Update From Our Good WCF Friends at Utahns for Ethical Government

Get ready in November 2012 to vote in favor of the most significant improvement in Utah ethics/election law EVER!

News is a mite slow again today, so we'll fill up the info gap with an update from our good WCF friends at the completely awesome Utahns for Ethical Government (UEG) website:

• August: End of Summer update

The UEG definitely has the very most top-notch litigation lawyers in Utah, so poor ole Gary Herbert and his crooked neoCON buddy Greg Bell will be definitely screwed, if they continue to try to thwart the "Will of the People."

Get ready in Novenber 2012, people, to vote in favor of the most significant improvement in Utah ethics/election law EVER!

As an added bonus, check out this eye-opening YouTube video:

• Utahns for Ethical Government - The Fight isn't Over

Don't be sleepy schmucks, Utah voters!

Put our sleazy current so-called Utah GOP legislative "leadership's" feet to the fire!

Keep on fighting!

Standard-Examiner Editorial: Allow Online Petition Signatures

It will be a shame if these citizens initiative petition efforts are defeated, by getting too few signatures

Fine editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, urging Lt. Governor Bell to reconsider his office's anti-democratic stance, against allowing electronic signatures for the Utah ethics reform and fair boundaries initiatives.

If however, it's necessary to overturn Bell's legally weak posture in court, Utahns for Ethical Government is fully prepared to do that. Remember, people, the Attorney General's opinion letter upon which Lt. Governor Bell relies does not have the force of law, and that such a letter is in fact by its own nature no more authoritative than any other opinion letter which might be issued by any other licensed Utah lawyer. UEG lawyers are prepared for litigation; and they'll soon be seeking declaratory relief in the courts, if necessary.

Citizens' initiative sponsors are still urging Utah voters to continue to go online to affix their electronic signatures to the petitions, pending a judicial resolution of this matter. In the event that these online petitions are ultimately ruled invalid (a low-probability outcome, in our opinion,) petition sponsors will still have your full contact information available, so they will be able to easily contact you to obtain a hard-copy signature.

As of April 2, UEG spokesman issued a press release stating that UEG anticipated reaching somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of its mandated 95,000 signatures of registered Utah voters by April 4, 2010. So with two days remaining, we'll put on one extra pre-deadline (April 15) push and strongly urge those of you who haven't yet signed the petition to do so now, without any further delay.

Once again, here are the links to the UEG and Fair Boundaries online petitions:

• Fair Boundaries
• Utahns for Ethical Government

You can also click on the graphic above, which will take you directly to the UEG's online petition data entry page.

As the Standard-Examiner editorial board emphasizes:

This is a unique opportunity for Utah residents to send a clear message to lawmakers that we are fed up with long-delayed ethics reforms and are taking matters into our own hands. It will be a shame if that effort is defeated, either by getting too few signatures, or having names gathered electronically struck down by the lieutenant governor.

Need we say more?

Standard-Examiner Guest Editorial: Washington's Advice Should Guide Us

Letting the voters decide... what a novel concept for "we the sheeple" here in Glenbeckistan

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. [Emphasis added].

George Washington
Washington's Farewell Address
1796

This morning we'll highlight a fine Guest Commentary in today's Standard-Examiner, within which frequent SE contributor Rick Jones cleverly incorporates words from Washington's farewell address to argue against the "spirit of party," and in favor of the Fair Boundaries and Utahns for Ethical Government citizen inititive petitions, as desirable reform measures, which would "lessen the ["frightfully despotic"] power of political parties and "factional" partisanship" in our Utah legislature:

• Washington's advice should guide us

For a startlingly recent example of the "continual mischiefs of the spirit of party" which are so painfully evident in our Utah legislature, Weber County Forum readers need only look back to March 4 of this year, when House Representative Gage Froerer candidly informed us that that the beleagured citizens of Powderville could probably get their voting rights back... simply by coughing up a cool twenty-five grand to a "lobbyist" with "influence" amongst the members of the real estate development-partisan State Senate Leadership Faction.

Time's running short folks. These petitions need to be submitted to the Lt. Governor's office by April 15. Once again, here are the online citizen petition links:

• Fair Boundaries
• Utahns for Ethical Government

And for those readers who are still reluctant to sign the petitions, due to the raft armada of confusing misinformation which has been disseminated by the evil (or naively misguided) opponents of real ethics reform in Utah, please consider this:

If these two petitions DO receive the requisite 95,000 ballot-qualifying signatures, these initiatives WILL NOT automatically become law. Rather, they will be merely placed on November General Election ballots, which means that ALL UTAH VOTERS will then be able to decide whether these initiatives are worthy of our vote.

