From Deseret News archives:
Legislators have duty to 'oversee' not 'overlook'
But we now have more government, less local control, less accountability and a diminished sense of integrity. Any effort at ethics reform never sees the light of day. We have a Legislature that seems more responsive to lobbyists than to citizens and their local elected officials. My good friend and Republican, the late Alex Hurtado, used to remind me about the Golden Rule, "He who has the gold makes the rules." Some legislators have no qualms about using their power to pass laws best left to local elected officials.
Each legislative session we see hundreds of bills passed, primarily drafted by lobbyists, and there is little, if any, concern given to how they create more government interference in the lives of people. Each piece usually calls for more government writing regulations, hiring regulators that serve only to fatten government and the policy manuals.
"Oversight" should be seen by legislators as a regulatory and supervisory duty of their office not something to "overlook." They are to government institutions what a board of directors is to a private corporation. And since they oversee a public monopoly, they don't have the luxury of competition to keep them efficient, effective and able to respond to a changing environment. Rather than making government more cumbersome with more laws, they should take the time to eliminate some and renew those needed to keep pace with change. Short of that, expect government to be bogged down with process at taxpayers' expense.
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