Every year around this time a number of Associations and Policy groups produce their annual legislative “scorecards.”  Sierra club released their card a few days ago–Rep. Frank scored 38%–that’s good.  Utah Taxpayers’ Association scorecard came out today–Rep. Frank’s score was 93.8% (7th place out of 75 places)–voting against UTA’s agenda only once (out of 14 pieces of legislation tracked).

The single bill?  HB203, by Rep. Scott Wyatt was generally not understood well by the House before the vote.  I have personally spoken with Rep. Wyatt, and have given him my support next year for this crucial and timely bill.

Click HERE for UTA’s scorecard.

This shirt worn by a rally participant requires no explanation…thank goodness!

The WE SUPPORT AMERICA rally was held on the front lawn of the Provo Library at Academy Square (former Brigham Young Academy) today starting at noon.  This “pro” America, “pro” V.P. Cheney assembly was organized by Mark Cluff (Chairman) and others from the We Support America Committee.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, spoke to the crowd of participants, as well as, President John Valentine of the Utah State Senate and Rep. Craig Frank of the Utah State House of Representatives.  Several vocal and instrumental selections were performed by local talent.

Thanks for a great event.

Occasionally, during the Interim, I’ll clean out my “mailbox” in the House Offices at the Capitol.  (Please send all normal stamped mail correspondence to my home address.)  Of interest this month was the FY2008 Budget Summary from the Governor’s Office—I know…zzzzzzzzzzzz!

This comprehensive report on the final actions of the State Legislature related to the coming year’s budget is too broad to try to explain in this little ‘ol blog.  However, as I was reading/reviewing the report, something jumped out of the pages—the Operating and Capital Budget of the Legislature.

Have you ever wondered what it costs the taxpayers of this state to cover the cost of running the legislature?  For the year?  For a day?

First, we need to put a couple of figures into perspective.  This coming year’s (FY08) budget appropriated is $11.056 Billion (a 9.9% increase over FY07’s authorized budget).  FY07’s budget appropriated was $10.063 Billion, a change of 13.1% over the prior year’s actual budget of $8.899 Billion (FY06). [Page 22]

Second, the Legislative portion of the budget includes spending by the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Legislative Auditor General, Legislative Research and General Counsel (LRGC), Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s Office (LFA), Tax Review Commission, Constitutional Review Commission, and Legislative Printing (remember, we produce tons of paper—tons). [Page 121]

Last, 98% of appropriations for the Legislative budget section come from the General Fund, which is primarily funded through State Sales Tax dollars.

OK.  So, here’s the actual numbers:  The Senate’s appropriation is $2.1 Million (29 members), the House’s appropriation is $4.2 Million (75 members), Auditor General is $3.1 Million, LRGC is $7.1 Million (well deserved, best full-time, Award Winning, non-partisan staff in the Nation), LFA at $2.9 Million, and I told you we use a lot of paper…Legislative Printing at $800,000. [Page 121]  The Tax Review Commission runs about $50,000 and the Constitutional Review Commission comes in at $55,000. [Page 122]

There you have it.  Total appropriation for “Legislature” FY08 is $20,296,800.  [Page 122]

An “extra” day for Legislative business (Special Session…etc…) is assessed at $34,800 per day.  [Page 123]

I had no idea.

ps:  The Legislative portion of the FY07 budget was supplemented with (or will be supplemented with) an additional $396,800.  [Page 124]  Total FY08 Governor Operating Budget is $30,985,800. [Page 85].

In light of the Virginia Tech tragedy, I’m amazed at the MSM’s immediate, opportunistic approach at attempting to take an act of domestic terrorism to resuscitate arguements already decided by our State’s Supreme Court upholding our 2nd Amendment rights.  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

We mourn with those that mourn.  Tragedies like this are felt by us all.  But, have we already forgotten it was an off-duty police officer using his own personal firearm who stopped the killing rampage at Trolley Square?!

Blog on U of U gun ban–Click HERE.  Blogs on other 2nd Amendment issues–Click HERE and HERE (pay particular attention to the comments left by Rep. Curt Oda and Kyle Tippetts on this last link.)

Current news articles from MSM.  Click HERE (D-News), HERE (Tribune), and HERE (Daily Herald).

A Fascinating Book

While in Washington DC this past week I began reading a book from a National Bestselling author—Joseph Ellis.  Previously I had read Ellis’, His Excellency, George Washington.  A common thread I detect through Ellis’ book points out that human nature, personality, and self-interest often drive the significant debates in Congress.  People are just people.  Human nature is still human nature, today, yesterday, and always.  The expanse of history seems to be nothing more or less than human nature repeating itself over time.

