Envirocare tax initiative shot down

["Charlie Migliore" <cmigliore@envirocareutah.com>]

Tooele Transcript Bulletin Online Edition July 4, 2002



  Anti-Envirocare initiative shot down





by Jacqueline Cheney

Staff Writer



The waste-tax initiative that had gathered more signatures than any other

Utah initiative campaign, failed to meet the state's requirements today and

will not be placed on the General Election ballot in November.



The Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act, a measure that would prevent

Envirocare from bringing higher levels of radioactive waste into the state

and raise taxes on the low-level waste it currently stores, just couldn't

cut it as the State Elections Office finished up the tallying.



Waste-tax backers celebrated in June the collection of 131,547 signatures,

more than enough they thought, to meet the 76,180 registered voter

requirement in 20 out of Utah's 29 counties. However, last-minute efforts by

opponents, including a name-removal campaign, dropped the signature totals

enough to disqualify the initiative.



"We're very pleased that the people who signed the petition, and who had a

second chance to remove their names, did so, and helped us defeat this

initiative," said Hugh Matheson, chairman of Utahns Against Unfair Taxes, a

group opposed to taxing by initiative.



But the initiative's sponsors aren't ready to quit. The backers have called

the disqualification a "temporary setback" and plan to pursue the petition

in 2004, the next election year.



"A concerted intimidation effort has been waged in several small counties,"

said Mickey Gallivan, chairman of the sponsor organization. "As a

consequence, it appears the initiative will not make the ballot this

November ... However, this is a temporary delay. The signatures we have

gathered are good for two election cycles. We will gather enough for the

2004 ballot. It's as good as done, and no radioactive waste industry

bullying will be able to stop it."



One of the efforts to disqualify the initiative was led by Envirocare, the

one company that would be affected if the initiative would have passed.

Employees and volunteers went door to door asking residents if they had been

misled into signing the petition, which they said had been inaccurately

represented as a measure against spent nuclear fuel rods in Skull Valley.

Envirocare also paid for notaries to make the name removal official.



The name removal campaign succeeded in dropping the total signatures

collected to 95,929, which means 35,618 names were removed from the petition

around the state. The final total may have been more than 76,180, but it was

not enough to meet the individual county requirements. Only 14 counties

certified, and Tooele was not one of them.



Joyce Hogan, Envirocare community relations manager in Tooele, said she was

pleased that their hard work paid off.



"We are grateful to everyone who has helped in this enormous task. We not

only succeeded in decertifying Tooele County, but also several other

counties around the state," Hogan said.



Dennis Rockwell, chairman of the Tooele County Commissioners, was also

grateful that the measure, which could have put Envirocare out of business,

causing significant harm to the county's economy, was disqualified.



"If the petition would have been presented honestly, we wouldn't have had to

go through what we did. I hope this opens the eyes of the public. It is

important to read what you're signing," he said.



Another effort, led by Utahns Against Unfair Taxes and state legislators, is

a lawsuit challenging the residency of several petitioners. Matheson said it

is still uncertain if the lawsuit will continue. It may if they can prevent

the initiative from making it to the next election year's ballot.



The initiative, if passed, would have used the taxes for helping the

homeless and improved education, sponsors said. The Utah Education

Association backed the measure for this reason, and leaders were

disappointed with the petition's outcome.



"The UEA is involved in the initiative because it addresses two very

important issues, namely health and safety of children and providing new

sources of funding for our schools. It is unfortunate that the public will

not be able to vote on this issue this November," UEA president Phyllis

Sorensen said. "However, the Legislature now has the opportunity to act to

make sure the radioactive waste industry in Utah is paying a fair tax on the

burden we all share for accepting other states' waste. We have started an

important policy discussion that deserves input from all Utahns in the

months to come."



Still, it's a policy discussion that many Utah teachers feel the UEA shouldn

't have ever started. The Tooele Education Association is currently

circulating a petition among the state's educators, which asks the UEA to

stop spending money on political issues that don't primarily focus on

education.



e-mail: jcheney@tooeletranscript.com



My 2 cents:



We didn't do any "bullying".



We just asked nicely and 95% of the people practically begged us to remove

their signatures once they realized they had been deceived.

Some people had not even signed the petition, including two Envirocare

employees who were selling their house. Apparently the petitioner drove by,

saw the "for sale' sign, found out who owned the house, and forged the sigs.



This initiative was an abuse of the system by a business rival who intended

to put Envirocare out of business.



Charlie Migliore





************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/