Scott Matheson Jr.'s response to Deseret Morning News questionnaire

— Expand upon existing initiatives to protect the health of Utah's watersheds.

— Implement targeted water quality initiatives such as maintaining the integrity of sensitive riparian and floodplain corridors, promoting water resource education, supporting the "Utah Strategy" for addressing runoff from animal feeding operations, addressing stormwater runoff, enforcing the requirements of the Clean Water Act, and increasing protection for drinking water aquifers.

My water plan, entitled "We Can Do Better: A Pledge to Secure Utah's Water Future," includes a detailed discussion of water conservation. It is available on my Web site at www.mathesonforgovernor.com.

Should the current state sales tax dedicated to water development be removed, as former governors have suggested, and thus local water districts take on more of the development effort?

Currently Utah law provides for 1/16-cent of the sales tax to help fund water and wastewater projects at the local level. This source of funding has been critical to many areas throughout the state. Our water infrastructure needs are so great, including both new projects and repairs, that this allocation should continue. We should further consider whether the cap on this funding source should continue in its present form. In the long term, we need to explore alternative sources of funding, continue to support local water project needs, and work to achieve flexibility in the general fund. We also need to develop a long-term financing strategy, including bonding and federal funding consistent with the statewide water planning process.

To view my water plan, entitled "We Can Do Better: A Pledge to Secure Utah's Water Future," please visit my Web site at www.mathesonforgovernor.com.

13. While former governors have been successful in "trading out" some state lands in wilderness study areas for other federal lands that can be developed, overall the wilderness issue in Utah has been stuck for more than 20 years. What specifically would you do to resolve the ongoing wilderness lands issue in Utah?