The Gas Wars - all about politics

By Robert Reich

Robert Reich's Blog

readersupportednews.org

21 February 12 - Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas - now averaging $3.56 a gallon, up 30 cents from the start of the year. It's already hit $4 in some places. The last time gas topped $4 was 2008.

And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. Last week House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to take advantage of voters' looming anger over prices at the pump. On Thursday House Republicans passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and force the White House to issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The tumult prompted the Interior Department to announce on Friday expanded oil exploration in the Arctic.

If prices at the pump continue to rise, expect more gas wars.

In fact, oil prices are rising for three reasons - none of which has to do with offshore drilling or the XL pipeline.

The first, on the supply side, is Iran's decision to cut in oil exports to Britain and France in retaliation for sanctions put in place by the EU and United States. Iran's threat to do this has been pushing up crude oil prices for weeks.

The second, on the demand side, is rising hopes for a global economic recovery - which would mean increased oil consumption. The American economy is showing faint signs of a recovery. Europe's debt crisis appears to be easing. Greece's pending bailout deal is calming financial nerves on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Bank of England and European Central Bank are keeping rates low. At the same time, China has decided to boost its money supply to spur growth there.

Neither of these would have much effect were it not for the third reason - overwhelming bets of hedge funds and other money managers that oil prices will rise on the basis of the first two reasons.

Speculators have pushed crude oil to $105.28 per barrel, up 35 percent since September. Brent crude, Europe's benchmark, is now $120.37 a barrel - also worrisome because many East Coast refineries use imported oil.

Funny, I don't hear Republicans rail against speculators. Could that have anything to do with the fact that hedge funds and money managers are bankrolling the GOP as never before?

But that's okay. The gas wars may come to a screeching halt before too long, anyway. So many bets are being placed on rising oil prices that the slightest hint the speculators are wrong - almost any sign of expanding supply or declining demand - will set off a sharp drop in oil prices similar to the record one-day fall on May 5 of last year.

Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," "Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and America's Future." His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.

Talk of ASU campus groundbreaking premature

By Gazette Blog Staff

We continue to urge caution when it comes to a four-year-university, especially Arizona State University, establishing a campus in Payson in the near future.  We too would like to see it happen, but you are not getting the whole story from the local media.

Here is an update that includes some potentially time-consuming required steps in the process that have not been reported:

As has been reported, the Arizona Board of Regents must approve any expansion plans ASU or any state university develops. Before the first shovel is ever turned for a university in Payson, ASU or any state university must first get their plans submitted to the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) for consideration.

Back in November the local media reported the ASU group was attempting to get its proposal on the ABOR agenda for December. It stated the group needed to complete the sale of some community college land with Gila County to secure agenda consideration. This did not happen in the needed time frame.

The Board of Regents just completed another set of meetings and the ASU plan for Payson was again not on the agenda. The next board meeting will not take place until mid-April. 

Before the ASU proposal can be placed on an ABOR agenda, several steps must be completed. The first step is approval by the ASU Faculty Senate. The process also requires approval by the Academic Committee and the Capital Committee. 

Only after all these approvals have been gained may the item may be placed on the Board of Regents agenda. Not only have these steps not been previously reported, but as of the writing of this article there is no confirmation that any of these bodies have considered, much less approved the Payson plan.

It should be pointed out that if a private college were to work out a plan with the Payson group, it would not have to go through the ABOR process and building could begin much sooner.

Freedom of and from religion

By Bill Moyers

BillMoyers.com

readersupportednews.org

17 February 12 - The president did something agile and wise the other day. And something quite important to the health of our politics. He reached up and snuffed out what some folks wanted to make into a cosmic battle between good and evil. No, said the president, we're not going to turn the argument over contraception into Armageddon, this is an honest difference between Americans, and I'll not see it escalated into a holy war. So instead of the government requiring Catholic hospitals and other faith-based institutions to provide employees with health coverage involving contraceptives, the insurance companies will offer that coverage, and offer it free.

The Catholic bishops had cast the president's intended policy as an infringement on their religious freedom; they hold birth control to be a mortal sin, and were incensed that the government might coerce them to treat it otherwise. The president in effect said: No quarrel there; no one's going to force you to violate your doctrine. But Catholics are also Americans, and if an individual Catholic worker wants coverage, she should have access to it - just like any other American citizen. Under the new plan, she will. She can go directly to the insurer, and the religious institution is off the hook.

