"The state is expected to have nearly $500 million to spend after balancing the budget, but officials say agencies are lined up around the block hoping to receive that money." I would suggest those agencies get in line behind the taxpayers who would rather hope the Legislature rejects Senator John Valentine's proposal to nearly triple the state sales tax on food. And since he's essentially said the state was "a little short" in that regard, as previously published in this forum, and because he so obviously doesn't know what he's talking about, his own words seem to make a prima facie case against him that he's just another politician who couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it -- unlike the poor and needy who can barely afford food and shelter as it is, whose lives DO depend on it. But let's try to guess which ones those benevolent legislators will favor, the poor and needy, or all those greedy bureaucratic agencies who "are lined up around the block hoping to receive that money," especially where the proposed sales tax on food would only further inflate the current budget surplus that Senator Valentine seems completely unable to comprehend, hence his meaningless rhetoric that "it would even help the poor." But considering the so-called "State of Utah" is merely an alter ego of the LDS Church, I strongly suspect they've all been going to church too long to compare clothing once a week rather than heeding the counsel of the Christ they so piously pretend to follow (Morm. 8:37). If that were not so, then what reason, except for their own "wickedness," would Christ have to "groa[n] within" after they read about the "fullness" of his gospel contained in their own scriptures? (3 Ne. 17:14) But since the Legislature has "plenty to do" this session, I doubt they'll have much time, or care, to consider the plight of "...the least of these my brethren...." (Matt. 25:40) Heaven forbid they should further blur the separation of church and state here in Zion.