2013 Utah Legislative Update: Key Things That Did Not Happen in the 2013 Legislative Session

Special congratulations and thanks to the many WCF readers who responded to our opposition rants and contacted their "legislative critters" to urge a thumbs-down on the citizen-unfriendly SB66

In our ever-obessive effort to wrap up our coverage of the now adjourned 2013 Utah General Legislative Session, we'll shine the WCF spotlight on this morning's standard-Examiner story, reporting on a hand-full of bills which didn't survive the legislative gauntlet, and "expired" without bein enacted into law, "Not all the big stories from the 2013 legislative session involving the Top of Utah involved legislation that passed. In many ways the session was also highlighted by what didn’t happen," reports the Standard's Antone Clark in his opening lede:

• Key things that did not happen in the 2013 legislative session

Mr. Clark reels off a list of six failed bills, one of which deserves special  note:

No less dramatic was a confrontation involving members of a coalition that blocked potential development of the West Layton Village via two land referendums last November, and the Utah League of Cities of Towns, of which Layton is a member.
In response to the Layton initiative and referendum issues in Orem and Lindon, UCLT sponsored legislation to tighten up the rules for a referendum. The bill sailed through the Senate. However, in the House, some Davis County residents lobbied against it, suggesting it was retaliation from Layton for having taken on City Hall. The bill made it to the floor of the House late Wednesday night, but was circled, or tabled, and then was never brought up for consideration again. It was one of only five bills left on the House calendar when the gavel came down on the session Thursday night.

Mr. Clark's story of course refers to the much criticized "citizen's referendum reform bill" (SB66), sponsored by Ogden's own District 18 State Senator Stuart Reid (R). As regular readers are no doubt aware, we took special interest in this citizen-unfriendly bill, and posted several articles on the topic.

In that connection, we'll offer our congratulations and thanks to the many WCF readers  which responded to our cranky opposition rants (our web stats software tells the happy tale), and contacted their "legislative critters" to urge a thumbs down on this bill.

"Democracy works when people claim it as their own," as media sage Bill Moyers once remarked, and in this circumstance it appears that it was Utah League of Cities and Towns lapdog Senator Reid who ultimately got "owned" by the steely-eyed Lumpencitizens of the State of Utah.

2013 Legislative Update: Utahns For Ethical Government Needs Your Help Now - Updated

An Urgent Utahns For Ethical Government (UEG) Call to Citizen Action

For the benefit of those Weber County Forum readers who'd like to participate in a little last minute political action as the 2013 Utah legislative regular session draws to a close, we're delighted to incorporate some useful material received yesterday evening from our friends at Utahns For Ethical Government, who've identified some still-pending bills which we'll urge you to either actively support or oppose. In this connection we've taken the liberty of adding  a couple of links to our own WCF article concerning one of these below-mentioned bills, i.e., Senator Stuart Reid's SB 66, which we briefly discussed yesterday.

Roll up your sleeves and gear up for action, O Gentle Ones, inasmuch as the "critters" up on Utah's Capital Hill are sitting on the edges of their seats even now, eagerly awaiting our readers' ever-savvy two cents' worth.

Here's the full  text of the UEG's March 7, 2013 Call to Action, folks, which we now furnish (in slightly edited form) without any further ado:

----o0O0o----

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: 
The Welcome and Unwelcome Bills

The Legislature is in its final 6 days, and a few ethics-related bills deserve your immediate support. Another bill, SB 66, deserves your opposition. Please contact your legislator now; otherwise it will be too late. Each is described below.

Urge Support of House Bill 78 (Republican Kraig Powell's bill) to improve disclosure 

Please ask your House legislator to support HB 78, which reduces the secrecy of legislative bills that are in process of development. HB 78 would require that when a request for legislation is made to the Office of Legislative Research, the legislator's name, the date, and a short title for the bill would be public information even if the content remains protected because it is in process and may change significantly. Such disclosure would provide more openness/transparency to the bill-making process and decrease the odds that citizens will be caught completely off guard by a bill that is introduced without warning in the final days of a legislative session.

Encourage Passage of Senate Bill 86 (Republican John Valentine's Bill for Review of Ethics Complaints) 

 Tell your state senator that you support SB 86, creating an Executive Branch Independent Ethics Commission. It is patterned on the Legislative Branch Independent Ethics Commission, so it is weak and will need amendments in the future, but it's a step in the right direction. It is a reaction to the potential ethical problems that have arisen with both Attorney General Swallow and Lieutenant Governor Bell.

  

Urge Release of House Bills on Campaign Contribution Limits

HB 311, introduced by Brian King (Democrat) and limiting the size of financial contributions to candidates, has been waiting in the House Rules Committee for HB 174, a similar measure by Rep. Kraig Powell (Republican), so that the bills can be merged into a bipartisan bill. Ask the House Rules Committee Chair and members to release these bills now--in time for action before the end of the session.

Ask Your House Member to Oppose SB 66 Tightening Referendum Requirements

SB 66, which tightens county and municipal referendum requirements, deserves your opposition. SB 66 has been passed by the Senate and has been maneuvered to bypass a House Committee hearing altogether, so it will move to the House floor for a vote without the benefit of the Committee debate and public input. We expect the bill to have a 2nd substitute introduced on the House floor that will try to reinstitute some of the worst provisions that were eliminated in the Senate. For instance, the 2nd substitute mandates that the required percentage of signatures be obtained in every geographic precinct (smallest unit of local government).

