The entire response to the SL Trib questions.

 Since the SLTribune refused, and yes I asked, to print all my answers, here is my response to the questions:

From: "Fred Cox" <fred@fredcox4utah.com>
To: "Jordan Miller" <jordanm@sltrib.com>
Cc: "Fred Cox" <fred@fredcox4utah.com>
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2024 2:59:37 PM
Subject: Re: SL Tribune Inquiry

See below:

Fred C Cox for Utah House District 30

Answers are too long, but you asked.

:)

---

From: "Jordan Miller" <jordanm@sltrib.com>
To: "Fred Cox" <fred@fredcox4utah.com>
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2024 4:24:14 PM
Subject: SL Tribune Inquiry

Hello,

I'm Jordan Miller and I'm a reporter with The Salt Lake Tribune. Hope you're doing well! 

I just wanted to reach out as myself and our staff are working on a voter guide for the upcoming elections. We're working to send out questions to candidates to share candidates' answers in an easy-to-digest Q&A format. The questions are attached below, and if needed, answers will be edited for grammar, clarity and length. The deadline for these Q&A answers will be noon on Thursday, May 23. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! 

Q&A:

Utah’s largest electricity provider has canceled plans to replace its coal-fired power plants with nuclear power and has walked back comments about investing in clean energy.

1. Should Utah, while it actively supports housing and business development, also be looking for more sustainable and less fossil fuel and carbon-dependent energy sources? (150 word max)

We need clean energy, clean air, clean water, clean land and energy independence. We also need to encourage energy efficiency and technologies such as ground source heat pumps. We may not agree with each other re: CO2 cap/trade, taxes, or our effects on climate. We do need more renewable energy. We have developed better and cleaner ways of using fossil and carbon-based energy sources. At this stage, we need all of them, but we need long term solutions.

2. Yes or no: Is climate change negatively impacting Utah?

Blame who you want, but Utah has had and continues to have issues with weather. We should be good stewards of the land. Again, we need clean air, water, and land. 

Water
Water scarcity continues to be a challenge for the state. Recent legislation has attempted to conserve water and get more to the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River.

3. Should Utah do more to subsidize homeowners to conserve water? Should laws require large users to pay more for water? What other steps should state government take to deal with water scarcity? (150 words max)

No, Utah should Not do more to subsidize homeowners to conserve water. We have already passed laws that allow water districts to charge more for water at different rates.  Utah should encourage water saving and continue to stop regulations that require wasting water and allowing waterwise landscaping.

The other item is removing a regulation of the state to Retain a certain amount of rainwater during site plan storm water design for projects over an acre. This would cost almost nothing and may reduce the costs of construction. 

The state for at least many areas and for many years has required a certain amount of Detention, to act as a shock absorber to reduce flooding, but it has been recent, the last couple of years, that Retention has been required, even when the infrastructure is available to handle the storm water with reduced speed. This should change. 

4. Yes or no: Do you support building the Lake Powell Pipeline?

If we do have water rights that we as Utah are not getting, yes, but only to a point. We should not be just tossing money at this. The concern is the cost of the project and if the water is really there. The water for Lake Powell seems to be over committed. The proposed designs are expensive. Are we really trying to get the water to Cedar City? 

Abortion
Triggered after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Utah’s current law bans nearly all abortions — except in instances of sexual crimes, when there is a fatal fetal abnormality or when the mother’s life is at risk. For now, that law is currently on hold in the courts and an 18-week ban is active in Utah.

5. More or fewer: Should Utah’s trigger law have more or fewer restrictions?

Abortion should be a legal option when pregnancy results from rape or incest, or a competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or a competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. Doctors should not be worried that the state will go after them when dealing with a couple that wants to conceive through invitro or helping a mother going though miscarriage.  

Education funding
6. For or against: Are you voting for or against the constitutional amendment that removes the requirement that income taxes be used for education and social services?

I am against this change. The Legislature just wants to spend more money with fewer restrictions. Doing this change will have a tendency to cause school districts to raise property taxes to cover the demands. The legislature has on more than one occasion raised property taxes for education and we don't need more of this.

Thank you!

--

Jordan Miller News Reporter

Fred Cox, champion for lowering taxes, needs your support

Fred Cox, champion for lowering taxes, needs your support

I am proud to have led the effort to end a proposed increase in taxes on food and other services. The Utah Legislature passed a massive 177% tax hike on groceries, forcing a typical family of four to pay about $387 more each year for food.

We were able to gather more than 170,000 signatures for the Utah 2019 Tax Referendum, enough to persuade the governor and legislature to repeal the tax.

I am a professional architect and I have also been honored to serve as a state representative for four years, working on behalf of 1/3 of West Valley City citizens. Here are some of the key issues I will fight for to protect you and your family if I am elected again to House District 30: 

•  Put more money in classrooms by reducing the cost of school buildings.
  
• Defend the U.S. Constitution by protecting the rights of Utah and the people from overreaching federal interference.
• Grow the economy by reducing burdensome regulations on businesses

 We can't continue to let the government take over our lives. I am the Utah Republican Convention winner and I am backed by the party. The other candidate in the primary is on the ballot though signature gathering. Please come to one of my Town Hall meetings and help me understand the issues that are important to you.

