Utahns have elected a new governor for the first time in more than a decade. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s turn at Utah's helm will be very different from his predecessors'. During the campaign he endorsed parental choice in education, which both Gov. Olene Walker and Gov. Mike Leavitt opposed adamantly. He has suggested taking a serious look at moving the prison off the Wasatch Front. Certainly other significant changes are coming.

Nevertheless, Huntsman's impact will pale in comparison with the changes already being wrought by the Voluntary Contributions Act. Passed in 2001, the VCA has been tied up in litigation by the teachers union for several years. The bill finally took effect last year, and already the VCA has fundamentally changed Utah politics.

In principle, the VCA is pretty boring. It prohibits public agencies from deducting political donations from an employee's check. The state shouldn't take dollars from employees and give it to political action committees. That's more common sense than Earth-shattering. In practice, the VCA is the teachers union's worst nightmare.

For years, the teachers union has been the 800-pound gorilla of Utah politics. On a regular basis, the union PAC spends more than any other Utah PAC. No other Utah PAC has pulled down $300,000 from a national affiliate, as the UEA did in the 2002 campaign over the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act. For example, the Utah Bankers Association has not reported more than $75,000 on hand in years, but between 1999 and 2003 the union PAC has always reported about $500,000 available.

Their huge bank account came from exploiting teachers through payroll deductions. When a teacher joined the union, she filled out a number of forms, one of which allowed the union to receive a small, fixed amount every month from her paycheck. Within a day or two, most teachers forgot they were donating to the union PAC and never gave it another thought.

Although small, these contributions were the union's life blood. And with the exception of 2000, these payroll deductions accounted for about 80 percent of the union PAC's revenues. Between 1999 and 2003, the union's PAC received an average of $133,283 through payroll deductions. Under the Voluntary Contributions Act, teachers now have to either send the union a check, or give the union explicit permission to perform an electronic funds transfer directly from their bank accounts.

Unsurprisingly, Utah teachers aren't exactly lining up to contribute to the union. According to the union's Sept. 15 and pre-election disclosure reports, the union has received $3,264 in small contributions so far this year. The union has doubled the number of teachers willing to donate more than $50, but that doesn't come close to offsetting such a monumental decline in small donations.

Accordingly, the union's war chest is shrinking. From a high of nearly $680,000 in 2002, they now report just $337,456 in the bank. It's hardly surprising that the UEA recently renewed its lawsuit against the VCA. After all, they know better than anyone else that, given the choice, teachers prefer to keep their money in their own pockets.

---

M. Royce Van Tassell is executive director of Education Excellence Utah.