Letting the voters decide... what a novel concept for "we the sheeple" here in Glenbeckistan.

Just sign the petitions, folks. If you later change your minds, you can simply vote against the ballot initiatives in November.

Salt Lake Tribune: Foes Cry Foul On Petition Law Fixes

Sign the petitions, folks! You can tell the anti-ethics goons to "go to hell" later

"Putting an issue on the ballot for public discourse is democracy at its finest," she said. "The effort to scuttle that debate is tantamount to tyranny."

Attorney Lisa Watts Baskin
Salt Lake Tribune
Foes cry foul on petition law fixes
March 18, 2010

Excellent Cathy McKitrick writeup in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune, reporting on the reaction to Sen. Howard Stephenson's SB275, which "removes the [statutory] requirement for a notary to get signatures removed from petitions, and gives opponents an extra inning to play after the other team has left the field."

More from Watts Baskin:

"Opponents have a full month" -- until May 15 -- "to take potshots by name and address," Watts Baskin said. Overturning just one Senate district -- the one with the slimmest margin -- keeps an initiative off the ballot.

Fed up with watching the spectacle of power-mad Utah legislators fighting like badgers to preserve their current pay-to-play legislative system?

Distressed at the prospect of having anti-ethics goons showing up at your doorstep to strong-arm you into removing your signature from the petitions?

Here's the simple two-step anti-tyranny process, folks:

1) Sign the petitions NOW:

• Fair Boundaries Redistricting Initiative
• Utahns For Ethical Government (UEG) Initiative

2) You can tell the goons to "go to hell" (and call the cops) LATER.

Salt Lake Tribune: Initiative Group Rolls Out Final Push

If ever Utah citizens are to put their legislature's feet to the fire and enact strong Utah legislative ethics reform, the time to do it is RIGHT NOW!

It's been a while since we last provided a writeup on the pending citizens initiative petitions which are circulating through Utah even now, so we'll put the spotlight on this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story, to again return the topic to the Weber County Forum front page:

• Initiative group rolls out final push

From this morning's story:

On the steps of the State Capitol, and underneath a threatening March sky, Utahns for Ethical Government announced its last big push --- a "march to the ballot."
The grassroots group now has less than six weeks to finish gathering the 95,000 signatures needed to place a broad ethics reform initiative on November's ballot.
Strategy includes a revamped Web site, a television ad and Saturday gatherings scheduled at local libraries from noon to 3 p.m. More information can be found online at www.utahethics.org.
"The citizens deserve a real opportunity for real ethics reform," said UEG Chairman Kim Burningham, comparing the Legislature's ethics package -- which lawmakers have rolled out over the past six weeks -- to a "crust" of bread.

The Utah legislative majority of course which has dropped all pretense of standing for robust ethics reform during the current legislative session, continues its unsavory war against the citizens of Utah, and is also "doing its part" to undermine the UEG Citizens' Ethics Reform Initiative:

Initiative proponents now find themselves facing steep opposition from a majority of Utah's lawmakers who have denounced their effort.
Just an hour before UEG's noon announcement, House members approved Sen. Howard Stephenson's SB275 in a 50-24 vote, which makes it easier for petition signers to remove their names [from petitions] after having second thoughts.

With six week left before the petition submission deadline, we agree that it's time to get into gear for that "last big push --- a 'march to the ballot.'"

So once again, here's the link to the now-revamped Utahns For Ethical Government website, where those readers who haven't yet signed the UEG petition can do so in electronic form. And for those cautious readers among us, those who'd still prefer to do it the old fashioned way, you'll find a hard-copy petition locations module in the right column of the same page (and at the bottom of the page), with convenient county-by-county contact links.

And for the benefit of those readers who'd like to take a look at the full array of citizen petitions on the 2010 Utah citizens' "grass roots smorgasbord," check out our handy WCF archive link below:

• Pending Utah Citizens' Initiative Petitions

Time's running short, O Gentle Ones. If ever Utah citizens are to put the legislature's feet to the fire and enact strong Utah legislative ethics reform, the time to do it is RIGHT NOW!