 Here’s where and you can join me:

 Saturday, May 11, 2024, 1pm to 2:30pm, Hunter Library Meeting Room, 4740 W 4100 S, West Valley City, UT 84120

 Saturday, May 25, 2024, 1pm to 2:30pm, West Valley Library Meeting Room, 2880 W 3650 S, West Valley City, UT 84119

 

Saturday, June 1, 2024, 11am to 12:30pm, Hunter Library Meeting Room, 4740 W 4100 S, West Valley City, UT 84120

 

 Saturday, June 8, 2024, 11am to 12:30pm, West Valley Library Meeting Room, 2880 W 3650 S, West Valley City, UT 84119

 

 

Fred C Cox for House District 30 - Fighting Tax Increases

 

 

At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, I was the original sponsor (1 of 5) for the Utah 2019 Tax referendum. Working with voters throughout the state, both liberal, conservative, and everything in between, and as volunteers, we were able to gather over 170,000 signatures in 29 counties, exceeding the 116,000 required signatures in 15 counties. Because of the success of our team, the Legislature and the Governor repealed 2019 SB 2001, instead of facing the backlash of the voters that fall.

 

Remember we had identified 5 major items in the bill that had people ticked.

Major Problems with 2019 SB 2001:

First, if you raise the cost of vehicle fuel, by increasing the state fuel tax by 35%, a family driving around town has less money to go to the store to buy food. These added fuel costs will drive up the cost of goods at the register as well.

Second, raising the cost of food by raising the sales tax on food by a 177% Utah tax increase, means the family has less money to buy food. The State paying this family back later, doesn’t help. Why should a family making it without the government be pushed into requiring help?

Third, by reducing the amount of money going to public and secondary education by $680 Million, while promising public education will not be hurt, means they are either going to change the Utah Constitution or the legislature is going to make sure our property taxes go up, either directly such as 2015 SB 97 and 2018 HB 293 or indirectly by making the local school boards raise our property tax and those boards getting the blame.

Fourth, the bill sets up changing the funding of roads by removing the constitutional required funding from transportation related taxes, including transportation related sales tax, and replacing it with highway user fees and a road usage charge program.

Fifth, Adding to the increase of services with sales tax, which can drive service type businesses out of the state or at least out of business.

Also Remember we invited the left and right and everyone in between to unite to stop the bill, 2019 SB 2001. There was one initial rule, respect. We need this group to keep pressure on the legislature and governor so they don't create 2019 SB 2001 again, as a whole or in pieces. That is what United us and still does.

If any of these items come back in any form, they will be repealed by the voters. Food Tax, Fuel Tax, Education funding, Transportation funding, Services. No New Taxes. If they think this was just the food tax, they are wrong  

 

 

Fred C. Cox, 2024 Candidate for Utah House District 30

 Fred C. Cox, 2024 Candidate for Utah House District 30

"I believe we must stand up and be heard or watch our constitutionally protected rights disappear. We can't continue to let government take over our lives".

That was the reason I ran for office when my State Representative, Ron Bigelow, stepped down to help the Governor at the end of 2010, and it is still so today.

I had the opportunity to serve in the Utah House of Representatives in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016. During that time, I had a reputation of being willing to speak up and to fight for and vote for what I believed was right, no matter the opposition.

 I also had the reputation of reading though all of the bills I would vote on, and after the 2016 session a comedy song joked that I might have known other legislators' bills better than they did. During my service, I had one of the best floor attendance records of anyone in the House, with the exception of one rare House Judiciary Standing Committee meeting called during floor time where I missed 12 votes in 2015. They were the only ones I missed that year. I wanted to be in the chamber during debates and voting so I could hear both sides of an issue and see if a bill was ready or needed to be amended or voted down. "Motion to Amend" was something I said more than once. I always voted for or against the bill no matter who the sponsor was or what party they belonged to.

Rep. Judy Weeks Rohner has filed to run for State Senate District 12, and so House District 30 is an "open" seat race.

 

I am the Convention nominee with the backing of the party. The other Republican candidate gathered signatures besides running through convention. I did not gather signatures. There is a primary this June. Let me know if you need a yard sign.

 

Please come to one of my Town Hall meetings and help me understand the issues that are important to you.

 

I ask for your vote.

 

Fred C. Cox

fred@fredcox4utah.com

 

https://www.fredcox4utah.com/

Pre-register for and attend your Neighborhood Caucus Meetings March 5, 2024

 It is very important that you attend your neighborhood caucus meetings on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

You will have the ability to elect precinct officers and state and county delegates.

You also will have a chance to vote in the Presidential Preference vote, which will help determine who our national delegates will vote for to select the Republican Party Nominee for President.

 

There will not be a Republican Primary for President this year in Utah. There are 3 candidates still left on your ballot. March 5th is Super Tuesday nationally where many states will be voting.

 

It will save you and everyone time if you pre-register prior to coming to caucus night. Bring the email you receive or print it out prior to coming.

 

If you don't, they will likely ask you to do so when you arrive. Doing it in advance gives you time to fix any issues with your voter registration if you have moved recently.

 

The pre-registration process only takes a few minutes. to Pre-Register for Caucus go to:

https://utgop.org/

and click on the Preregister for Caucus button.

 

I ask that you carefully select County Delegates at your Caucus meeting to represent you. Not only will they help to determine if there is a primary for Utah State House District 30, they will also vote on a county wide council race, district county council races, and a new county surveyor.

 

See more at:

https://slco.org/clerk/elections/current-candidate-list/

https://utgop.org/2024-candidates/

https://slcogop.com/

 

I am the only Republican candidate for State House District 30 that filed "convention only",

and so the Caucus meeting on March 5th at Granger High School and the Convention on April 12th and April 13th, matter to my race.

I ask for your vote.

 

Neighborhood Caucus Meetings for State House District 30

When: Tue, March 5, 6pm – 10pm

Where: Granger High School, 3580 3600 W, West Valley City, UT 84119

Meet and check in at 6pm. The meeting starts at 7pm.

Super Tuesday. Includes Presidential Preference.

 

Fred C. Cox

801-966-2636 home

fred@fredcox4utah.com

 

Vote for Fred C. Cox to represent State House District 30 at the Utah House of Representatives