Today I'm thinking a lot about the Omnibus Bill from last session. Do you remember that one? I don't want Utahns to forget about it and what it meant for democracy in Utah.
To refresh you, two days before the end of the session Republican leaders combined education and tax legislation together into a large "omnibus" bill, SB 2. In this way, with so little time it would be difficult to impossible to sift through the pieces in the bill, and since it involved raises for teachers, it would be terrible to oppose. The sponsor of SB 2, Howard Stephenson also pushed SB35 through the Omnibus - market incentives to attract and retain math and science teachers. The bill presupposes that there are known shortages in these two targeted teaching areas, regardless of data analysis to the contrary. Why would legislators need to decide for school districts and residents which subjects to incent?
Writes Jennifer Tommer-Cook and Bob Bernick of the Deseret News:
"While it is not uncommon for legislators to run "omnibus" bills that capture disparate elements of a topic, it is almost unheard of for multiple individual bills — including some previously defeated in the current general session — to be bundled together into one bill. This year's session ends Wednesday at midnight." [italics are mine]
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/257414/155/
http://utahedu.blogspot.com/2008/03/education-omnibus-bill-is-even-worse.html
Republicans who took democracy into their own hands need to be re-located in November by candidates who pledge to work with integrity in the House and Senate.
Happy Memorial Day everyone.
--Jennifer
Monday, May 26, 2008
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