Utah Issues

Written in November of 2023

Hill AFB

Hill Air Force Base is facing increasing problems with employee retention. While the civilian workforce attempts to remain loyal to their employer, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stem the attrition of local DoD employees. Communicating the need for retention bonus or hiring bonuses for civilian service should be considered. We have critical systems and capabilities being integrated at a pace not seen before. Having the dedicated civilian workforce adequately compensated more comparably to their contractor counterparts is an imperative.

Housing

The housing crisis in Utah will certainly benefit from proposed legislation opening up a low percentage of federal lands (as proposed by Mike Lee). However, I would like to consider some revitalization studies that could be done in areas that could benefit it the most.

We should also consider land trusts where the state of Utah purchases land and leases it to the owner to build a house for 99 years - this brings down the cost of home buying and would certainly benefit first time home buyers.

Federal Government

I am a proponent of a smaller and limited federal government. I have always appreciated Ronald Reagon as he stated, "I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”