By KEVIN ELZE
Although Rep. Jordan Tanner, R-Provo, has been in the Utah State House of Representatives as Provo’s District 63 representative since 1992, he says he still has some important unfinished business.
Tanner hopes, if re-elected, that over the next two-year term as a representative he can stand for issues that Provoans are concerned with.
An adjunct professor at BYU since 1988, Tanner said, “I have very close ties and am a great fan of BYU. I truly feel that as a person that I can represent their (students) interests.”
One of those interests is the Utah education system. Tanner consistently has helped reduce class sizes and helped to raise money for education.
As well as education, Tanner has worked on other legislation including the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act, which prohibits smoking in restaurants and other public buildings.
Tanner has also tried to raise tobacco taxes. He sponsored a bill last session that passed both the house and the senate, but, because of an amendment put into the bill was vetoed by the governor.
The bill would have generated $4.5 million, which would have been used for programs of cessation for youth and prevention programs and education programs.
“If I am re-elected, I look forward to running a bill in the ’97 legislature which will attempt to raise the cigarette tax by even higher than 4 1/2 cents and to generate funding for some of these critical programs,” Tanner said.
Another thing Tanner is interested in is legislative ethics.
“I think I am virtually the only legislator in the House or the Senate that is willing year after year to be persistent in trying to look at ethics legislation. And that is frankly a lonely crowd,” Tanner said.
According to Tanner, there are some pros and cons for students voting in local government races. Tanner said that while it might sound good in the sense of becoming politically involved and actively understanding the system, voting students can pose some problems.
“There are a large number of voters that have lived here all of their lives. If you get a huge number of students who form a large lobby then, basically, the students can virtually control every election and I don’t know that that is really what we want,” Tanner said.
“We want young people to get involved; I think it would be highly appropriate in working with campaigns and understanding that part of it.”
According to Tanner, if the students plan on being in Provo for a sustained period of time they should vote
