Opinion: Members of Utah Legislature use office for power

Opinion: Members of Utah Legislature use office for power


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SALT LAKE CITY — Hey, did you hear what happened? An elected official in Utah took money from a business who was trying to head off future legal problems. Not only that but he's been building relationships with businesses and that relationship is helping them get a leg up against the competition. Can you believe it?

I know you're thinking about Attorney General John Swallow, but this actually applies across the Utah State Legislature. If the accusations against the Attorney General are to be believed then there are currently two major ways to influence the law in Utah: you can pay the legislature to write the law a certain way or you can pay the Attorney General to prosecute the law a certain way.

I know members of the legislature will take umbrage with my characterization, but I feel the facts speak for themselves, even if they're not the kind of facts that you might roll out in court.

In the Deseret News recently, past state Sen. Dan Liljenquist called for the Attorney General to be appointed, not elected. He cited a poll in which Utahns overwhelmingly felt that the AG "should not take campaign contributions from businesses he is supposed to regulate," yet that is exactly what Liljenquist did for years as a state senator.

Liljenquist took money from businesses that needed work done at the legislature. You can see that for yourself in the financial disclosure reports. This is the standard practice in the legislature, among both Republicans and Democrats.

House Speaker Becky Lockhart lives in one of the safest districts in the state. Once past the few dozen delegates assigned to her district at the GOP Convention, she is effectively unopposed in her re- election. That bar is pretty low and advocates of the caucus/convention point out the benefit of not needing lots of money to win. Yet she still raises hundreds of thousands of dollars from people trying to make changes to our laws.


Does the Utah Legislature really expect to find signed documents where Mr. Swallow has promised in writing to perform certain tasks in exchange for money?

Are those checks she collects actually tax deductible donations to a soup kitchen she secretly runs on the side? Of course not. After the most recent redistricting, almost every legislature enjoys a similar setup. They don't face a real public reelection, but they still collect "campaign donations." Why?

Stan Lockhart, prominent lobbyist and husband to Speaker Lockhart, was famous for giving away tens of thousands of dollars in Jazz tickets to Utah's legislators before the practice was finally made illegal. Now, the legislature only takes cash. While that has improved documentation for above-the-table donations, the process of reporting and searching those reports is perhaps deliberately still awkward and confusing for the public.

Reps. Mike Noel and Aaron Tilton used their committee assignments to pave the way for the proposed nuclear power plant in Southern Utah. What we didn't know at the time is that both men had interests in the project that were kept from the legislature. Rep. Noel still serves in the House.

The public/private partnerships known as charter schools were championed early on by legislators — including Sheldon Killpack, Mike Morley and Jim Ferrin. Each of them had financial interest in companies that financed, built, and operated charter schools.

I'm a fan of school choice, in general, but looking at recent underwhelming performance of the schools, it looks like their legacy for the immediate future is the personal fortunes of the politically connected.

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In Utah, education reform has kind of stalled out. Perhaps if we could find a teacher merit pay scheme that also generates side income for legislators we could finally move forward with it.

There is at least one legislator who seems to have a better perspective. Rep. Ken Ivory says the legislature needs to be very circumspect and the facts need to match the law. That's an excellent point for Rep. Ivory to make as his own financial backers are included in a laundry list of major legislative interests, including a few like real estate and billboards that have seen some stunning successes recently on Capitol Hill. I'm sure he'd hate to be accused of corruption, and he's clearly hesitant to do the same to the Attorney General.

In fact, I think most members of the Utah Legislature would resent me characterizing the money they take as "corruption." In past conversations, legislators have invited me to provide documentation of quid pro quo because, without it, I have to accept the most innocent explanation possible of all this money changing hands. Doesn't the Attorney General deserve the same thing?

Does the Utah Legislature really expect to find signed documents where Mr. Swallow has promised in writing to perform certain tasks in exchange for money?

The leadership of the Utah Legislature has been wringing their hands over this. They say there's no precedent for moving forward. But they're wrong. They have lots of political precedent that they themselves have established on taking money from people who want a certain outcome, on maintaining conflicts of interest in public office and on profiting personally and financially using the power of elected office.

The real reason the legislature is having heartburn is that while the public demands action, the political precedent is inaction.

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Ethan Millard

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