“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.”
— Doctrine and Covenants 121:39 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 121:39
The exercises of unrighteous dominion flowing out of this year’s regular session of the Utah Legislature are unrelenting.
Disrespecting the courts and showing not the slightest concern for the people of Utah, lawmakers have focused most of the limited time they have in a 45-day session on moves to make themselves even more powerful and the people not only less influential but also less aware.
Utah has several tested and popular tools for the preservation of representative democracy. They include the Government Records Access and Management Act (or GRAMA), elections conducted by mail, provisions for popular referendums and initiatives and the power of local governments to make decisions responsive to their own constituencies.
The Legislature has given itself the task of diminishing or destroying them.
Not to make Utah a better place to live, improve its public services, strengthen our system of education, boost our economy or protect our health. But to amass more power to themselves and make it more difficult for anyone to stand up to them.
It is difficult to get into too many specifics in this forum, as whatever is outlined here is likely to have changed by the time it is posted or published. It thus becomes crucial that interested residents of Utah — which should be all of us — monitor the situation as closely as we can and be ready to speak up.
Follow events via sltrib.com and our allies at the Utah Transparency Project, other reliable news organizations and, yes, even, taken with a grain of salt, social media.
And make yourself aware of how the process works. As dismissive of public opinion and the public interest as they often seem to be, lawmakers cannot help but notice when their constituents take the time to speak up. Especially in large numbers.
Bills can be tracked, committee hearings heard and floor debates monitored on the Legislature’s own website — le.utah.gov. Constituents can also contact their own members of the House and Senate, even if they don’t know who their legislators are, through an online search directory.
There are so many bad ideas flooding the chambers and halls of the Utah Capitol that it can be difficult to keep track. That may be the point. What with so many awful things happening within our state and federal government, it can be difficult for us maintain a proper level of indignation.
To focus on what are probably the most important matters, pay attention to efforts to gut the state’s open records act (SB277), hobble its elections system (HB300) and stymie the power of the people to propose or turn aside laws through the ballot box (SB73).
Proposals have included doing away with the successful Public Records Committee and replacing it with a single hearing officer beholden to the governor. Removing language that tilts the process toward releasing information that is in the public interest. Ending the rule that government agencies found to have wrongly withheld public documents must pay attorney’s fees for those successful in wrenching them loose.
Lawmakers have raised specious arguments claiming that the state’s vote-by-mail system is flawed and subject to fraud. It isn’t. Tearing it down will unreasonably winnow down the electorate and make it that much more difficult for the aged and disabled, working people and those who live in rural areas or on Native American reservations to vote.
Our representatives keep looking for ways to make it more difficult for citizens to challenge actions by the Legislature that have overstepped their constitutional bounds. By closing off the option of going to court or blockading the road used by the people to place questions on the ballot.
Legislative leaders have also tossed up a series of unnecessary, if not downright harmful, diversions that may appeal to a few political activists but do most of us no good. Examples include more laws that seek to bully LGBT Utahns, particularly transgender people. To sluice more public money away from public education and into private schools. To disempower public employees’ unions. To provide Utahns with another round of income tax cuts that will only benefit the rich and undermine the state’s ability to provide needed public services.
It is all a way of avoiding the hard work of doing things the people need and want done, such as cleaning up our air, preserving our water, improving our access to healthcare, building our schools and making housing affordable.
Our Legislature is not doing is what the people want them to be doing. And there’s no reason to think lawmakers are going to do better if their constituents don’t demand it.
