nothing new here folks.... taxpayers getting hosed again... Seriously, great column Jay- I would never have known that if I hadn't read it.

In the movie, War Games, the final lesson was that the, (war) game must not be played. In the movie, the survival of the earth depended upon it.

As we enter a recession, and who knows how deep or how long it will be, our survival or prospering as a community may hinge on having most of this $800 million for critical purposes.

This game of splitting Jordan District has gone too far, too. It is imperative to reexamine the faulty ground rules for the election that set this up. The public was not informed of all the consequences and the West side had no election or say in the process.

Also, during the election, the hysteria and innumeacy by the Teacher's Union and the Power Reflex by the Board of Education to grasp at the 1/2% of new money proposed for vouchers, took attention away from this much greater problem.

This would be a good time for the Governor to call a special session.

This would be a good time for Utah reestablish that it is governed by numerate and responsible people.

Thank you Jay for a GREAT column. You have hit the nail right on the head. What we need to do is to do a serious overhaul of our state legislature. The leadership on the Hill, when push comes to shove, does not want anyone to think that THEY raised taxes. All they have done is shift the "blame", or at least attempted to, onto others to try to keep themselves in power. They know it, YOU know, Pignanelli and Webb know it....Now if we can only get the message out to the voters.

Those who continue to rail against the split of Jordan School District have severe financial and historical myopia.

Mr. Evensen talks about how "well-heeled" the new east-side district will be, implying that the west-side district is somehow "poor". Truth is, they will be better off than several other Wasatch Front school districts. The only truly well-heeled district is Park City.

As for the $800M in construction needs for the west-side, the east-side just gave them over $100m in the form of bond repayment obligations while agreeing to pony up for the additional $250m - $400m in costs to upgrade, rennovate and construct east-side schools, costs old Jordan had hoped to defer well into the future.

Equalization is a bad idea, unless it is statewide. What the Legislature did is extremely hurtful to education but would still have been necessary even without the split. To use the split as the whipping by on this issue is disingenuous and only serves to highlight the ignorance of those making the argument.

If it is so good to do state-wide (which it is), why is it bad for Salt Lake County? I think Jay is being hypocritical along with the legislature, who should have used state income tax ongoing surpluses to equalize state-wide.

The Jordan split did not cause this problem. It merely brought the problem that already existed to light. We have not equalized the building side of the budget. If the west side is not given any help, they will still be the same as Alpine District has been for some time, not near enough funding for the schools needed for growth.

Salt Lake and other county districts get revenues from businesses, who make money from west side (and Alpine) citizens. It is only right that they share that with the other areas.

Unfortunately UEA and many Education "leaders" are probably mostly to blame, as they opposed using uniform school fund money to equalize. THEY are the real culprits, even more than the legislature!

I guess the overall theme here is, "equalization is a great idea as long as it doesn't involve me." Salt Lake City demanded equalization until they realized that some of the money would come from them. Salt Lake City has the largest tax-base so I am not sure why they think the equalization money would come from somewhere else. Has anyone ever thought where the Jordan-west side would make up for their shortfall before the school district split? That's right, ALL of it would have come from the Jordan-east side taxpayers. Jordan-east has been carrying the burden for all these years. This is the first year that the burden will be divided throughout all of Salt Lake County and they are screaming like stuck pigs. Just think how the Jordan-east side taxpayers have felt for all these years.

Why aren't impact fees for new construction on the table? Many lovely schools in my eastside SLCO neighborhood (where we weren't allowed to vote on the Jordan split and home values are about at median) are half empty. But we're all supposed to cough up more tax money for fancy new schools on the west side (or Alpine) because people want their brand-new monster houses? These families made the choice to live in new areas, and they should be charged for the impact that their housing decisions have on school districts and other local entities. Of course the Legislature doesn't want this--half of them are in the real estate business--but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it.

Property taxes should pay for local services within certain political or special service district jurisdictions. Local property tax dollars shouldn't be shipped outside of the taxing district for the purpose of equalization...that should come through state income taxes which are earmarked 100% for education.