How Gullible do Utah's Water Salesmen Think Utahns Are?

Even though 21 Utah economists say the proposed $2 billion Lake Powell Pipeline will require draconian increases in water rates and impact fees to Washington County residents to repay the debt, state officials are telling concerned Utahns not to worry their pretty little heads. The thing is, they don’t have a clue how to repay Utah taxpayers for the multi-billion dollar costs of the pipeline.   State officials have spent $28 million on their documents for the project, but have no plan how to repay taxpayers.  What they do have is smoke and mirrors.

State water officials were quick to disparage an exhaustive 42 page economic analysis by economists from 3 Utah universities without ever having seen it. When pressed by the media they claimed they had a “proprietary” plan to repay taxpayers, so we asked to see their repayment plan.  Upon receiving no response after one month, the URC crashed the party at the Board of Water Resources meeting last Thursday and served them with a GRAMA (government records access) request to see their “secret” plan.  Read our GRAMA letter here.

KUTV’s Rod Decker also smelled something funny and was on the scene.  See the full story here:

Turns out we were right, these porkbarrel spending advocates, the Board of Water Resources doesn’t have a plan to repay taxpayers.  See their response to our GRAMA letter here.

Should the state really proceed with spending billions of your money without first seeing if it can be repaid?  Do your legislators want to spend your tax money for this project even though no one knows whether it will ever be repaid?  Find your legislators here.