens of Salt Lake County, relative to others," Gregory Von Ax said.

Salt Lake County lost 30 percent in sales revenue in the recession and a $13 million dollar hole was left even after all the budget cuts. "We've crunched that budget down to the bare bones and now we're at a place where we have to provide law enforcement to our community and we have to pay for it," Jim Bradley from the Salt Lake County Council said.

The police fee bills will arrive March 1. The cities within the county will not get the bill because residents pay the fee with a tax on utilities. The legislature is considering a bill that will allow the county to do the same thing.

Taxpayers threaten lawsuit against Salt Lake County for police fee

The Utah Taxpayers Association is threatening to sue to stop Salt Lake County from collecting a police fee that thousands of homes and businesses in the unincorporated area paid this month for the first time.
“If the only way to get this problem solved turns out to be litigation,” association spokesman Royce Van Tassell said Tuesday, “so be it.”
Talk of a lawsuit emerged this week in a monthly newsletter, in which the business-backed group challenged the county’s new fee as illegal and unfair.
“It appears to me that the taxpayers association is looking for an issue to justify its existence,” said County Councilman Jim Bradley, a member of the county law-enforcement district board that levied the fee. “It they are so disposed [to sue], let them do it.”
With the recession taking a toll on tax revenues, the county decided late last year to charge homes, businesses and even churches and charitable institutions varying fees for law enforcement.
Homeowners would pay an extra $174 a year, while businesses would pay more — depending on the demand their type of operation places on police services.
But the taxpayers association says the county never mentioned the possibility of new fees when it formed the law-enforcement district last year. Neither, the group says, did a resolution that bestowed taxing authority on the district.
The association also alleges the county imposed the fee unfairly, sometimes sending multiple bills to a single property because it served as the registered address for several businesses. (In one case, the county charged businesses that weren’t located in the unincorporated area.)
Bradley countered that the police fee isn’t unprecedented or illegal. Other special districts already impose fees for water, sewer and garbage collection.
As for fairness?
“There are certain individual circumstances that the police district is willing to look at to make sure that everybody is being treated fairly,” said County Mayor Peter Corroon, also a member of the law-enforcement district board. But, overall, the police fee is a “very fair system.”
The taxpayers association still may skip suing. But, if it does, the group vows to push for legislative changes to “eliminate this fee.”

Corrunicorn: Peter Corroon and the Howard Dean Scream

Peter Corroon wants a lot of earmarks for his county government

Corroon tries to have his cake and eat it too

Why did Peter Corroon decline to make declaration to limit campaign contributions?

Peter Corroon is certainly touting a message of campaign finance reform to limit campaign contributions when his Republican opponent is outpacing his fund raising effort, but has Peter Corroon always been for limiting campaign contributions?

The answer is NO.

In his 2001 race for Salt Lake City Council in District #3, Peter Corroon filed a statement with the City Recorder declining to make a declaration to limit campaign contributions and expenditures.



Fast forward to today. Peter Corroon repeatedly has called for campaign finance reform yet he has never held himself to self-limit campaign contributions and expenses. The do-as-I-say, not as-I-do strategy demonstrates the excruciating hypocrisy that has defined Peter Corroon's candidacies.

Corroon proposes Utah clunkers rebate program

Remember the massive failure of a government program that was Cash for Clunkers?

White House blows a gasket on Clunkers critique
The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

Mayor Peter Corroon announced his plan to institute a Utah cash for clunkers program to continue promoting taxpayer unfriendly policies in the state of Utah.

Corroon proposes Utah clunkers rebate program
August 5th, 2010 @ 3:33pm
By Brock Vergakis, AP Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Peter Corroon is proposing a rebate program for those who trade in older cars for lower-emission vehicles as part of his plan to clean up Utah's environment.

Corroon released his environmental plan Thursday, saying Utah Gov. Gary Herbert hasn't done enough to improve the state's frequently dirty air or ward off other environmental threats.

"I just don't think there's a commitment there. I think our current governor sees economic development and preserving our quality of life and the environment differently, where I think you can have both. You don't need to choose one over the other," he said.

Herbert campaign spokesman Don Olsen disputed that assertion, saying Herbert believes protecting the environment and promoting economic development are related.

"We could not agree more with Mr. Corroon that quality of life and economic development are not mutually exclusive. It's part of the governor's plan now, it was part of his predecessor's plan and is going to be part of the governor's plan in the future," Olsen said.

Corroon did not say how large a rebate he is proposing or how he would pay for it. However, his plan does reference a similar program in California that offers $1,000 per vehicle to those failing a smog check when funds are available.

Other parts of environmental proposals were more detailed.