When the president announced his new plan, the bishops were caught flat-footed. It was so ... so reasonable. In fact, leaders of several large, Catholic organizations have now said yes to the idea. But the bishops have since regrouped, and are now opposing any mandate to provide contraceptives even if their institutions are not required to pay for them. And for their own reasons, Republican leaders in Congress have weighed in on the bishops' side. They're demanding, and will get, a vote in the Senate.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, says:

The fact that the White House thinks this is about contraception is the whole problem. This is about freedom of religion. It's right there in the First Amendment. You can't miss it, right there in the very First Amendment to our Constitution. And the government doesn't get to decide for religious people what their religious beliefs are. They get to decide that.

But here's what Republicans don't get, or won't tell you. And what Obama manifestly does get. First, the war's already lost: 98 percent of Catholic women of child-bearing age have used contraceptives. Second, on many major issues, the bishops are on Obama's side - not least on extending unemployment benefits, which they call "a moral obligation." Truth to tell, on economic issues, the bishops are often to the left of some leading Democrats, even if both sides are loathe to admit it. Furthermore - and shhh, don't repeat this, even if the president already has - the Catholic Church funded Obama's first community organizing, back in Chicago.

Ah, politics.

So the battle over contraception no longer seems apocalyptic. No heavenly hosts pitted against the forces of Satan. It's a political brawl, not a crusade of believers or infidels. The president skillfully negotiated the line between respect for the religious sphere and protection of the spiritual dignity and freedom of individuals. If you had listened carefully to the speech Barack Obama made in 2009 at the University of Notre Dame, you could have seen it coming:

The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm. The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem-cell research may be rooted in an admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships might be relieved. The question then is, "How do we work through these conflicts?

We Americans have wrestled with that question from the beginning. Some of our forebearers feared the church would corrupt the state. Others feared the state would corrupt the church. It's been a real tug-of-war, sometimes quite ugly. Churches and religious zealots did get punitive laws passed against what they said were moral and religious evils: blasphemy, breaking the Sabbath, alcohol, gambling, books, movies, plays ... and yes, contraception. But churches also fought to end slavery, help workers organize and pass progressive laws. Of course, government had its favorites at times; for much of our history, it privileged the Protestant majority. And in my lifetime alone, it's gone back and forth on how to apply the First Amendment to ever- changing circumstances among people so different from each other. The Supreme Court, for example, first denied, then affirmed, the right of the children of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse, on religious grounds, to salute the flag.

So here we are once again, arguing over how to honor religious liberty without it becoming the liberty to impose on others moral beliefs they don't share. Our practical solution is the one Barack Obama embraced the other day: protect freedom of religion - and freedom from religion. Can't get more American than that.

My thanks to Julie Leininger Pycior, professor of history at Manhattan College, for her insights and counsel on this essay.

Veteran journalist Bill Moyers is the host of the upcoming show “Moyers & Company,” premiering January 2012. More at www.billmoyers.com.

Letter criticizes guns in the classroom bill

LETTER

LETTER

LETTER

[Gazette Editor's note: We were copied on the following letter.  While the newspaper that printed the referenced letters was not mentioned, please feel free to venture a guess.]

Recently, your newspaper printed a couple of letters in favor of guns on college campuses.  I don't know what the qualifications or experience the writers have, but I definitely disagree with their ideas. 

I would like to present a possible scenario: 

Mrs. Teacher has just started instructing her college level math class.  As students are taking notes, a loud bang is heard.  Several of her students, charged with testosterone, reach into their pockets for their loaded handguns.  All of a sudden, you have six young adult men and a couple of women looking around and shooting each other.  Mrs. Teacher is a very smart lady and is hiding under her desk.

As the shooting stops and the carnage is evaluated, Joe Student exclaims, "Boy am I glad I brought my gun today. This could've been much worse and I could've been killed.

Imagine the surviving students' amazement as "always late" Johnny walks through the door and says, "Did you hear my car backfire?"

