SALT LAKE CITY – Gary Herbert, the Republican governor of Utah, signed the first legislative document declaring pornography a “public health crisis.” His April 2016 action started a nationwide trend among conservative lawmakers.
Now Herbert plans to put taxpayers’ money where his mouth is: behind a non-profit organization that seeks to stamp out the scourge.
Buried on page 92 of Herbert’s $16 billion proposed annual budget is a $50,000 grant to the Utah Coalition Against Pornography. The Mormon Church-backed group hosts conferences and seminars about preventing minors’ access to porn and serves as a resource for those hoping to overcome “porn addiction.”
Pamela Atkinson, who chairs the UCAP board and is a close advisor to Herbert about poverty issues, told The Salt Lake Tribune the funds would be used to host seminars in schools and expand the organization’s educational outreach.
“The bottom line is that the incidence of pornography is growing despite all the efforts of so many people in the world and around the country,” she said.
Utah has spent no public money on official porn-related action since the state defunded its controversial “porn czar” office in 2003. Attorney Paula Houston held the post from the time then-governor Mike Leavitt, a Republican, established the role in 2001 until the office closed. She operated with an annual budget of $150,000, including her salary, and prosecuted a total of three cases.
Andrew McCullough, an attorney who chairs the Utah Libertarian Party, said he sees the same sort of boondoggle-in-the-making in Herbert’s budget request.
“It’s a bunch of… I’m trying to think of a word you can print,” he told the Tribune. “In the greater scheme of things, the governor would say, ‘[$50,000 is] not a lot of money,’ but it is a lot of money if you’re throwing it down a rat hole or using it to interfere with my personal freedoms. We all know [the expenditure is] a waste, and they’re not going to accomplish anything. And we all know there’s a real threat there — a threat to personal freedom.”
A February 2016 poll by UtahPolicy.com indicated 73 percent of Utahans agree with the assessment that porn is a public-health crisis. As many as 92 percent of Mormons reported agreeing, as did 72 percent of Catholics and 60 percent of protestants.
Among those who reported no religious affiliation, only 38 percent agreed.
