New fight over vouchers

"I don't know what we'd do ... it couldn't be implemented," Lear said.

She said the lack of the $9.2 million in mitigation money — funding that was clearly anticipated — is huge. Plus there would not be enough administrative money since HB174 only added an extra $100,000 to existing funding in the law.

"This is an amendment — there are significant limitations and we don't have enough information to run a program," Lear said.

Jenson said out of the 11 sections included in HB148, only five are in HB174 — leaving out the definitions, purposes, enforcement and accountability measures.

"It would be very hard to argue that the law stands when the amendment leaves out half of the language in HB148," Jenson said. "If you repeal the underlying bill the amendments are dead."

The voucher program provides Utah families with a private school tuition voucher ranging from $500 to $3,000 per student attending a private school. That doesn't sit well with voucher opponents, who don't want state funding going to private schools.

But some lawmakers said opponents who want to put the issue before voters would be shooting themselves in the foot if voters reject the voucher law, since the $9.2 million for the program is not appropriated in HB174, and districts could potentially not be held harmless for five years like the original bill promised.

That provision was meant to soften the blow to public schools losing students to private schools — something that helped woo moderates in the House who had opposed vouchers in past years.

"The only big difference that I am aware of is the hold harmless," Bramble said. "The money would be there, but there would not be a statutory obligation" to spend it on the voucher program.

As for Utahn's for Public Schools failing to challenge HB174, Lear said the group was in a "catch 22."

The law only allows a people to file a referendum five days after the session. HB174 wasn't signed until after that five-day window.

"They can't file referendum on a bill that is not even signed — you cant challenge something that you don't know if it is even going to be law," Lear said.

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