From Deseret News archives:

Legislative conflicts of interest common

Published: Sunday, May 27, 2007 12:22 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Deseret Morning News graphic

   Legislative conflicts

One of the Utah Legislature's perceived strengths is that its 104 members serve part time and bring their private-job, real-world experience into lawmaking.

Yet, another result of that experience, a Deseret Morning News review of all bills introduced in the 2007 Legislature shows, is that a fourth of the session's legislation came with clear or possible conflicts of interest involving the measures' sponsors.

Story continues below
Insurance agents sponsored bills on insurance regulation. Police officers carried bills on criminal penalties. Contractors sponsored bills on construction. Teachers carried bills on education.

The percentage of lawmakers' conflicts of interest may actually be even higher than 25 percent because some lawmakers reveal little of their real conflicts in their personal disclosure forms, using only broad or vague wording.

And Utah lawmakers can't escape their conflicts of interest when it comes to voting on bills. Unlike members of Congress or other state legislatures, Utah's legislators, due to internal rules, must vote on a bill even though they may have a clear conflict of interest. However, they are supposed to declare their conflicts, either on a written form available online or through verbal declarations at the time of the vote.

Twenty other state legislatures allow a member to vote "present but abstaining," reports the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those, 15 allow the "present" vote only after the body hears the member's reason for not wanting to vote and only after a vote of the body allows the member not to vote. In some states, the vote of the members to allow a fellow member to vote "present" must be unanimous.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
Deseret Morning News graphic

Related content
previousnext

Latest comments

Letters: Chosen behavior?

Religious freedom is a "special protection" enshrined in the U.S....

Letters: Trash or truth?

But there's one major flaw in your thinking. Since ALL of Beck's,...

Celtics crush Jazz

Why quote Boozer when he is a huge part of the problem. The problem will not...

What a great segment. I enjoy reading this very much. Thanks!!

Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh get the audience they deserve and vice versa. ...

I find the rule,very discriminitory. I am not gay, I don't understand what...

Celtics crush Jazz

I understand we were outmanned last night. However, this effort was awful....

Tavernari has matured

My advice to Jonathan is shoot it when they pass it to you as soon as you...

Maybe they should try drafting a shooting guard who can shoot from outside ....

The sad thing about it is that there are actually people out there that are...

Advertisements
Advertisement