Thomas Wright for Governor, town hall at the park.

facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedin

While doing research on governors I was not able to find town hall links to listen to this person. I finally got to hear him tonight. These are my notes. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker. This is a submission to caucus corner.

– He has new ideas for stability.
– He’s worked in politics on the local level and national level (endorsed trump).
– Mate: speaker of the house. Build a better relationship between leg and governor.
– 1. Don’t want things done by executive order.
– 2. With the county, the last three times tried to get a waver from Washington. The state got denied all three times.
– 3. Reform of education. We are moving in the wrong direction.
– 4. Reform the election system.
– Like how he deals with people.
– His company is real-estate.
– No bid contract is not good.
– Thomas wright: UT has challenges while we build on past successes.
– Born, raised in Utah went to public schools. His wife was a school teacher. School, not just an mgr. the problem it’s a finance problem.
– Ran real-estate during the depression. I understand surviving during a recession. The government does not create an economy it needs to deregulate. Other politicians work for their next election. We need new people. I’m tired of the same five people swapping positions.
Q: How will you champion rural Utah such as the inland port?
– In Salt, Lake county is a piece of undeveloped land. We are at the crossroads of I-15 and I-80 as a prime location of transportation. Rail lines are located in central Utah. We ships goods to the world.
– 10 K trucks travel 15: need to get trucks off the road and embrace the inland port and manufacturers co. want to locate in Utah.
– It makes Utah competitive. Once you build the port in Salt Lake then you have hubs around the state.
– We have to truck oil and not pipes because of Utah oil celefies at 100 degrees.

Q: why objects to inland port?
– It borders wetlands. The land is already privately owned. It will be a sprawl of development. Salt Lake zoned it for an inland port 30 yrs. ago.
– The legislator created inland port authority. They went over the heads of Utah City. Salt Lake said we deserve tax revenue.
– The Devil is in the details. Needs to be transparent and who is benefitting.
Q: how address Rural Utah needs?
– An opponent in 6 yrs. never did anything for rural Utah.
– All but 4 counties are still in recession. The government should lead by example. The brutal of natural resources is located in Salt Lake, why?
– When building the prison was supposed to be $550 million. The cost now over 860 million + only 3600 beds, so it already insufficient. Short on beds. Said it was not elsewhere because needed tier 1 hospital. That was one of their requirements.
– Carbon County said we were willing to donate free land. They have the best hospital in the county.
– What they need in different counties have different needs. They are not asking for handouts. They just need support.
– Delta has a collapsing bridge and the government has not helped them.

Q: Fix the election process
– We are behind transparency. Candidates have to show their donor list.
– The signature route to get on the ballet is ineffective.
– The voting staff looks at signatures to see if it matches the signature on the voting registration.
– The judicial branch changed a law to benefit one of the candidates.
– Box of signatures was found under the desk, by accident.
– Some Democrats are Turing their registration to republican to vote to their benefit and then turn back the Democratic Party after they vote.
– Sb54 need to be removed
Q: why run: did not see anyone in the race I could support.
– He believes Utah can make a wise decision to try something new, the pathway to victory: 600K of 3 million can vote. Maybe 50%. I only need 100K votes. We can’t rely upon polls.
– There is a Baton switch between those who have been in politics. Don’t for the herd mentality. Remember the night before the trump election. Press said Hillary would win.

Q: how do you appeal to millennials?
– He fought against tuition increases. Just before the pandemic, all but two board of regents vote for a tuition increase.
Education stance?
1. The issue we have had a teacher shortage. Because teachers are not paying enough or it a lousy job. Speaker Hughes and cox were behind implementing common core, no child’s behalf, etc.
– Obama gave a speech of the government of education from children to advanced education. The curriculum is being based on standards. (Created by Obama) 2. The assessment is testing students and teachers too much. Schools are moving from fact testing to attitude testing as dictated by common core. So we really want to test a student seven times a yr. The tests drive the curriculum. We need to pay more attention to education. Parents and teachers define the standards in education.
– Kato institute reports 8% of education income comes from the Federal government. The Federal government control 40% of paperwork. If we want local control we need to get rid of 8% funding from federal.

Q: How can governor be effective?
– It’s a mindset. Others say this is the way we’ve run things. As a board of regents, we would approve 100 mills. a yr.
– He asked fora study of college building use and state auditor doogle put the results on his website?
– Buildings are used 30% of the time mostly in the mornings.
– He asked, why not use buildings more? Teachers vote when to teach. Professors vote for the morning. In weber state 9 am parking was full 1:30 parking was empty.
– Have market-based classes. Pay more for morning classes.
– Maybe offer incentives for professors to teach in the afternoon.

Q: mail-in ballet?
– Utah works well. Match signature of the voter card when they sign up that it matches the signature on the ballet.
– Don’t like ballet voting harvesting.
Q: Feelings of maintaining Utah citizen privacy?
– No tracking of who enters the state etc.
– The star now existing on driver’s licenses was a federal requirement.

Q: What are your feelings about federal lands in Utah?
– We need our lands back but we need to begin first on public lands within city and town limits.

About Melva Gifford

Melva is an author and storyteller.
This entry was posted in The Things I've Recently Learned. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.