Deseret News | Reader comments: Omnibus bills tip power

Reader comments
Omnibus bills tip power

Mike Ridgway | 3:25 a.m. April 19, 2008

Yes, I also believe that "state lawmakers should be 'sensitive' to the fact that omnibus bills may very well violate the state constitution." Considering that they take an oath to uphold it, it's the least they could do.

reality check | 6:01 a.m. April 19, 2008

I love when editorial boards fail to check facts. This is not the first bill to have several items contained within. While I do not like omnibus bills, I feel people should be fair in their comments.

EdM | 7:07 a.m. April 19, 2008

And the sooner "we the people" vote the legislative leadership OUT this fall the sooner they will finally hear the message!

Comments continue below

BBKing | 8:10 a.m. April 19, 2008

Someone needs to take this to court!

And this op-ed is right on the money! This has never been done before, and now they are doing it and Curtis defends it like his grandma! I sincerely hope he loses this year. The same person that only lost after a recount is running again. Please Sandy City! Do us a favor. If nothing else, protect the Constitution!

Cannot someone go to a court and ask for an injunction against this?! Get the Supreme Court to have them read the Constitution. After they get an injunction have them ask for a Summary Judgement, or a Declatory Judgement and this bill will be gone, AND this brand new practice will be overwith.

Please!

Anonymous | 8:27 a.m. April 19, 2008

The legislature has omnibus bills every year. This year was not the first.

Inform the public, don't mislead them.

stevo | 8:53 a.m. April 19, 2008

Greg Curtis and a handfull of Republican elite have way to much power. Time to reign these folks in!

vote | 9:03 a.m. April 19, 2008

Utah needs a true two party system to keep our legislators from believing they have the freedom to do as they please and rationalize their abuse of our Constitution. Republican leadership needs to change, they serve themselves not the people. Choose carefully you voters of Utah County, vote for integrity this time. Voters need to push for ethics reform because it won't come from elected "Leadership."

Omnibus? | 9:21 a.m. April 19, 2008

The Constitution does not prohibit omnibus bills. In fact, many bills are omnibus bills; transportation, alcohol, tax, etc.

What the Constitution prohibits is bills that combine different subjects like municipal powers and taxation or education and elections. SB 2 was an omnibus bill but it combined multiple education bills not different bills containing different subjects.

Anonymous | 10:12 a.m. April 19, 2008

"If anything, the first-ever use of omnibus bills could be considered a power grab for legislators."

When was the first-ever omnibus bill? Probably in 1896, immediately after statehood. SB2 was not the first omnibus bill, nor will it likely be the last. The public education base budget the legislature passes each year is an omnibus bill.

"...SB2 included three education bills that previously had been killed in the House. Attempts to amend those bills out of the omnibus bill failed, so legislation that had died under the customary hearing process was resurrected and passed."

Perhaps you should check your facts. According to the record, SB2 received significant debate and was amended.

SRD | 10:21 a.m. April 19, 2008

Reality Check, So you believe that the legislature "got away" with it in the past and that somehow makes it OK?

The state constitution is the law, pure and simple. The constitution is not a bunch of suggestions. The legislature is required to obey the law.

If the legislature believes that they have complied with the law and that fact is disputed, then it is the courts job to settle that dispute.

What concerns me is that this legislature seems to believe that they are the law. The citizens of this great state need to vote these men out and put people in who wil respect and obey the law.

BBKing | 10:47 a.m. April 19, 2008

The fact checker from 6:01 AM should check the facts themselves, and not mislead people.

A strict reading of the Consitution is that a bill shall have only one subject in it. A bill file is opened and in so doing a specific section or chapter of the state law is opened. That bill may be amended in any way so long as it only deals with the specific section or chapter opened. Nothing more at all.

The clear difference here is that bills that had been defeated by themselves were added to another bill, without vote and passed as a whole. This is identical(!!) to what Washington DC does. The Patriot Act was made up of bills that had been defeated years prior, assembled and added to a larger piece of legislation, and passed out without vote or comment.

These defeated bills were added to the larger budget bill and passed out. Can you cite examples of where this has happened before? Can't can you, because that has not happened before.

These leaders need to take a High School civics class.

Joe Moe | 10:51 a.m. April 19, 2008

I admit I am ignorant about the potential conflict between the omnibus approach and the state constitution, but regardless of constitutionality, the tactic stinks. Further, I believe a line-item veto for expenditures would be great at both the national and state level. If wishes were fishes.....

Anonymous | 10:58 a.m. April 19, 2008

This editorial is uninformed and inaccurate.

Local Control | 12:29 p.m. April 19, 2008

Don't like the power the legislature has? Think local control!

We citizen have become too lazy expecting our elected officials to do everything for us. If we don't like them, rather than looking for others to take their place, let's just take their power and return it to the people. Of course, we would then have to take responsibility for our own actions.

Those that think we can vote others into office and expect something different are either ignorant, foolish, or both. Big, centralize government is the problem. Decentralize and leave us free!

SRD | 5:04 p.m. April 19, 2008

If the Legisalture has done nothing wrong, then they should welcome this challange. This would put to rest whether this practice is constitutional.

However if there wasn't a problem with what was done, why is the legilsative leadership making excuses?

maybe | 11:44 p.m. April 20, 2008

To the same poster who defended the omnibus using different names:

Omnibus bills are only legal if they are strictly "appropriations" bills about the same subject. The 12 bills were not only appropriations bills and the fact they are somehow related to education does not make them the same subject.

This was the first omnibus in Utah where legislation that had passed multiple votes with unanimous or near-unanimous consensus (House committee and floor votes, Senate committee and 2 floor votes--bills are voted on three times in the Senate) were mysteriously tabled as early as Feb. 14th (HB 67 and HB 270). SB 61 was tabled on the 18th, again being only one final vote shy of passage after passing all the previous votes. This legislation was then attached to failed bills that were pet projects of Curtis, Stephenson, and Valentine.

The Senate debated only FIVE of the 12 bills lumped together and passed the bill with no amendments on the 2nd to last day of the session. The House made one amendment on the last day.

The process was faulty and corrupt.

Ruby | 1:46 p.m. April 21, 2008

An important phrase in the oft-cited anti-omnibus section of the Utah Constitution is overlooked. The state constitution Art. VI, Sec. 22 states: ". . .no bill shall be passed containing more than one subject, WHICH SHALL BE CLEARLY EXPRESSED IN ITS TITLE." Did anyone note that the TITLE of SB2 is "Minimum School Program Budget Amendments?" Of the many bill sections, one explains a curriculum for financial literacy and another requires school texts and materials to be "mapped and aligned" to the core curriculum. This last piece was PROMOTED as a SERVICE from textbook publishers that would specifically not COST additional school $$. Interesting!?!

djs | 10:44 p.m. April 22, 2008

I'm not sure which legislature is writing as "anonymous" but the facts as stated in the article are true. I watched it myself (in disbelief I might add) No one has yet mentioned the fact that the Senate never even gave a vote to HB194 for class size reduction that passed in the House by 100% of those voting. They basically chose to just ignored this bill, and when she tried to amend SB2 to include her bill and exclude one that had failed, she was shut down. This was manipulation of the system and a gross misuse of legislative power.

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