Corroon is calling for raising air quality standards so that cars sold in Utah would be required to be 30 percent more efficient, on average, by 2016. Most of Utah's air quality problems are caused by automobiles. In the winter, it is not uncommon for northern Utah to be home to worst the air quality in the nation.

Corroon's plan also calls for promoting "buy local" programs that would reduce vehicle emissions. He's advocating for free or reduced-fare bus routes to farmers' markets on market days as well as increasing efforts to link residents to local farm products.

Other parts of his plan to improve air quality include ensuring connectivity between new highway and public transit systems, expanding trail systems for walking and bicycling, and converting as many state-owned vehicles as possible to run on compressed natural gas.

Corroon believes Herbert is vulnerable on environmental issues and stepped up his criticism of the first-year governor on Thursday, saying Herbert's environmental record deserves a grade of C or D.

He said Herbert failed to lead when it came to opposing the disposal of depleted uranium in the state's western desert without proper environmental assurances, was too willing to give up valuable water rights to Nevada and was mistaken to veto a bill that would have automatically enrolled power customers in a power-saving program.

Olsen said Corroon failed to mention that Herbert supports the "Cool Keeper" program and encourages its use, but he just opposed requiring customers to sign up for it.

Mayor Corroon: Hurting Utah’s economy by restraining free trade

Hurting Utah’s economy by restraining free trade

Mayor Corroon proposes to create more jobs in Utah by paying more than is necessary. He wants to “require major firms that win state contracts to subcontract a substantial
portion of the work to Utah businesses.” On its face, that sounds like a reasonable requirement. However, as the great French economist Frederic Bastiat noted, what is unseen is usually more important than what is seen. The problem with this proposal is that it guarantees that Utah
taxpayers will pay more than is necessary. If major firms are already subcontracting with Utah firms, this requirement doesn’t matter. Those Utah companies are subcontractors because they offered the best value for the money. So Mayor Corroon’s proposal only matters where a Utah
company doesn’t offer the best value for the money. Mayor Corroon, though, thinks Utah taxpayers should pay more, just because a company is from Utah. Paying one contractor more
means Utah must provide fewer services elsewhere. That isn’t economic development; it’s warmed over protectionism.

Mayor Corroon has some good ideas. Creating a positive climate for private investment is good economic policy, as is the apparent goal of ending RDA abuse. Unfortunately, those
laudable goals are outweighed by the Corroon tax, property tax increases, his support for UTOPIA, and his devotion to protectionism.

Thousands delinquent on police fees

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Thousands not paying bill for Unified Police service (Thank you Salt Lake County Democrats!)

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Is there a revolt brewing in unincorporated Salt Lake County? The County reports 12,900 people have not paid their 2nd bill for the police service. Many of those also did not pay the first bill earlier this year.

The county estimates the total amount delinquent: $1.7 million.

The controversial fee was instituted to cover an estimated $13-million budget shortfall for the new, Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake. Residents pay a flat fee three times a year, but business owners pay a varied rate based on type of business.

The official explanation for the delinquencies from Salt Lake County officials: People just do not understand the new fee. Another possible explanation: The bad economy. Those same officials discount the idea of a protest.

While Howard Stephenson of the Utah Taxpayers Association has not heard of an organized tax protest, he said anger over the fee is understandable. While not opposed to all fees, Stephenson said the association has opposed the police fee from the beginning. "Water and sewer? That's fine. Garbage? That's fine. If I use three dumpsters, then charge me for them. But Police protection? That's a common good that ought to be billed uniformly through the property tax and the sales tax, not through a user fee," said Stephenson.

The Utah Taxpayer Association is asking for donations to fund a legal challenge to the county's police fee. Stephenson said, "We would be alleging that the county does not have the authority to impose -- under the constitution -- this type of user fee."

In the meantime, the county is hoping to reduce the number of delinquencies. While the late fee on payments was waved the first time, it will not be waved this time. Homeowners have until the end of August to pay up before a 10% penalty is imposed.

If that doesn't work, the county could also yank the business licenses of non-paying companies or place a lien on the homes of residents who refuse to pay.

Tom Barberi Rants Against Unified Police Tax.

Barberi Rages In 'A Return To Reason' | Salt TV Network
Click the link to view Barberi's rant.

It looks like the rage towards Salt Lake County for the Unified Police Tax has even frustrated legendary liberal members of our community. The tax that apparently Thousands not paying bill for Unified Police service because of the ridiculous burden it poses.

But of course our dear Salt Lake City Council and Mayor Peter Corroon reject the discourse that this really is a "tax" at all by insisting that it is called a "service fee."

Tom Barberi, thank you for feeling our pain.