A Strong Standard Examiner Editorial; and Another Citizens' Ethics Reform Initiative Roadblock

The state government just declared war on the people... Sign the electronic petitions, folks

The Standard-Examiner again comes forth with another strong editorial this morning, condemning the half-hearted (and tooth-less) "ethics reform" measures being rammed through the legislature this year by legislative fat cats like Senator John Valentine, and further urging Std-Ex readers to sign the Utahns For Ethical Government (UEG) online petition. We link this morning's full Std-Ex editorial below:

• OUR VIEW: Ethics = open government

And in conjunction with our reference to the above editorial, we'll also direct our readers' attention to a related story which appears in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune, which has added some confusion (unnecessarily, we think) to the ongoing citizens' initiative signature gathering process. The headline sums it all up in a nutshell:

• Lieutenant governor rejects online petition signatures

In short, it seems that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff issued an Attorney General's opinion letter yesterday, which takes the (politically predictable) position that electronic signatures are invalid for purposes of the Utah citizens' initiative process, although they're entirely lawful for most other transactions in Utah under general statutory law. As reported in the article, the UEG lawyers were already prepared for this; and they'll soon be seeking declaratory relief in the courts. For the time being however, citizens' initiative sponsors are still urging Utah voters to continue to go online to affix their electronic signatures to the various petitions, pending a judicial resolution of this matter. In the event that these online petitions are ultimately ruled invalid (a low-probability outcome, in our opinion,) petition sponsors will still have your full contact information available, so they will be able to easily contact you to obtain a hard-copy signature.

Notably the UEG citizens's initiative group has posted this informative language on their petition signature web page, (which is pretty much a restatement of what we've said above):

February 10, 2010. The Utah Attorney General has issued an opinion that electronic signatures for initiative petitions will not be accepted as legal. We will challenge this opinion in court. Our lawyers are convinced that under Utah law such signatures are legal. In the meantime, please keep signing electronically. If we need to, we’ll locate you to obtain your manual signature on the printed petition. So be sure to enter your complete residence address and email for our possible future use.

As one particularly savvy reader remarked in a comment below this morning's above-linked Salt Lake Tribune story, "The state government just declared war on the people; " and we do believe that's an entirely accurate (although discomforting) statement.

And remember, people: an Attorney General's opinion letter does not have the force of law, and is in fact by its own nature no more authoritative than any other opinion letter which might be issued by any other licensed Utah lawyer.

Sign the electronic petitions, folks!

• Pending Utah Citizens' Initiative Petitions

Let's keep the fire to the feet of our perk-laden and power-driven State Legislature.

Two More Possible Roadblocks to the Utah Citizens Initiative Process

The Good News: The Utahns For Ethical Government's (UEG) ethics reform petition is NOW AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE ONLINE!

There are couple of more citizens' ballot initiative stories this morning in the northern Utah press which are well worthy of note. From this morning's Salt Lake Tribune:

As ethics-initiative backers scramble to gather enough signatures to place their measure on November's ballot, opponents hope to make it easier for some of those names to disappear.
In a statement last week, Utah's conservative Sutherland Institute labeled the measure put forward by Utahns for Ethical Government "dangerous" and asked lawmakers to streamline the name-removal process for folks who signed but changed their minds.
On Saturday's Red Meat Radio show on 630 AM, Sen. Howard Stephenson said he would file a bill today to do just that.

Read all about it here:

• Ethics initiative battle heats up

And that's not the only SL-Trib story reporting on the efforts of the forces of the status quo to thwart citizen efforts to impose real ethics reform upon our Utah legislature. The Trib also reports on a second proposed measure which could create a potentially serious roadblock to citizen initiative efforts in Utah:

A bill that would remove the time constraints under which the Utah Supreme Court must act when dealing with citizen initiatives and referendums is on its way to the House floor after unanimously clearing the House Judiciary Committee last week.
HB112, sponsored by Rep. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, would allow Utah's high court to set its own timetable when reviewing citizen-led legislation.
"It leaves the initiative process in place," Dee said, "but gives the court the opportunity to deliberate and it does not require, based on any statutorial time limit, that they must make that decision and curtail their deliberations."
Dee says the bill would affirm the Legislature's commitment to separation of powers between the branches of government.
But citizen-led legislation fans see it differently.

Read the full story here:

• Initiative efforts may face obstacle

What's painfully obvious is that opponents of serious, citizen-driven ethics reform in Utah are sweating bullets, and pulling out all the stops in order to prevent the angry lumpencitizens from finally having their way with our out-of-touch legislature. And in that connection, here's a new development that's likely to ratchet up the tension of the powerful and privileged at least a few more notches:

We're pleased to announce this morning that the Utahns For Ethical Government's (UEG) ethics reform petition is NOW AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE ONLINE!

