Utah State House District 57 lies entirely within Utah State Senate District 14.  And, John Valentine, former President of the Utah State Senate and Senator for District 14, announced that he will NOT run for Governor in 2010.  Instead, Senator Valentine will decide at a later date weather he will run for Governor in 2012, or some other elected office.

Link to Deseret News article HERE.

[Pictured above:  (l to r) Rep. Craig Frank, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Senator John Valentine, and Rep. John Dougall.]

If ethics reform and campaign finance reform are two issues that should have been addressed along time ago by the legislature, then why didn’t many of the sponsors of the ethics initiative (and the 30+ other former legislators who support the ethics initiative) do something, anything, about it ten or twenty years ago while they were serving in the legislature?  After all, most of the ethics complaints filed in the last 50 years happened before I began serving in the legislature seven years ago.

Certainly, would-be “Super Czars” David Irvine (1973-79), Kim Burningham (1980-94), Jordan Tanner (1991-2000), and Karl Snow (1973-84), had ample opportunity and motivation to enact meaningful legislation while they took contributions without limits…that’s a combined total of nearly 45 years to do something, anything, to “fix the ethics problem.”  [Also, Carole Peterson, primary sponsor of the Citizens' Ethics Initiative, served as the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives and on legislative staff for more than 30 years...and in her position of influence...did nothing.]  Are things really any different now than they were back then?

In my opinion we’re just cleaning up the mess they left behind.  And, clean-up we will.  Yet, they (the ethics initiative sponsors) want to position themselves as judge, jury, and executioner of those who now sit in the very chambers where they sat during their legislative tenure…WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING.

Pot meet Kettle.

McEntee, Salt Lake Tribune article

McKitrick, Salt Lake Tribune article  [Former Governor and Legislator, Olene Walker (House 1981-88) did nothing to "fix" the problem while she served in the House of Representatives for eight years.]

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Merit Medical President & CEO Fred Lampropoulos will join the race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Bob Bennett (R-UT).  Lampropoulos, who ran for governor in 2004, will join a “short” pack of candidates trying to unseat the incumbent during the 2010 election cycle.

The Utah Republican Party will NOT support the Citizens’ Ethics Initiative.  102 out of 103 Central Committee members voted for a Resolution to denounce Utahns’ for Ethical Government’s ballot proposal.

“The state party strongly supports ethics reforms at all levels,” Hansen said Monday, “but did not feel this initiative achieves those goals.”

Salt Lake Tribune article, link HERE.

“Reverse Engineering” occurs when the end result of a product (or objective) is defined  first then designed “backward” into its several individual components.  The concept is simple.  Decide what you want as a final product AND THEN, step-by-step, work to that end IN THE REVERSE.

Two Legislative Interim committees have been creating (and endorsing) several pieces of significant legislation specifically addressing an Independent Ethics Commission, Campaign Finance Revisions, Elections Law , and Lobbying Practices.  Most of these proposals have unanimous, bi-partisan support.  The Legislative Ethics Interim Committee and the Government Operations & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee recently approved a number of key pieces of draft legislation to address many of the meritorious components of the highly publicized ethics initiative.  These committees’ recommendations, combined with a recent battery of bills requested by Legislators  who were members of the Governor’s Commission on Strengthening Utah’s Democracy, represent the benchmark of legislative proposals to publicly address deficiencies in the current processes.

What Bob Bernick columnized this morning and what my Commission colleague La Varr Webb has suggested in the recent past, has already been taking place…just in a “reverse engineered” approach.   The public document filed with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office of the Citizens’ Ethics Initiative has been available to the public for sometime, now.  I’ve read it.  It’s tedious and Frankly…goes way too far.  Our current system is antiquated and needs some tuning-up.  Nobody questions that.  And, although I am intrigued by Mr. Bernick and Mr. Webb’s proposal to place the Citizens’ Initiative into a bill and strike (or amend out) the parts “we don’t like,” would take more staffing resources than we currently have and bottleneck other deserving pieces of legislation during the general session.  There are so many “different” and unrelated issues haphazardly rolled into the content of the ethics initiative “as a bill” that certainly someone would legally challenge the very “Omnibus” nature of a “one-stop-shop” bill  following the 2010 Legislative process, and we’d be right back to Square One.  Constitutionally, the Legislature is required to address similar topics within a single bill.

The legislative process is designed to bring the People’s representatives to the table.  With numerous legitimate proposals on their way to the Legislature in January of 2010, we have a benchmark.  We have bi-partisan support for most of the current proposals for changes to our antiquated system.  If after the Legislative Session the People aren’t satisfied by the changes and direction of the Legislature, then there’s always next November.

Utah County GOP Chair is exonerated.  Charges were “unanimously dismissed” Thursday evening by Executive Committee.

Daily Herald, Joe Pyrah

Salt Lake Tribune, Donald Meyers

Rep. Craig Frank (R-Cedar Hills) has proposed a Draft Bill in the Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee yesterday that would repeal the 1% sales tax placed on restaurant food purchases.  The Draft Bill was endorsed unanimously by the bi-partisan committee yesterday during the last scheduled legislative meetings before the 2010 General Legislative Session begins on the fourth Monday of January next year.

Although the Bill proposal removes the 1% sales tax on restaurant food, the Bill also gives Counties throughout the state an option of levying a 1/10 % (one-tenth of one percent) general sales tax in its place.  Many counties have used the current restaurant tax’s revenue stream  to bond for projects such as convention centers and other “cultural” venues.

