Comments about ‘Ethics, budget should dominate this session’

Where can one get a chance to sign the initiative?

I would like to sign the initiative.

Where do I go to put my name with the rest of the citizens who are feed up with the cozy relationship between our legislators and the lobbyists.

I cannot find much to criticize in this article. I have to agree that tobacco tax should be increased. It is taxing a luxury and deterring smoking.

I have to agree that there should be an effort to hold the line on taxes and using the "rainy day fund" in the current economic rainstorm.

I would only add that taxes should actually be reduced and government bureaucracy cut back to balance the books. If it isn't done now, when individuals and businesses need the break more than ever, when will it be done? It is also time to complete the removal of the sales tax on food.

This nation needs to end ALL foreign aid, all wars of adventure, all welfare to individuals and corporations, etc. This simple act would improve our national budgets immensely.

Feel free to sign your name to bad policy, but do so understanding that you are supporting policy that will prohibit a school teacher who serves in the legislature from voting on, or even working on, legislation that supports merit pay (or myriad other education policy). Nurses, doctors or health care professionals couldn't work on health reform legislation. Realtors couldn't legislate on real property regulations, etc. The ballot initiative would assume that these experts in specific areas would have a "conflict of interest". The initiative would also require that elected officials be people who have no management experience (see "control persons" or "persons of control" in the initiative language). That would eliminate the best leaders in society from representing us. Not wise. Bad policy.

Lower the tobacco tax, it's too high already!

The editorial speaks the obvious and ignores the tough issues like the fact that the legislature is going to make their ethics bill a constitutional amendment so it will trump the citizen's initiative. Where's the ethics in that? Also ignored is the issue of gerrymandering. The legislature will never give up their ability to create bizarre redistricting boundaries in order to keep themselves in office.

"It is, despite lax ethics rules, a representative body."

Hardly.

The State of Utah's Legislature is mostly male, LDS, and members of either the Democratic or Republican parties.

Most Utahns are not members of either of the incumbent political parties, about half are women, and people of other faiths or no faith are greatly under-represented on Utah's Capitol Hill.

Want a real representative body? Implement a proportional representation electoral system as most of the world's democracies have done.

If this legislature is representative of the people then the people are also corrupt. I don't know if that is so, but that is the logical conclusion.

I hope that it is not true.

I think our representatives are basically good, honest men and women trying to do their best to make the government work. Painting all of them with the broad strokes of corruption is unfair.

Why one should trust a group of similar citizens with different ideas any more than those we have is puzzling. I haven't seen the initiative, so I can't comment on its contents nor worth.

Are excellent people. We have the best managed state in the nation. Move anywhere else and start complaining. Here, we have responsible, good people who put up with completely untrue criticism, like they are all corrupt. Thanks Utah legislature, for governing wisely.

At this point, it's a secret combination at its finest; that's unless and until someone with guts stands up and says the place isn't going to be run the way it has in the past. Then others have to follow. Without a change at the core, we're going to be fighting the same battles again and again and again.

The question to all legislators is this? If not now, when? If not you, who?

If they were serious about reform, why did they wait until the referendum? Cuts work, so would refinancing bonds.

How about instead of signing a petition that passes the ethics buck to someone else and will bind legislators that aren't even representatives in our area to our whims we go out and volunteer in the process we have and get the best people we can find elected in our own communities.

Trust me, if someone is doing something shady it will be brought up in their next election. This petition is a cop out so people can feel good about irregular participation in the process. Blanket accusations of "all politicians are corrupt" are as inefficient as they are ill informed.

WHAT!!!! I've been reading the Deseret News only recently and I now see the peversion of the thinking with this article!

+++ I'd like to address them: A- Petitions avoid the 'tempering process of representative Government" They have not been listening!!!...

B- Employed signature gatherers +++ I'm not getting paid nor was I when the voucher petition was going around. I don't know of anyone who was. The people are angry and are very willing to sign and take around petitions.

C- 'Vulnerable to special interests'. Yeah, right! Like Lobbyists aren't special interests. Who has more of an interest than the people who are concerned with our elected officials being bought? +++

D- This petition is to get it on the ballot, to let the people decide. How in the world can you have a problem with that?