Utah Business and Economic Development

"Every poll has said public education is the priority,"

Jerry Fenn, Qwest president for Utah, said the company put customer call centers in Iowa and South Dakota the past two years and could have placed a third anywhere, particularly anywhere in the company’s 14-state local-service area.

The Salt Lake Tribune has filed open-records requests for details about the millions of dollars secretly offered to companies in the past year or so.

"By broadening our scope to become a full technology council, I’m confident we will become an even stronger advocate for creating many new high-paying tech jobs in Utah. We want to broaden the technology umbrella and better serve both of these extremely important technology sectors."

The increase in secrecy comes at a time when Utah is pledging a record level of incentives – as much as $23 million to 14 out-of-state companies in 2005 alone.

"Our high-tech jobs we are dropping. We’re really losing ground," Mansell said. "If we’re to get back in the game of high-tech jobs, we need to do some things that are fairly aggressive."

"Agriculture creates new wealth because farmers are producing something that didn’t exist until they grew or produced it," said Rep. Michael Noel, R-Kanab. "There’s no better way to help rural communities than to buy the goods they’re producing."

The Utah Board of Tourism Development on Friday approved the brand "platform" and gave the go-ahead to its marketing committee to work with Office of Tourism staff and W Communications of Salt Lake City to finalize creative elements and draft the marketing plan.

A month ago, 22 other organizations were given $790,023 for similar promotional efforts. An additional $1 million in cooperative funds will be available sometime next spring for tourism campaigns that have a summer emphasis.

"You can have a nice quality of life for less in Salt Lake City compared to some other locations,"