Rep. Frank has stated that “it’s not (his) intent to put at risk those Counties who have already leveraged themselves against the previously ‘guaranteed’ revenue stream, but to take the tax from a less logical collection point and place it in a tax base that makes more sense.”

Royce Van Tassell, from the Utah Taxpayers Association, testified in the tax committee hearing that time-tested, sound tax policy “lowers the rate and broadens the base,” sharing the state’s tax burden among a greater percentage of Utah taxpaying citizens.  According to figures provided by the Utah Restaurants Association, 85% of people eating in Utah restaurants are Utahns.  The original intent of the Restaurant Tax, according to Tom Ginny of Gastronomy Restaurants, was to create a revenue stream for local projects with restaurant proceeds collected from visitors to our state.  That’s clearly not what’s been happening here.

Links to additional local media articles:

Deseret News

Salt Lake Tribune

Forbes.com reports that United Health Foundation claims the state of Vermont sports the “healthiest” population in the U.S.  A close #2 is the Great State of Utah.

Also, noted in the report’s rankings is Utah’s position of #49 in smoking population.  Approximately 9% of Utah’s population smokes.

Link HERE for Forbes article.

This evening, Cathy Mckitrick from the Salt Lake Tribune posted this article on the continuing saga of Campaign Finance Reform.  It’s true that my personal preference is TOTAL DISCLOSURE.  You Take It…You Report It!  No contribution limits.  And, term limits are at the Ballot Box.

Link HERE for SLTrib article.

Caveat:  I have been ranked as one of the most conservative legislators in the State of Utah (see Mirror, Mirror on the Wall).  Anything left of me…is left leaning.   Also, I consider the vote on the original Dryer Proposal the benchmark of right and left-leaning positions.  I voted against the Dryer Proposal.  The Dryer Proposal passed the Commission 10-7.   For this reason, I made the assertion that the Commission is “left-leaning.” 

For the better part of the past year I’ve served as a  member on the Governor’s Commission on Strengthening Utah’s Democracy.  No one acquainted with the people appointed to this body would deny that the majority membership of this Commission, created by former Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., has decidedly left-leaning tendencies (that’s what happens when the creator is the appointer).  And, when the majority of the state’s electorate and legislature is a significantly right-leaning population (2/3 majority in both Houses), it’s important to measure outcomes and recommendations with a spoonful of reality.

Bi-partisan Commissions by their bureaucratic nature are inefficient.  Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb (both Commisioners) in their latest Sunday column in the Deseret News, praised the Commission as an exception to the rule.  I would agree.  Chair Kirk Jowers kept everyone on point.  Talented staff and attorneys productively and  logically organized each meeting.  (Remember, all this was a volunteer effort by Commissioners and staff.)  Members of the commission were civil and attentive to eachother and the issues.  However, the political spectrum of  Commissioners’ views varied as much as republican red does from democrat blue.

The Commission has concluded it’s business.  Recommendations of the Commission will now find their way to Governor Gary Herbert’s office for serious and thoughtful consideration.  At this point, the Governor has several options while considering the Commission’s recommendations (and probably a few more that I haven’t thought of).   #1 – Because this Commission was NOT his creation and because some believe Gary Herbert is significantly more conservative than his predecessor, he can blame the outcomes of the Commission on that predecessor, thank the Commission for its fine work and dump the Commission’s recommendations in the “round file.”  No harm…no foul.  #2 – Since a number of thoughtful recommendations, more politically palatable, and not in opposition to his own personal political philosophies have been suggested by the Commission, the Governor can decide to harvest the “best and brightest” ideas…and then…toss the remaining recommendations in the “round file.”  #3 – The Governor may choose to accept all the recommendations of the Commission, abandoning his own personal positions (including his distaste for Campaign Finance Limits), and find a suitable Legislative Sponsor to carry a bill(s) to pass the Commission’s recommendations into law through the 2010 General Legislative Session.  (Note: bill files have already been requested for several of the Commission’s recommendations by Rep. Craig Frank, Senator Scott Jenkins, and Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, all members of the Commission.)

Recommendations, as approved by the Commission, should be vetted through the Legislative process.  The deliberative findings of the Commission should be passed to the People’s representatives for further debate, public hearings, and a procedural vote.  If the Governor doesn’t care for what the legislature has done with his Commission’s recommendations…VETO.  (It’s one of the beauties of being the Chief Executive of the State of Utah.)  The legislative, time-tested process is designed to give all parties in a political argument an opportunity to debate equitably.  And, yes, sometimes people are passionate about their feelings, thoughts, and opinions.  That’s OK!  But, community debate occurs in a controlled, procedural environment.  And, then by Constitutional and Statutory vote by the People’s representatives, the Majority wins in a Democracy.  It’s simple and fair.

The Commission was charged to make recommendations to the Governor on how Utah might increase voter participation and enhance the voting “experience.”  The Commission has fulfilled it’s charge.  Three areas of focus were given to the Commission for study: elections, lobbying, and campaign finance.    Numerous vital and important recommendations in each of these “focus” areas were adopted by Commission Resolution and will be forwarded on to Governor Herbert for further consideration.  Governor Herbert will do what he feels is in the best interest of the citizens of the State of Utah – of that I’m sure.  And, after the process is complete, the People of this state will have greater transparency and more access to their elected leaders through the political process than ever before.