A New Idea for Rewarding Beautification

Check this out, I'm a Scoutmaster and if I tell the Scouts "you agreed to do so many merit badges at camp so go do them," they earn a few merit badges (3 days, 16 merit badges for 10 Scouts). Now at our last camp I held up a polished, carved staff and declared "whoever earns the most merit badges gets this staff." (4 days, 72 merit badges for 15 Scouts and three of them earned eight each.)

Rewards are better than "you'll do it" any day.

Elect me and I'll do the same for West Valley. We have all these ordinances for beautification; if we want beautification, let's do it right.

I propose for every $1,000 to $5,000 spent improving a home or landscape, you get the West Valley portion of your property tax waived for a year. The dollar amount would be negotiable. We wouldn't be able to waive the Salt Lake County or school district portions, but the WVC portion is $500 give or take.

Think of it, put on a new roof and you have 1 or 2 years without property taxes. A finished basement, remodeled kitchen or a new garage and we're talking $15,000 and a 5 years waiver on your property taxes. This would help you pay the loan on the improvements. The City would be being beautified, our taxes would be lowered and our property values would increase.

The City would be rewarding us for beautification instead of threatening us for not beautifying. My children and Scouts respond better to rewards; come to think of it, so do I. So do we all.

The Time is Right for Jeff White