From the Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph Ellis’ book, Founding Brothers, regarding the Congressional debate on “Constitutional” slavery…Thomas Scott from Pennsylvania speaking for those who abhorred the practice of slavery argued that although the Constitution restricted Congress’ ability to regulate the practice, the Constitution did not preclude them from entirely abolishing slavery.  Following Scott:

“(James) Jackson (from Georgia) then launched into a sermon on God’s will, which he described as patently proslavery, based on several passages in the Bible and the pronouncement of every Christian minister in Georgia.  Alongside the clear preferences of the Almighty, there was the nearly unanimous opinion of every respectable citizen in his state, whose livelihood depended on the availability of slave labor and who shared the elemental recognition, as Jackson put it, ‘that rice cannot be brought to market without these people.’  William Loughton Smith preferred to leave the interpretation of God’s will to others, but he seconded the opinion of his colleague from Georgia that slavery was an economic precondition for the prosperity of his constituents, noting that ‘such is the state of agriculture in that country, no white man would perform the tasks required to drain the swamps and clear the land, so that without slaves it must be depopulated.’”

“Smith also led the debate on behalf of the Deep South on that other great text, which was not the Bible but the Constitution.  In Smith’s version of the story, the framers of the Constitution had recognized that the chief source of conflict among the state delegations was between those dependent on slave labor and those free of such dependency…”

(Founding Brothers, The Revolutionary Generation, Joseph J. Ellis, Vintage, 2000, p 85)
 
History Repeating Itself

“Thumbing” through the newspaper this morning, I ran across an interesting article in the Deseret Morning News by Jeremy Twitchell, titled “Immigrant needs, woes: Cannon meets in Utah about the AgJobs bill.”  Click HERE for article.

Having just finished reading about the plight of the American farmer nearly 220 years ago regarding the need for “labor” inputs for agrabusiness in the Deep South and having my interest peaked by this headline in our local paper, I had to read on.  The article primarily covers a meeting between Rep Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and a group of local agribusiness folks.

Congressman Cannon, speaking to over 20 farmers and ranchers in Provo, gave his support to the temporary amnesty, guest-worker program that, among other things, streamlines the process for alien migrant workers to obtain an H-2Avisa in as little as two weeks.  Normally this process can take months.

“We have some pretty big (agricultural) operations in Utah, and it’s growing like crazy,” Cannon said.  “You ought to be able to do that in a marketplace that’s predictable with a work force that is accessible.”

The article goes on to say, that “the bill is aimed at addressing a dire concern raised by a number of those who attended Tuesday’s meeting—that agriculture operations simply can’t find American workers who will work for what farmers can pay.”

In the article, Congressman Cannon said the bill has bipartisan and industry support.

Sound Familiar?

Now, many will ask me, “Rep Frank, how can you possibly compare the ‘Constitutionally’ condoned slave industry in Colonial times (1790) with the guest-worker, amnesty pilot program suggested and co-sponsored by Chris Cannon in the AgJobs bill currently under consideration by the US Congress?”

And, my answer would be…

Click HERE.

District 57 politicos will get a kick out of this “shot.”  Former Cedar Hills Precinct Chair and former General Counsel to Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., Mike Lee, gave Kim and me a tour around the back halls of the US Supreme Court Building during our visit to Washington DC.  Mike, who is currently in his last few months as a “clerk” for Justice Samuel Alito, showed us around the beautiful and historic rooms of the building constructed in the mid 1930’s.

This picture was taken in the gym located directly above the Supreme Court’s Chamber.  The sign on the wall next to the basketball court reminds players not to engage in court activities while Court is in session.  As one of Utah’s sons…Mike’s doing a fabulous job in the High Court.

While lunching at the Smithsonian this afternoon, I noticed an abandoned newspaper over on the next table.  The USA Today headline read “Population change in states’ top urban areas.”  Curious about the contents of the article I grabbed the paper and started to read.

Among the charts and graphs (remember, I’m a charts and graphs guy) was something fascinating and revealing.  In the chart labeled “Fastest Growing Metro Areas (2000 to 2006) #1 was little ‘ol St. George, Utah (39.8%) and not far behind in sixth place was Provo (25.9%).  I guess that really wasn’t the fascinating part.  What was interesting was the next graph labeled “Fastest Growing Micro Areas (2000-2006).”  Micro, in this case, is short for Micropolitan.  #3, Heber, Utah coming in at a whopping 33.1%–no kidding!  And, running a close #9…Cedar City (20%).  Click HERE for USA Today article.

Ever since the Park Service announced those free bus tours were resuming (Click HERE) in our state’s National Forrest down in southern Utah…there’s little wonder why people are fleeing to Zion!

The intent of the Legislature during its vote on teacher salary increases was to give $2500 per teacher in ON-GOING base salary pay, as well as a ONE-TIME $1000 bonus.  Now, we’ll have to take taxes out of that amount–Of Course.

Having recieved a number of calls from teachers in the Alpine School District, I can assure you and them that the intent of the Legislature was to give ALL state certified teachers a salary increase.  If the DISTRICTS are “spinning” this salary increase into something different than what we intended–we’ll fix it–NO EXCUSES.

Read the Daily Herald Article by Curt Bramble Alan Choate on this issue.  Click HERE.

An interesting article about National and State political party composition by Bob Bernick in the D-News this morning.  Click HERE.  His article, in part, supports my post from Monday morning.  Although Utah party affilliation is markedly different than the national trend, Salt Lake County is still slowly losing Republicans to Democrats as our population grows–it would appear.