• Sign the UEG Ethics Petition electronically right here

You know what to do, gentle readers. If you haven't already signed the petition... do it NOW... and do it online.

(Links to the full complement of active Utah online initiative petitions are also available here, and in our WCF right sidebar, btw.)

Emerald City News Roundup

A WCF prediction is fulfilled; and legislative leadership gets serious about ethics reform (?)

Two more Northern Utah news items for the Weber County Forum discussion mill:

1) Just as we predicted earlier, the Standard-Examiner reports that the city council last night unanimously promoted Jay Lowder to the position of public services director, following a 2-1/2 hour closed session:

• City names Lowder new public services director

2-1/2 hours to approve Boss Godfrey's top favorite pick? There must have been much to discuss. We're keeping our fingers crossed however, hoping we were wrong about the prospect of reading one day about the Geigers being appointed to Scott Waterfall's still-vacant C&ED Director post. Perhaps however these Geiger fellas will ultimately find themselves too busy with other ongoing endeavors to re-engage in further meddling in the business of Ogden City government. We can only hope.

2) Thanks in large part to the pressure created by the series of citizen-generated citizen initiative petitions now circulating throughout Utah, the Standard-Examiner reports that legislative leaders are making serious noise about tackling the task of enacting broad Ethics and Campaign Reform in our ethically-backward state:

• Legislators focusing on ethics with independent commission, bills on gifts and campaign contributions in the works

Utah legislative leadership has been playing political rope-a-dope with Utah citizens for years, making tall promises at the beginning of each successive legislative session, then ultimately delivering zero, zilch and nada. Thanks to the various pending citizens' initiative petitions which are circulating through Utah however, perhaps legislative leadership will be compelled to do more than merely "talk the talk."

One good way to keep these fellas moving forward, Utah Lumpencitizens... sign the danged petitions!

Amazing how our legislative leadership suddenly displays its "better nature," innit, when a little fire is applied by the lumpencitizens to its dancing feet?

Salt Lake Tribune: Initiative Groups Taking Their Signature Drive(s) Online

Sign the petitions, folks... Let's not be hoodwinked by our legislature this go-round

Encouraging Cathy McKitrick story in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune, reporting that sponsors of the various citizen initiatives which are percolating through the State of Utah are embracing applicable provisions of Utah law, which permit use of electronic signatures for online "transactions, " and are putting their their government reform petitions online. According to this morning's story, the following two petitions are already uploaded and ready for your signatures:

• Fair Boundaries Redistricting Initiative
• Peoples Right Anti-bribery & Anticorruption Initiatives

This morning's story also reports that the folks from the Utahns For Ethical Government (UEG) are not far behind, and that they'll have their own broad ethics reform petition ready for your online signatures imminently:

• UEG Ethics Reform Initiative

We'll of course keep a close eye on developments, and let you know as soon as the latter petition is up and running online.

We applaud these citizen activist groups for entering the electronic age, and making these online resources available to the broad range of citizens who regularly use the internet. In that connection, we urge our readers to navigate to the above two sites, to affix your signatures.

As we've already reported, Utah legislative leadership is working in the back rooms on Capitol Hill to put together their own "ethics reform package(s)." Whether this will result in a genuine attempt to enact robust ethics reform, or result in a mere "an empty vessel" we do not know. One thing we do know however... legislative leadership will be a lot more inclined to treat ethics reform seriously this year... if there are several certifiable petitions ready for the ballot this coming November. We accordingly urge our readers to keep our Utah legislature's feet to the fire on this, by signing the various online citizen petitions. According to the most recent polling, the vast majority of Utahns continue to strongly favor broad state government ethics and campaign reform. Sign the petitions, folks. Let's not be hoodwinked by our legislature this go-round.

For the benefit of our WCF readers we'll also note that we've placed a new module, "Active Citizen Petitions," (which includes the three above-mentioned petitions) at the top of our right sidebar. And in the interest of making all active citizen petitions easily available to our readers, we've also added these other active citizen petitions within this new module:

• Powder Mountain Disincorporation Petition
• Ogden Streetcar Petition

Have at it, O Gentle Ones!

