News is a mite slow so far this week on the Emerald City home front, so we thought we'd set up an open thread. In that connection we'll reel off a few suggested topics, just to get the ball rolling this morning.
First, the Standard-Examiner reports that the school voucher repeal petition which we discussed in March has been officially certified to be placed on the ballot. Although recent polls suggest most people oppose the voucher law, our enlightened legislature isn't making this ballot measure simple.
During the 2007 legislative session, our legislature actually passed TWO school voucher bills. Unfortunately for the petition proponents, who gathered a total of 124,218 certified signatures, the petition addresses only one of these bills:
The certification puts the voucher law, House Bill 148, on hold until the election, although a second voucher law not targeted by the petition could let the program move forward.We'll certainly be sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to see how it all works out; but in the interim, the Salt Lake Tribune editors propose a very practical solution:
The second piece of legislation, House Bill 174, contained amendments to the original bill and as such should not stand alone, Burningham said.
“When the trunk is uprooted, the branch engrafted then, too, must undoubtedly fail,” he said, quoting an unrelated decision by former Utah Supreme Court Justice Dallin Oaks.
But those who support school vouchers say the second bill contains enough of the language found in the original bill that the second bill can stand on its own — even if the original bill is repealed. That opinion is shared by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
So, what now? Well, here is what I call on Gov. Huntsman and my fellow legislators to do: The governor should call a special session (he likely has to anyway to put the referendum on the ballot for the February Western States Presidential Primary) and put on the call a bill to suspend any taxpayer-funded private-school voucher program, i.e., both HB 148 and HB 174, until after the referendum.Whether Governor Huntman has the political juice to arm-twist our largely neoCON legislature into bundling school vouchers as a general ballot issue is questionable; but we do like the SLTrib's suggested approach.
The bill would instruct the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel to write ballot language for the referendum explaining that the referendum vote is on the broader question of vouchers.
This would make it crystal clear that the referendum is about vouchers in general, a popular up-or-down vote on taxpayer-funded private school vouchers.
If the referendum passed, the issue would be settled and the bill would bar the implementation of HB 148 and HB 174. If the referendum failed, then the game would be on; Utah would have a voucher program. My fellow legislators should support this proposal. This is what was intended in seeking the referendum on HB 148 all along.
Next, foul odors are front page news again in the Top of Utah Section. Emerald City officials are now calling for a few good noses. And in an extreme example of diligently digging out the facts, the author of today's Std-Ex story has spared no research effort in providing us a Nasal Ranger Field Olfactometer link.
And last but not least, we link this very interesting Wall Street Journal story, dealing with luxury golf courses, political cronyism, broken promises and criminal investigations. Whether there are any lessons in this story pertinent to our situation in Emerald City we do not know. This story does however provide food for thought, we think.
That's it for starters.
Let the games begin.
Update 5/1/07 7:45 a.m. MT: Gentle Curmudgeon has just now graciously furnished us tonight's council agenda, which includes the proposed final approval of last week's Mixed Use Ordinance agenda item, on the "common consent" calendar. Perhaps a few of our gentle readers will show up tonight with their steely-eyed stares. Pitchforks and torches are NOT recommended.
Update 5/2/07 5:33 p.m. MT: In response to some discussion in the herein comments section, we provide a link to today's Std-Ex article, which reports, among other things, Boss Godfrey's purported "plan," to pay down 20% of Emerald City's current $100 million direct or contingent debt within nine years.