All versions of the bill make it more difficult for citizens to successfully place a referendum on the ballot to try to overturn a county or local ordinance. The bill requires a fiscal and legal analysis of the anticipated consequences of any referendum, which then can be placed in the voter information pamphlet without any corresponding right of rebuttal from the referendum sponsors. Such a requirement is missing from statewide referendum provisions. Although sponsors can appeal the accuracy of the analysis to the Utah Supreme Court, they must rebut the presumption of accuracy by "clear and convincing evidence"-an extraordinarily high standard for such a lawsuit.

The bill is being supported by the League of Cities and Towns and backed by pro-development groups who do not want to see their favorable land use and zoning changes subjected to challenge by voters.

PLEASE contact your House legislator immediately to convey your opposition to this bill in any of its various forms. All of them undermine the chance that citizens can successfully place a referendum on the ballot in county and municipal elections.

  

If you do not know the name of your own senator and representative, go to the bottom of the Legislature's home page and enter your street address and zip code, and hit Find. Next, you can find the phone numbers, email, and home addresses of your senator and representative by clicking, respectively, on Senate and then Roster and House and then Roster, both on the same home page. 

  

Thank you for being interested in your state government and for considering making your voices heard at this important time.

Kim Burningham, UEG Chair, and Dixie Huefner, UEG Communications Chair

Update 3/8/13 7:49 a.m.:  We've just now received by email, in the form of a 3/7/13 press release, more dire warnings from former Utah Republican National Committeewoman Nancy Lord's Utah lumpencitizen-friendly group, Save GRAMA.org, urging opposition to Senator Reid's Utah referendum-gutting SB 66 (as amended), which document we've now lodged in our WCF Archives:

• SB0066SO1 Is An Affront to the Citizens of Utah

Please read up, folks, and contact your legislators before Utah League of Cities and Towns lapdog Stuart Reid manages to sneak this bill to final passage in the Utah House of Representatives... without even so much as one single word of public comment.

We can' overemphasize the importance of your taking immediate action to Kill this Bill!

2013 Utah Legislative Update: A Few More Selected Items of Pending Legislation

Time is short, so it’s a perfect chance to ram stuff through

As the Utah legislature approaches the final days of the regular 2013 Utah legislative session, we'll follow up our most recent Weber County Forum 2013 legislative-topical postings with a focus on a few more selected items of pending 2013 legislation. As Standard-Examiner columnist Charlie Trentleman wryly remarks in Wasatch Rambler column this morning , "The final days of the session are the best time to see those guys [Utah legislators] in full flower. Time is short, [so] it’s a perfect chance to ram stuff through."

Just to get the ball rolling, we'll note that the Standard carries a short item this morning, reporting that Ogden's City's very own beloved Senator Stuart Reid (R), in a spirit fully consistent with "ramming stuff through at the last minute," summarily canceled yesterday's regularly-calendered committee hearing on his much criticized "citizen's referendum reform bill" (SB66), so particularly irate citizens  there to testify against it would get no chance to do so. Since all committee action ends in a day, the bill will next be discussed on the floor of the house when it comes up for passage. There will therefor be "no public input," one sharp-eyed WCF reader points out in a heads-up email this morning, "thanks to Reid's cancelling the committee hearing on it." Have at it, O Gentle Ones:

• Organizers of Layton referendum shut out in bid to argue against bill

In other Reid-related news of course, this morning's Standard also reports that Senator Reid was not quite so dextrous with his (SB39), a bill which one web commentator labeled "Sex Ed for Parents (For All the Wrong Reasons)"' and was also roundly denounced by the Standard-Examiner.  This bill, which got mercilously clobbered yesterday in the House by a lopsided 16-50 floor vote, also featured a curious floor transaction, the Standard informs its readers, wherein House sponsor, and Utah legislative "class clown"  Rep. Jeremy Peterson, R-Ogden, in an unmatched exhibition of Utah State House dignity, "put an interesting spin on the vote after the tally was announced. Given the microphone for personal privilege, Peterson simply echoed “waa, waa, waa” to amused House members."

Notable too is Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck's HB 91, a bill which would drag Utah's elections (kicking and screaming?) into the 21st century, and into alignment with at least eight other (shall we say more "progressive") states, by "making it possible [for Utah lumpencitizens] to register and vote in Utah on the day of an election," according to this morning's Standard-Examiner:

• Bill would make same-day registration and vote possible

So what about it folks?  Does Rep. Chavez-Houck's HB91 have a snowball's chance in hell of making its way through the legislature and into the Utah lawbooks?

Nope.  We don't think so either. Sadly, in view of  recent disturbing politicl developments, the overall U.S. Republican legislative strategy, (and thus the Utah GOP legislative majority approach, wethinks) appears to revolve around reducing, and not increasing voter registration eligibility pools:

• Legislature briefs: Bill would drop nonvoters from registration rolls

Moreover Ms. Chavez-Houck's legislative resume sports a dreaded "D," which obvious debility, as every Utah political wonk knows, is usually the kiss of death for any creative, intelligent, innovative and even highly "democratic" legislation originating from the "wrong" side of the political aisle. 

Nope, whatever she does, we don't think Rep. Chavez-Houck has even so much as a "snowball's chance" of "ramming" this one through.

That's it for now, O Gentle Readers.  Time again to throw in your own 2¢.