The Deseret News Kickstarts a New Discussion About Two Citizens' Initiative Petitions Which Are Well Worthy of Your Attention

Arrange to affix you signatures to the Utahns for Ethical Government and Fair Boundaries Redistricting Initiative Petitions via the contact information listed below:

The Deseret News carries a good editorial this morning, once again touting the Utahns for Ethical Government (UEG) citizen legislative ethics initiative petition drive, which we've been promoting here on Weber County Forum for the past few months. Lois M. Collins's lead paragraphs provide the gist:

It doesn't matter whether the debate is taking place online in the comments accompanying a news story or in a debate at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
When the topic under discussion is an initiative that would reform ethics rules for the Utah Legislature, both sides throw off heat and passion.
The initiative, a 21-page handbook of behavior being put forth by a group called Utahns for Ethical Government — which includes some former lawmakers among its ranks — has opponents saying that it goes too far and pries too deeply into lawmakers' business.
The group, which hopes to gather enough signatures to put the measure to voters in the 2010 election cycle, counters most of the criticisms at Utahethics.org, where you can also read the proposal for yourself. I hope people will do precisely that.

For the benefit of those WCF readers who've not yet signed the petition, here are the the two centrally-situated Ogden locations where you can sign a petition:

Joyce Wilson (Weber County)
979 27th
Ogden, UT
801-941-1613

Ogden-Weber UniServ (Weber County)
939 25th St
Ogden, UT 84401
801-399-3746

During our last discussion of this topic, by the way, several of our readers brought up the subject of the Fair Boundaries Redistricting Initiative, another separate grass-roots-oriented citizen effort designed to set up a fair and independent redistricting commission and eliminate an obvious conflict of interest: elected officials drawing their own gerrymandered voting districts. In that connection we'll take this opportunity to broaden the discussion, and direct our readers to the fairboundaries.org website, where a wealth of information about this second citizen's initiative is available. In addition, the website provides the following contact information of individuals in Weber County who can assist you in arranging to place your signatures on this latter petition:

Elizabeth Barboza, 909-615-2433, ebarboza@aol.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Trent Alvord, 801-394-7697, trentalvord@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Weber State University Wildcats Football, Volunteer Contact: Mark Sage, mark@fairboundaries.org

If there's anyone with our WCF readership, by the way, who has either of the above petitions available for signing, please post your contact information in our lower comments section, or send it to us via our right sidebar email link, so that we can add it to the information we've posted above.

Now that Emerald City election issues are for the most part resolved, it's a good time to focus our attention on other pressing political matters; and in our opinion there now no other matters more worthy of our readers immediate attention than the two citizen's initiative measures listed above.

That's it for now, gentle readers.

Who will be the first to comment?

Deseret News: Proposed Ethics - Too Strict to Live By?

Some Utah legislators are already screaming bloody murder about a citizens' initiative which would enact broad Utah legislative ethics reform

There was more news about Utah state legislative ethics reform late last evening from the Deseret News, which reports that some members of the state legislature are already firing back at the grass roots organizations Utahs For Ethical Government and Fair Boundaries, who are beginning the process of gathering signatures for a citizen's initiative which would enact a strict code of ethical standards for Utah lawmakers and create an independent ethics commission to apply the code and make enforcement recommendations to the Utah state legislature. You can read the full text of the proposed citizens' initiative here:

• Government Ethics Reform -Final Version

Those readers who'd prefer NOT to wade through the esoteric legal jargon can read the shorter Executive Summary here:

• Executive Summary

Deseret News columnist Bob Bernick reports that citizen legislators such as House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, (R-Layton) and Senator Howard Stephenson, (R-Draper) are screaming bloody murder that the legislation contained in the proposed initiative would trample legislators' constitutional rights... and we found this comment from Representative Garn to be downright laughable:

"Under this initiative, any three people in Utah could (bring a complaint and) ruin your reputation," said House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, who has attended detailed briefings on the initiative presented by legislative attorneys. "It has so many unintended consequences, you could be a legislator trying to do the right thing in your business and your legislative work, and you get nailed. It is ugly and mean-spirited."

We believe Mr. Garn's statement illustrates the precise reason that it's time for Utah citizens to pick up the reins, sign the petition and enact this legislation, which will drain the ethical swamp that's existed in the Utah legislature for far too many years. If Mr. Garn doesn't realize that it's already his unwritten ethical obligation as a state legislator to leave the special interests of his private clients (and campaign donors) at the door when he enters the legislative chambers, this new proposed legislation will certainly clarify the situation for him.

At the beginning of the last legislative session, there were almost four dozen bills aimed at creating broad changes in the state legislature's ethical landscape. By the end of session, the legislature had killed most of these bills... and instead passed paltry legislation which we labelled the equivalent of hitting the snooze button.

