Repeal code, let voters decide on vouchers

By Bob Bernick Jr.
Deseret Morning News
Published: Friday, June 1, 2007 12:10 a.m. MDT
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Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. says he will call a special legislative session this summer or fall if need be to make the Nov. 6 referendum on private school vouchers "definitive."

In other words, he'd want the Legislature to act in some way that would guarantee a clear up-or-down vote by citizens on vouchers.

That's easy for Huntsman to say, retorts House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. But Curtis, an attorney, says he will "vehemently" oppose a special session if Huntsman's goal is to repeal HB174, the second voucher bill passed by the Legislature in its 2007 session.

Curtis says repealing HB174 does more harm than good and will just end up in a bigger mess than the two-bill problem of today.

I follow that reasoning if voters end up supporting vouchers at the polls — although even that concern could be fixed in the 2008 session by repassing HB174 or something near to it.

I don't follow Curtis' reasoning should voters at the polls reject vouchers.

First, a little history: By one vote, the Utah House passed the first, and main, voucher bill, HB148. HB148 passed with a comfortable majority in the Senate.

But before the bill was sent to Huntsman for his signature (he did sign it into law), several anti-voucher, moderate House Republicans came to Curtis and said they wanted to amend HB148 to make it more acceptable to their colleagues.

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Curtis told them if they could produce at least six anti-voucher representatives who would promise to vote for HB148 after the amendments were made, he'd allow it. But the anti-voucher members couldn't drum up six swing votes, the feelings on each side were so high.

Fearing he could lose the voucher bill all together, Curtis refused to call back HB148 for amendments.

So anti-voucher legislators decided to run an amendment bill alone — HB174. That bill contains much of the voucher-creating language, but not all of it. HB174, with some anti-voucher members voting for it, passed by two-thirds vote.

And wouldn't you know it, any bill that passes by two-thirds is not subject to a citizen referendum.

So we have HB148 awaiting the Nov. 6 referendum vote. And we have HB174, which Attorney General Mark Shurtleff opines has enough voucher language that it alone creates the basic voucher program.

There are more twists and turns, two lawsuits and the State Board of Education refusing to implement vouchers via HB174. And voters could reject vouchers Nov. 6 but still find the state with a voucher program under HB174.

To me, the basic question remains, why not come into a special session and repeal the part of the Utah Code enacted in HB174?

Curtis says no — that repealing that language just makes a further mess. "You would only be voting (Nov. 6) on the minor differences between HB148 and HB174," the speaker says.

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