As a retired educator, I would not want to teach in a classroom where weapons are allowed.  I wouldn't want to carry a gun to class due to the danger it would present to my students.  I'm sure there are many others who agree with me.  I wonder if Arizona is going to be able to attract the best teachers and students if guns in the classroom are the norm.

SB1478 is not in the best interests of Arizona's educators or students.  Just ask any campus policeman or teacher.

Brenda Mooney

520 W. Main St.

Payson, AZ 85541

Not just education; AZ sales tax among worst

The Tax Foundation added state sales tax rates to the average of all local sales taxes to get a combined average for the state: Arizona has the second-highest rate, trailing only Tennessee. Click on map to enlarge.  (Map courtesy the Tax Foundation)

By SALVADOR RODRIGUEZ

Cronkite News Service

WASHINGTON – Vans Trading Co. has been around since 1946, but it’s only in the last decade that customers at the Tuba City general store have yelled at the cashiers after they get their receipts.

That’s because Vans is in the town with the highest sales tax in the nation and the town, in turn, is in the state with the second-highest combined sales tax burden in the nation, according to two recent reports.

“After we ring up the total in the product and the tax comes up, they’re not happy with it,” said Vans owner Lucky Mokhcia. “But I tell them I have no control over that.

“They just yell at my cashiers,” he said. “They’re saying it’s too much.”

The Tax Foundation reported this week that the average combined sales tax in Arizona at the start of this year – adding up state, county, city and tribal taxes – was 9.12 percent, second only to Tennessee’s average rate of 9.45 percent.

In Tuba City, a $1 purchase comes with a 13.725-cent sales tax bill: 6.6 percent for the state, 1.125 percent for Coconino County tax and another 6 percent tribal tax levied by the Navajo Nation’s To’Nanees’Dizi local government. Tuba City’s No. 1 ranking was confirmed by both the Tax Foundation and a separate report from Vertex Inc.

Some experts say the high sales tax reflects Arizona’s decision to rely on less on income taxes for state revenues and more heavily on the purchase of goods and some services.

“We’ve always been heavily reliant on sales taxes,” said Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association. “Different states might rely more on other taxes.”

The Tax Foundation report backs that up, saying Arizona relies on sales taxes for almost 36 percent of its revenue and on income taxes for about 13 percent. Nationally, the average is 22.9 percent of state revenue from sales tax and 21.3 percent from income tax.

McCarthy said Arizona has long had high sales taxes. He said polls have shown that property and income taxes tend to be less popular with people than sales taxes, so when Arizona has needed money, that’s where its lawmakers have turned.

“They have a tendency to lean toward the sales tax because they view that to be the least offensive,” McCarthy said. “As a result, that’s where we’ve gone and we continue to go back to the well.”

Sales taxes are also less likely to scare off potential businesses than property and corporate income taxes, said Garrick Taylor, spokesman for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But while Arizona’s sales tax is not necessarily driving away businesses, it could be driving away their customers – or at least driving down sales.

“High sales taxes might make the consumer think twice before making a purchase,” Taylor said.

Stephen Slivinski, senior economist at the Goldwater Institute, said Arizona’s high ranking on its sales-tax burden should serve as a wake-up call for the state to reform its tax system.

“Arizona has a tendency to just look at one tax at a time and make policy on an ad hoc basis, and that’s just not good for anybody,” Slivinski said.

Slivinski pointed to the state’s approval of a temporary 1 percent increase in the sales tax in 2010 to deal with a budget shortfall. He said state lawmakers should use the expiration of the temporary increase early next year as an opportunity to reform the whole tax system, not just one part of it, and streamline the process.

“You can still have a high sales tax and have a good tax system, but it requires looking at all the taxes simultaneously,” Slivinski said. “There’s no need to continually tweak a broken system. It’s going to remain broken despite the tweaks.”

Slivinski noted that some relief is on the way: If the 1 percent sales tax increase lapses next year as scheduled, he said, the state would drop from second-highest combined sales tax burden in the nation to 11th.

McCarthy agreed that making Arizona’s taxes more uniform would help the state, especially since the rise of online shopping has given consumers a way to avoid paying taxes on many of their purchases – something that could be harmful for the state.

Since Arizona has “decided to put the highest reliance on sales taxes,” that could drive people to do more of their shopping online, McCarthy said. “The state of Arizona needs to simplify its sales tax code to put itself in a position to tax online purchases.”

