Foes of education bill defend planned battle
Coalition suspects 'will of the people' is ignored
Plaintiffs on the lawsuit, which will most likely be filed in the next three weeks, are a bi-partisan group of "legislators, former legislators, education community officials and public citizens who are very concerned about an open and fair legislative process," said Alan Smith, an attorney for the group.
Recently legislative leadership called the suit "grandstanding in an election year."
"I haven't heard anyone say 'we don't like (Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy), we want to get him in the next election cycle,' — a lot of them are Republicans that are concerned in the matter of ethics and fair process," Smith said.
"I think they are representative of a feeling that has been growing in Utah in the last few years that perhaps the legislative leadership in the Senate and House is not as sensitive as it ought to be to the will of the people," he said.
At issue is the controversial omnibus bill, SB2, which rolled a dozen school bills, some of which had been voted down earlier in the session, into the schools' $2.5 million budget, known as the Minimum School Programs Act.
"You have legislative leadership that says 'we don't care what the majority says,"' Smith said. "It's this anti-majoritarian, arrogant, we-know-better kind of attitude, and then manipulation to boot, that just shouldn't be."
But proponents of the bill said the Legislature was well within its bounds in bundling the bills.
The Utah Constitution prohibits "logrolling" unconnected bills into one unless they are bound by a single subject. Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, told the Deseret News this week that the subject of SB2 was education. And the practice of bundling related bills is not uncommon.
But others don't buy it.
"If you look at it superficially, then you could say 'well this is a single subject, it's education,"' Smith said. "But if you wanted to trade jabs at that superficial level, word omnibus itself means something other than a singular subject."
Smith also said that the argument that passing bundled bills is not uncommon doesn't excuse the practice.
"I know men who cheat on their wives — a lot — but it's still adultery. We don't amend constitutions by violating them," Smith said.
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com
Recent comments
Successfully.
Plaintiff | May 6, 2008 at 7:17 p.m.
This is not the first time an Omnibus bill has been used to pass...
Plaintiff | May 6, 2008 at 7:15 p.m.
This is a clear attempt to ingnore the rights of voters. The bill...
OHH | May 5, 2008 at 3:19 p.m.
