Top notch editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, dovetailing nicely with our own WCF take on the Utah legislature's quixotic "Sagebrush Rebellion," which we'd chalked up as mainly more wacky GOP voter pandering during an election year. As to picking a fight with the federal government that Utah taxpayers are bound to lose, the Standard-Examiner agrees with us and says "NO." Here's the lede:
Utah legislators should say no to bills that invite a long, costly fight with the federal government over tens of millions of acres of lands in Utah owned by the federal government.Read the full editorial here:
No mocking, no pot-shots from this editorial board. Our reasons for ditching the effort is pragmatic. It's a battle Utah will lose. The Constitution's Supremacy Clause makes that clear.
We're in complete agreement with everything the Standard says this morning about the legislature's quixotic posturing on this subject except this: The Standard says, "The feds, long ago, made promises to Utah leaders that they have broken, both legally and in spirit, many times."
With respect to the legislature's assertion, or the Standard's assumption, that federal authorities have at any time made "promises" to Utah officials which would realistically operate to negate express disclaimers of the public lands by the state, as set forth in the Utah Constitution and associated "enabling" statutes, we'll note that we've been following these "Sagebrush Rebellion" stories since the 2012 state legislative session convened in early January, and we're aware of no evidence at all, oral or written, aside from a a little wishful thinking on House Rep. Stephen G. Handy's part, that any federal promises were made at all for the re-conveyance of these coveted federal lands to the citizens of the State of Utah.
We'll keep our minds open however, O Gentle Ones, for any new evidence on the topic, for which purpose we now open the floor for discussion.
1 comment:
This is off topic but I read a interesting story in todays Tribune(March 4) It appears that a bill directing the Lieutant Governor to study the feasibility of gathering signatures for initiative drives is headed to the governor. "This bill doesn't say were going to use electronic signatures"...I personally have very serious reservations about the initiative process" said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo. but the bill "gives direction to the lieutenant governor to conduct a study on the state of security and technology when it comes to electronic signatures."Robert Gehrke.
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