In Tuba City, Mokhcia said he has already seen what high taxes can do to sales.

“They don’t shop here anymore,” said Mokhcia of his customers. He said that many of the town’s people don’t mind driving 80 miles to Flagstaff to avoid high taxes at home.

“This is a low-income community,” he said. “It creates a bad situation.”

Sales tax’s Top 10

Arizona’s average combined sales tax – the state tax plus the average of all local, tribal and special taxes across the state – was second-highest in the nation as of Jan. 1, 2012, according to a Tax Foundation study. Its top 10 states were:

- Tennessee: 9.45 percent

- Arizona: 9.12 percent

- Louisiana: 8.85 percent

- Washington: 8.80 percent

- Oklahoma: 8.66 percent

- Arkansas: 8.58 percent

- New York: 8.48 percent

- Alabama: 8.33 percent

- Kansas: 8.26 percent

- Illinois: 8.20 percent

The Arizona localities with the highest sales tax rates, after all state, local and tribal taxes are rolled together, according to Vertex Inc.:

- Tuba City: 13.725 percent*

- Pisinemo: 12.100 percent

- Sells: 12.100 percent

- Kayenta: 12.100 percent

- Fredonia: 11.725 percent

- Tonalea: 11.725 percent

- Leupp: 11.725 percent

- Kaibito: 11.725 percent

- Cameron: 11.725 percent

- San Luis: 11.700 percent

* Highest in the nation.

Today's Republic a riot of political laughs

As loyal Gazette readers know, from time to time we turn you on to an especially outstanding issue of The Arizona Republic.  We do so to call your attention to stories you are not going to see in the local media, and to remind you that newspapers really can be fair and objective in their coverage.

Anyway, today's (Saturday, Jan. 18) Republic is a hilarious winner.

The lead story on the front page is headlined: "Article's claim: Babeu threatened ex-lover."

You've all heard of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, a rising Republican star who is running for Congress against Rep. Paul Gosar among others.  Babeu first gained prominence as a "border-security hawk" when he appeared in a presidential campaign ad with Sen. John McCain.  

Turns out Sheriff Paul is GAY and, according to the original article which appeared in Phoenix New Times, he threatened to deport his former MEXICAN LOVER "if the man refused to agree to not disclose the relationship."

Don't you love it when politicians get exposed for something they pretend not to be.  It's a must read.

But don't stop there, because Laurie Roberts' column on the front page of Saturday's Valley and State section will give you a genuine belly laugh.  It's about our own Republican Sen. Sylvia Allen's bill - Roberts calls it "the nuttiest one of the year" - to create a state militia and give it five days of training before turning it loose to take on Mexican cartels and (non-existant) terrorists.  Shades of headless bodies in the desert.

You have to read the whole column to fully appreciate it, but here's just a taste.  Describing Allen, Roberts notes that she is "perhaps best known for her keen sense of geologoy, having once pointed out during a legislative hearing that the Earth is 6,000 years old."

If you can read this column and still cast a vote for Allen, you are a head-in-the-Arizona-sand-constituent of the highest order.

Anyway, here's a link that will get you to both stories: news.azcentral.com.  Better yet, pick up your own copy of the Republic in town today.  Best of all, pick up the phone and get yourself a subscription.  The toll-free number is 1-800-332-6733.

You do have options for spending your newspaper dollars. 

PHS culinary kids staging multi-cultural buffet

·      Come and see Payson High School’s culinary students show off their skills at this year’s Chefs Event.

·      Wednesday, February 29, 5:30-8 p.m.

·      Adult tickets are $14, $7 for kids 7 years and under

Mark your calendars and come celebrate with us on ‘Leap Day.”  Take a few minutes out of your day and hit our multi-cultural buffet.

Foods from Italy, Mexico, Thailand, and the America’s South (soul food) will be available for your tasting.  Not to forget all of their delicious desserts.

IF you haven’t had a chance to try authentic Thai food, our students received personal training from Mac and Nan of the Thai restaurant who have been a huge supporter of this year’s Chefs Event.

You can purchase your tickets in advance by calling 472-3075 or tickets will be available at the door.  Come leap across the world and support our PHS culinary students.