Effective Legislators

There is an organization whose purpose it is to judge the effectiveness of legislators. While there might be many aspects that go into defining a “good” legislator, the single criteria for being “effective”, according to this group, is the number of bills an individual sponsors that pass. So, the more laws that make it into the Utah Code, more effective our legislature is. Of course, no elected official wants to be seen as a “slouch”. Is there any wonder that citizens are increasingly dependent upon lawyers to keep them on the right side of the law?

I wonder if there might be an organization out there which would take on the task of identifying the legislators who are most effective at stopping the passage of needless or downright bad legislation.

What's for dinner?

Every once in a while it's time to clean out the refrigerator. There are Ziplock bags of this and Tupperware containers of that – some of the contents of which are beginning to show their age. So we sort out these containers. This one is definitely a “keeper”-- just what we want and need for dinner tonight. That one (Piu!) goes into the trash.

The legislature has the responsibility to do a similar exercise. Bills pile up going into a session in January and the sorting begins. Committees evaluate them first. If they merit approval there, they are sent to the House or Senate for debate. Both chambers must declare them worthy of adoption, after which, the Governor has an opportunity to validate the choices, and (Bingo!) we have the latest set of laws and regulation. In other words, “Dinner is served.”

What happened this year was interesting. Education is a hot topic in the state as well as the legislature. Lawmakers are being hounded by their constituents to adequately fund public education and the institutions of higher education, for which they have responsibility. The number of bills dealing with education was daunting but the committees began their work of sorting back in January. Some bills were debated in one legislative house or the other; some passing, some tossed out.

But the days were passing faster than the bills. By March third, votes on many bills that were essential had been postponed and still more, which were deemed of lower priority, were a long ways from being debated.

So some legislators came up with a brilliant, if unappetizing, idea. Take a big pile of education bills; pour them all into one stew pot, called an omnibus bill; and vote on them all at once. A time saving concept in the kitchen as well as the legislature! So in went the essential funding, along with the questionable programs, along with (What's this?) proposals which had already been rejected in committee or defeated by an earlier vote. What does it matter that some parts of the concoction were fished out of the trash? Would any legislator dare to reject the essential funding of education in an election year?

Law makers went home smiling. Everyone who sponsored an education bill got a gold star on the forehead for being an “effective legislator.”

What the public is served up now is a stew that brings in the increased money that educators need, but it sure smells funny.