Comments on: An Omnibus Bill:Legislators Take “Easy” Way Out On Education

By: Jeremy’s Jeremiad » Did Utah’s Legislature Ignore the Constitution?

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:31:37 +0000

[…] made an interesting comment on this post that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days. I think he’s probably right. This […]

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:58:58 +0000

This omnibus bill may be unconstitutional under the Utah Constitution. (See Article VI, Section 22)

One argument in favor of calling it constitutional would be to consider it an “appropriations” bill, which is partially true. However, the constitution requires it to be a “general appropriations bill”, which I would argue it is not. (See SB1 for an example of a general appropriations bill.) Further, there are stand-alone sections of the bill (e.g. lines 469-491, which come directly from HB 419, a bill that had no appropriation), which give further evidence to the notion that this bill has a) more than one subject, and b) the title (”Minimum School Program Budget Amendments”) does not accurately reflect the body of the bill, both of which are constitutional requirements of bills.

It’s clear in my mind that at the very least, the intent of Art VI Section 22 was violated by the omnibus approach.

By: UtahTeacher

UtahTeacher — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:46:20 +0000

Jesse, I just copied your comment into my new post. Thanks.

By: Jesse Harris

Jesse Harris — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:45:40 +0000

It seems that any omnibus bill, state or federal, is a Frankenstein-like monster of competing interests hoping to ride the coattails to passage instead of being forced to stand on their own. It’s legislative laziness to even propose these bills.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:22:35 +0000

Jeremy,
You know, don’t you, that Sen. Stephenson and the Utah Taxpayers Associations doesn’t care about the individual taxpayer, only the corporate taxpayer. Money talks and big money buys legislators.