Golden rule stressed to lawmakers

The world's major religions all believe in some version of the golden rule — and so should the Utah Legislature, argues a coalition of Utah anti-poverty advocates. The Utah Poverty Partnership announced Saturday that it will ask every legislator and the state's new governor to sign a pledge in support of "do to others as you would have them do to you."

"This should be the golden rule legislative session," said the Rev. Daniel Webster, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, at a New Year's Day press conference at Crossroads Urban Center. "Arguably, Utah is the most Christian state in the nation. We should have bills that reflect Christian values."

Those values include a duty "to ensure our neighbors do not suffer from hunger; have access to safe, decent, accessible and affordable housing; receive basic, quality health, vision, dental and mental health care; and are economically secure. . . ,"according to a statement from the Utah Poverty Partnership. The partnership, launched at a poverty summit last August, is a network of faith and community groups.

It is concerned about past and pending cuts in state and federal anti-poverty programs — "a tsunami of budget cuts heading this way," said Tim Funk, housing project director for the Crossroads Urban Center. The most recent outcome of those cuts was an announcement last week by the Salt Lake Housing Authority that 131 families may be evicted from their subsidized apartments.

Before they vote for cuts in other subsidized programs, Webster said, legislators should remember that every time they take a tax deduction for mortgage interest, they too are the beneficiaries of a subsidy. "There are all sorts of benefits to the rich, to those who live in homes of their own. . . . This gap between the subsidized rich and the unsubsidized poor" needs to be bridged, he added.

Utah has one of the highest rates of hunger and the highest rate of "food insecurity" in the nation, noted Crossroads Urban Center executive director Glenn Bailey. The state's Medicaid program has also cut funding for dental and vision programs, an issue that will be the No. 1 priority in the upcoming legislative session, said Linda Hilton, director of the Coalition of Religious Communities.

She expects, as usual, to be "blindsided" by new bills that will try to cut or eliminate a program some legislators believe is frivolous, just as Meals on Wheels was threatened several years ago, she said.

Nationally, too, the mood is to cut anti-poverty programs, Funk said. "The Bush administration prides itself on making people live closer to the bone," he said, adding that those already living close to the bone will be expected to become "skeletal."

"Faith, family and flag" are values espoused by Bush and others "who wear their faith on their sleeves," he said. But the Utah Poverty Partnership also believes in those values, he said. "We're really concerned about keeping families together."

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