One Utah

I haven’t really commented much on this year’s legislative session for one reason - the news I’ve seen hasn’t really painted a picture of the session. Aside from anything having to do with immigration (i.e. brown people) the session seems to have been actually kind of boring. Yesterday, I got to spend some quality time on the Hill and what I saw was a session like 2002.

In 2002, the Leg more or less behaved itself. The world was not only visiting, it was watching and the leadership seemed that year to have decided to hold the raging ID of the Utah Legislature in check with the powerful Super Ego of the Legislature. IOW, it was a largely technocratic session characterized by almost anything that looked like the usual wingnuttia of Utah being quietly killed in a back room and pretty much everything that was progressive being killed in committee. The leadership that year seemed to have decided it was a good year for everyone to be on their best behavior in public and put on a good face for our guests. Most of the lawmaking that year was pretty boring.

This year, it seems much of the legislation that is getting traction is largely technocratic reforms of government operation along with a few tweaks here and there but for the most part, the real wingnuttia seems to be quietly dying - along with any real progressive reforms (i.e. ending the state sales tax on food). Even Karen Mayne’s bill about payday lenders is very modest - asking for reporting rather than actual reforms of the industry. Now this could bode ill, as the 2002 session was quiet, but 2003 (and 2004) was radically different - the mood on the hill was one of crackling hostility toward community activists, toward progressive reforms of any kind. I’m not sure Chris Buttars’ anti-Salt Lake City bill is going to get any traction - it would break the mood that leadership has apparently chosen for this year’s session.

It just looks to me like we’re going to have a session characterized by few fireworks and little of the ugliness of other years. I didn’t even hear any stories of legislative tantrums this year - that’s a first. (I don’t remember if it was last year or the year before when Speaker Curtis, aggrieved that community activists asked if the sales tax on food bill could be altered to reduce the tax even more, declared, “After everything I’ve done for you people,” and threw the bill across the committee room - literally threw the actual stack of paper across the room.) Sure, Dave Clark of Southern Utah delivered a semi-coherent jeremiad about property rights yesterday, but for the most part it was a quiet day.

Now, I won’t lie, our legislature could turn on a dime, it has before and they’ve indulged their raging Ids in public, but for the most part, this is looking to me like a quiet session with lots of quiet legislation and little of the usual gay bashing, glad handing, patronizing, and patting the good girls on the head, casual Mormon male arrogance that usually characterizes our state lawmaking. And frankly, that’s a good thing. Weird, but good.

This entry was posted Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 7:28 am and is filed under Bullying, Chris Buttars, This Blog, Utah Legislature, Utah Politics, censorship. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.