As State Senator Scott McCoy, (D-Salt Lake) says, The Legislature "has only nibbled around the corners" of true ethics reform. "The heavy lifting — like this initiative — has not been done. And it is perfectly appropriate for citizens to say, 'We'll do it for you,' if the Legislature itself won't."

We couldn't be more in agreement.

And if this proposed new law would result in a flurry of legislator resignations, as Rep. Garn suggests, we hope these departing legislators won't let the screen door slap them on the backside as they scurry out the State Capitol back door.

We'll continue to keep our eye on this highly-encouraging grass-roots movement, and will publish information about how to get your signatures affixed to a petition as this matter progresses.

That's it for now.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Tuesday Morning Emerald City News Roundup

Legislative ethics and public employee double dipping are the hot topics of the day

There are a couple of quite interesting items available through the northern Utah print media today, both of which deal with fixing the corruption in Utah government:

First, the Standard-Examiner carries a top notch editorial, urging Utah voters to sign the petition for a "2010 ballot initiative that will do what the Utah Legislature has failed to do for so long — enact ethics reform with teeth."

Among the proponents of this pending voter initiative measure is the Fair Boundaries Coalition, which is promoting the establishment of a non-partisan committee which would oversee the redistricting process to follow the decennial census in 2010. The redistricting element is a matter which has of course been earlier discussed here at Weber County Forum.

With Kim Burningham and David Irvine leading the charge, it's immediately clear that this citizen initiative drive won't be an amateur act. We wholeheartedly agree with the Std-Ex that "it’s time voters got the chance to impose strong ethics regulations on lawmakers via the initiative process."

Keep your eyes on WCF. We'll be closely monitoring this story, and will provide information on how to sign the initiative petition as this matter progresses.

Secondly, the Salt lake Tribune carries a story on a topic that's also near and dear to out WCF hearts, public employee double dipping. Here's the gist, from this morning's Cathy McKittrick story:

The nearly $3 billion projected shortfall in the state's public employee retirement fund has city, county and state officials scrambling to find where to cut costs and shore up the pension plan that covers 156,000 current and retired workers.
Some lawmakers are eyeing double-dippers as a great place to start -- referring to those employees who have retired, are collecting a pension and have come back to work for the same or a different state agency.
"The biggest problem with double-dipping is that we're required by state law to pay them their 401k in the same amount" as had previously been contributed to the pension fund, said Sen. Daniel Liljenquist, D-Bountiful, who co-chairs the Legislature's Interim Retirement Committee.
That mandate is now costing the state somewhere between $10 million and $17 million annually, Liljenquist added.
"Where do you reach the point to cut off a rich benefit like that?" he asked. "To my knowledge, no other state does that. It's very lucrative and it makes sense to tie that down."
Placing restrictions on public employees who retire and rejoin the government work force without continuing contributions to the pension fund is one option being explored to address the retirement shortfall.

While it's probably true that the legislature can't do much about existing 401(k) plans which are already vested (the same may be true with regard to vested pension benefits) , we're hoping that the legislature will, at the very least, put new safeguards in place to prevent this problem from arising in the future.

In closing, we'll adopt the savvy remark from one SLTrib reader in the article comments section:

I strongly disagree with the concept of double or triple dipping. As far as I'm concerned the folks who do this are abusing the system and its wrong. If a person is going to retire from government employment, fine...retire. Thank you very much for your service. But as stated by other readers, its not right that a person be allowed to retire from a state position just to come back 6 months later and get rehired in the position he or she just retired from. That makes no sense. The legislature needs to fix this...now!

That's it for now, gentle readers. Who will be first to comment?

Utah Needs Redistricting Standards

It's true that your vote may not always count for much in Utah

By Jim Hutchins

I want to put in a plug for the Fair Boundaries Initiative.

Fair Boundaries would put into place a non-partisan committee that would oversee the redistricting process to follow the decennial census in 2010.

Clearly, the legislature does not want this to happen. House Speaker Clark has come out strongly opposed to such a measure. That should not surprise anyone who has witnessed the legislature's inability to settle for anything less than absolute authority over all aspects of the political and social life of Utah citizens.

Yet, it has been endorsed by KSL.

As a WSU faculty member, I'm proud of the leadership role Weber State students have taken in moving this forward. Along with redistricting reform, the WSU student analysts also recommended the creation of an independent ethics commission.

As a Utah voter, please take a look at the issue and decide for yourself. You can click on the first link above to help with the upcoming petition drive, or join the Facebook group. I'm confident that you will agree with me that an independent redistricting commission is a necessity in Utah.