Keeping House

by Representative Kraig Powell

May 21, 2009

It has been just two months since the Utah Legislature adjourned its 2009 General Session, but it seems like light years have passed politically. By tradition, the House and Senate meet in joint Interim Study Committees one day each month during the “off-season,” but the April meetings were cancelled in order to help cut the state budget.

On May 20th, we held the first interim committee meetings of the year, but we also held a Special Session of the Legislature that day. Special Sessions can be called only by the Governor, and can address only those agenda items prescribed by the Governor. The main purpose for the Special Session on May 20th was to correct several technical misappropriations, primarily in education and human services, which were contained in the raft of budget cuts enacted during the General Session.

One significant Special Session bill, however, restored $6.6 million in badly-needed state Medicaid funding to Utah hospitals serving low-income citizens. Another important bill allocated over $1 million in federal forest lease funds for use by Utah’s rural counties -- money that would have been forfeited without action at the Special Session.

A bill that was vetoed by the Governor in March was resurrected and passed again in the Special Session. The bill allows a landowner to subdivide a 100-acre parcel without following a county’s subdivision procedures. I voted against the bill in both the General and Special Sessions because I believe it unwisely removes local control over land use planning.

The most interesting political developments of the past few months, though, occurred away from Utah’s Capitol Hill. In Washington, Senator Bob Bennett led an effort to block the nomination of a Deputy Secretary of the Interior to protest the cancellation of federal mineral leases in Utah, many of which are in my legislative district.

Then Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff jumped the gun by “tweeting” his announcement that he will challenge Bennett for his Senate seat next year. Finally, Governor Huntsman dropped the bombshell that he is resigning to become U.S. Ambassador to China. As a result, Lieutenant Governor Herbert will take over as Governor until 2010, and Utah will have an unexpected mega-election next year.

I am hopeful that Governor Herbert will work closely with the Legislature to navigate through Utah’s difficult economic situation. The effects of the steep budget cuts passed during the 2009 General Legislative Session are now taking hold. School districts and colleges across the state are laying off teachers and aides, state agencies are cutting back services to youth and the disabled, and state employees’ retirement and benefits are shrinking.

Once Utah’s share of the federal stimulus money runs out, even stronger medicine is in store for state and local budgets next year unless state revenues improve dramatically or Utah citizens decide to support a tax increase. It is important that you make your views known on this issue. Please let me know which areas of the state budget you think can still be cut more and which areas should be preserved or even increased.

I am currently exploring bills to introduce in the next General Session, and I would love to hear from you with specific ideas. Some of the topics I am working on include protection of private river beds, municipal authority over signs on state highways, the use of school buses for public recreation programs, and limiting incursions by the federal government into matters that should be left to state control.

Ironically, this is the time of year when it is most productive for me to hear from my constituents. The legislative off-season is when the best ideas are formed and developed. Please contact me at kraigpowell [at] utah.gov or 435-657-0185 to share with me your insights.