On this week’s episode of “Trib Talk,” Tribune reporter Benjamin Wood chats with Austin Cox, campaign manager for Our Schools Now, about November’s non-binding public vote on a 10-cent gas tax increase to support Utah’s public education system.
Benjamin Wood: Last summer, a group of Utah business and education community leaders formally launched the Our Schools Now initiative, a campaign to enact $700 million in tax increases for education through a public vote.
Over the last year, things have changed. Negotiations with lawmakers led to a compromise in which Our Schools Now agreed to halt its initiative in exchange for property tax changes that will net some $200 million for public education, and a non-binding ballot question in November asking Utahns to support a future 10-cent gas-tax increase that will indirectly support schools.