Conflicts in 25% of bills

In the Legislature's most recent general session, Utah's 104 lawmakers introduced 745 bills (not counting those introduced with a title but no text). Of those, 184 — 25 percent of them — had apparent conflicts of interest, which, of course, can be perceived as good or bad or neutral.

Some examples, with the conflicts of interest identified:

• Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, is president of the Utah AFL-CIO labor union. He unsuccessfully ran a bill to increase the minimum wage in Utah to $7 an hour (a major labor goal), and sponsored a bill passed to erase a provision that had stopped future payments for treatment of industrial accident injuries if the worker had filed no claims for treatment of the accident over three consecutive years.

• Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, is the only openly gay senator. He unsuccessfully sponsored a bill to amend sodomy laws to provide that certain sex acts involving consenting adults are not crimes. (The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled such laws unconstitutional, and McCoy wants to clean up Utah's sodomy statutes.)

• Rep. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, is the Ogden city police chief. He introduced, but failed to see pass, a bill requiring prison inmates eligible for parole to agree to be subject to searches or seizures for parole violation at any time with or without a search warrant.

• Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, works in construction and property management. He unsuccessfully ran a bill to limit to $21 per unit, fees that cities can impose on apartment complexes that they deem use a "disproportionate" amount of municipal services.

• Sen. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, is an orthodontist. He introduced and saw passed a bill to exempt orthodontic devices (such as retainers and braces), dentures, bridges and crowns from sales tax.

• Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, is an attorney who practices family law. Ten of the 12 bills she introduced were in that general area. One that passed created a mandatory divorce orientation course as an intermediate step before a divorce filing. One that failed would have amended conditions when a parent could petition to end joint custody of children with an ex-spouse.

• Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, is a retired natural resources consultant long associated with the coal-mining industry. He introduced three bills in that area. One that passed allows someone seeking to extend a coal mining area to apply to significantly revise an existing permit, instead of seeking a new permit. Another required the Labor Commission to use revenue from mining certification tests only to conduct such tests.