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An article by Dorothy Solomon which I read yesterday on marieclaire.com included the following observation concerning the influence of court-appointed UEP special fiduciary Bruce Wisan on the FLDS people living in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah:

 

“For the first time, people who have lived in their great-grandparents [sic] homes are being asked to pay taxes and maintenance fees.”

 

The implication is that the FLDS people have been living for years like squatters and are finally being brought into the twenty-first century and required to face their obligations and pay their property taxes. The ridiculous story of wheelbarrows being pushed door to door in Hildale to gather in the taxes has been reported in some news articles and repeated in Stephen Singular’s book. This account bolsters the image of a poor, naïve people, unused to the complexities of handling finances, making the first tentative efforts to cope with the complexities of modern life.

 

The truth is that the FLDS people have been paying their property taxes in full and on time ever since the UEP was organized in 1942. The only time there was any difficulty making the tax payments was when the Court removed the rightful trustees from their positions and appointed Wisan as special fiduciary.

 

 Hildale Utah BEFORE Wisan's Takeover - Sept. 17, 2004:

Those who think that Wisan’s influence in the Short Creek valley has produced significant improvements in the community should examine the reality of the situation. Since Wisan’s takeover of the trust, the towns of Colorado City and Hildale have entered a period of noticeable decline. Prior to this time, young men were assigned building lots on a monthly basis, and new homes were springing up all over the community. Parks were being developed, farmland was being brought into cultivation, new businesses were flourishing, and yards were being landscaped.

 

                                       Hildale Utah AFTER Wisan's Takeover - Sept. 3, 2008:

 

Since 2005, not a single new home has been started, existing homes and yards have deteriorated, private schools have closed, and major businesses have left the area, most notably Western Precision, Inc., a high-tech machine shop in Hildale, whose $6 million building was seized by Wisan and sold at auction in February of 2007 for $1.65 million to Northwest Land Company. The building currently sits idle without a tenant. When Wisan’s henchman Isaac Wyler informed Jessop Farms that any crops the company raised would be seized by the reorganized trust, the land went unplanted and what used to be flourishing alfalfa fields turned into a dust bowl. Families fear to take even a short vacation lest on their return they find that the Special Fiduciary has seized their home and given it to an ex-FLDS family.

 

  

Only a year after the takeover, the Salt Lake Tribune of March 31, 2006, reported that Judge Lindberg was concerned about the deterioration of the twin towns. “I won’t say they’re dying,” she said, “but they’re in significant disarray.”

 

 Western Precision AFTER Wisan's Takeover - Sept. 3, 2008: 

 

Such is the predictable result where residents no longer feel secure in their homes and businesses, where the lifetime consecrations of faithful FLDS members are auctioned off for a fraction of their value to pay Wisan’s exorbitant management fees and attorney bills, and where the people no longer feel that their efforts of building the community are part of the living of a sacred gospel principle, the United Order.