By Wyatt Boyle | KOAL News
Joining the KOAL newsroom, Carbon County Commissioner Jared Haddock spoke on a variety of topics and affairs, including the Heart and Character award.
Commissioner Haddock first touched on the new Heart and Character award.
“You know, typically rewards are based on how great you perform in sports or something like that, and what that often leads to is a great sense of insecurity,” said Haddock. “Because not everybody can be a winner, and we want to highlight a more honest approach, which is love-based. And, you know, based on the heart and character of a person that everybody could qualify for, and recognize the kind of more human aspect of life,”
As the conversation progressed, Haddock spoke on the Rural County grant. The goal of the grant is to help create jobs, expand small businesses in the local area and increase the tax base.
“Very few of our local businesses would get it,” Haddock said. “It would always go to a lot of the big businesses up north, and so rural Utah was left out. The commission and our economic development director went to the state and requested that money be given to us for us to distribute. And that has made all the difference in the world. So we know that all $200,000 that was given this year goes directly to our local businesses.”
As the conversation progressed, the Rural Utah Infrastructure Coalition was discussed. The coalition comprises eight Utah counties, including Carbon. Haddock explained that the coalition’s goals are to increase jobs in the area and help build local infrastructure. Local infrastructure includes developments, roads, energy and telecom projects, among other developments.
“Having that partnership with the other counties, we’re actually able to do so much more than just infrastructure in development in each of our counties.”
Haddock continued, “What very few people understand is that our state and representatives are all based on population. And so some senators can represent just a three-mile radius in Salt Lake County, but out here, they could have to represent several square miles and multiple counties. And so, as if we’re not being able to have enough representation from our local House of Representatives and Senate, then that’s why this coalition is so important, because we represent a large geographical area.”
Haddock added that the coalition helps represent the counties against the State Tax Commission.
After speaking about the coalition, Haddock discussed his work overseeing the Assessors’ Office and the Board of Equalization. When asked if his work has been winding down this time of year, Haddock replied: “It is, and the truth is that we are all really excited when we find an error, because what that means is we can make it right for the resident, and we can make it right for the county. We don’t want anybody to pay anything more than – not even a single penny – more than what they should.”
Haddock expanded on something he enjoys about the work. “[If you had] a death in the family, some unexpected events or a misunderstanding on the reporting, you know and I’m grateful that we’re able to approve those and look into those further to give, you know, give some mercy leniency to those who deserve it.”
Haddock mentioned that one of his goals as commissioner is to lower taxes in the area.
Moving to a slightly more lighthearted topic, Haddock spoke about a grad spec event funded to help make graduation night safer for high school seniors.
“We had over 600 students last year, and I actually sit on that volunteer board as well. I get to see firsthand the impact of being able to bring everybody together and to be able to combine all of our money and resources from the donations that we receive from the county, the city, and everywhere else.”
Haddock concluded the interview by saying, “We have a lot of free food and a lot of free entertainment … it shows a kind of healthier and funner way to show [graduation night] entertainment.”