Pagnucco running to return legislature to public service

Incumbent District Five State Representative Curt Webb will face challenger Chuck Bateman in the June 22 Republican Primary election. The winner of that contest then faces Democrat Paige Pagnucco, an avalanche consultant and mother of three. On KVNU’s Crosstalk show Monday, Pagnucco said she’s running because, in her opinion, the Legislature needs to get back to public service, and not self-service. During the last session, she says 481 bills were passed.”It goes back to how many of those bills that were passed, that were message bills, could we have taken that time and done something more productive,” Pagnucco asked, “putting that time into developing these energy programs or instead of fighting the public land issue, the federal land versus state’s rights land issue, couldn’t we have taken that time and resolved it so that it works to everyone’s benefit?”She says more attention and money needs to be paid to renewable energy projects.With the price of gasoline on the rise, a Utah lawmaker is discussing the possibility of decreasing the state gasoline tax. Republican Senator Stuart Adams of Layton has suggested cutting the 24.5 cents per gallon pump tax by 10 cents and making up for it elsewhere, such as a five cent-per-gallon tax on Utah refineries.Pagnucco says she would oppose a reduction in gasoline tax. “People are complaining now that our gas prices are the highest in the country, and that’s fine,” she says. “I just filled up my car yesterday and was very astonished at how expensive it was. But again, I think people aren’t going to change their behavior unless they’re hit in the pocket book.” Pagnucco says she favors supporting alternative modes of transportation.”I know, myself, I’m going to be getting out on my bike a whole lot more often to avoid paying those bills. I’m all for mass transit. I’m all for using the wonderful bus system we have in Logan, anything that will reduce our use of cars.”The June 22nd Republican Primary election will determine whether Pagnucco runs against incumbent Curt Webb or his challenger Chuck Bateman.

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