Curtis, Seegmiller spar in debate

SANDY — Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis knows he's a controversial figure, but he still would do a better job representing his constituents than would Democrat Jay Seegmiller.

Curtis made that assessment this past week during a radio debate with Seegmiller on KCPW.

Seegmiller lost to Curtis by just 20 votes in 2006. And he believes he should win this year because he will push ethics reform in the Legislature and listen to House District 49 residents — as Curtis didn't do last year in the private school voucher vote.

District 49 residents voted nearly 2-to-1 against vouchers last November, but Curtis pushed the measure as speaker earlier in the year. The voucher bill passed by one vote in the 2007 House, and Seegmiller said if he'd been there it would have failed, saving not only Sandy residents but all Utahns an expensive, bitter public referendum vote later that fall.

Curtis said sometimes lawmakers must make tough votes, and he made the voucher vote as only one way to give families a choice on where their children can go to school. "I don't govern by looking at polls" which showed that most Utahns opposed vouchers, Curtis said in the debate.

Curtis said the Legislature, with him as speaker, has increased public education funding by more than 40 percent over the last few years — and he has and will "strongly" support public schools should he win again. Curtis says he will only serve one more two-year term, and believes he will be elected speaker again should he win in the Nov. 4 general election.

"Special interests have way too much influence in the Legislature," said Seegmiller, an Amtrak conductor who wants to limit campaign donations, restrict lobbyist gifts, set up an independent ethics commission, better control legislative conflicts of interest and make other so-called "government reforms."

Curtis, an attorney specializing in local government issues, said he has voted for a number of such reforms in the past, only to see them die in the Senate.

The Jordan School District split is another controversial issue in Sandy. Curtis said when a city incorporates, only those living within the new municipal boundaries get to vote. And he believes only those in the eastern part of the old Jordan district should have been able to vote on breaking away.

Seegmiller said that vote was not fair because west-side district residents didn't get to vote, but will bear financial burdens because of the breakaway.

Curtis said that it is appropriate that all residents in Salt Lake County now pay property taxes to build schools in the new west-side Jordan district. He compared that countywide support for schools to the countywide tax support of the Hogle Zoo.