These state lawmakers advocating disenfranchising whole swaths of voters and "redistributing wealth" seem better suited to a totalitarian socialist regime.

It's a strange day when patriotic Utah legislators start rejecting the basic tenets of representative democracy - simple stuff like one citizen/one vote, equal representation and no taxation without representation.

But that's how this school district-splitting movement has morphed conservative and moderate legislators alike: people like Draper Republican Rep. Greg Hughes and Cottonwood Heights Democratic Rep. Karen Morgan, Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, and Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights. They joined forces to keep voters who live in western and northern Salt Lake County out of November's election.

Specifically, lawmakers nullified the County Council's legal right to determine whether to place the split on the ballot in Canyon Rim and Millcreek and Kearns and Magna.

"One or two individuals can control the entire outcome," said Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne. "I don't think that's what we intended."

So much for local government.

Caught up in a one-day fit of posterior protection otherwise known as "representing my constituents," Utah lawmakers Wednesday tied themselves in intellectual knots rationalizing decisions they would reject in any other context.

Rhetoric flew thick and fast, with lawmakers invoking both the Revolutionary and Civil wars to make their cases.

"It's nothing short of treason to steal or try to deny the right to vote," said Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City.

Hughes, the standard-bearer for conservative House members, actually argued against majority rule, acknowledging if everyone affected by the proposed district splits gets to vote, "that vote will always fail." Better, he said, to let the minority decide the issue.

In the end, democracy was jettisoned. Only east-bench residents of the Granite and Jordan school districts will be allowed to consider whether to split the districts in the middle.

And a funding problem remains. Voters who live east of Interstate 15 essentially will get to decide whether to raise the property taxes of those on the other side of the freeway. All the rhetoric in the world couldn't solve that conundrum.

East-side leaders like Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore insist the question to split or not to split is about creating more manageable, responsive school districts. But this is primarily about money. East-siders are tired of watching their schools crumble and close while their tax dollars subsidize new west-side schools.

Lawmakers were supposed to eliminate the east-west divide this week by "equalizing" the tax burden of county voters, balancing school needs countywide. Instead, they considered raiding deep and easy pockets - the Salt Lake City School District. Shuffling funds around, one proposal would have siphoned $11.3 million from the cash-rich, stable district, funneling $14 million more to the imploding Jordan School District - essentially robbing Salt Lake City homeowners to pad the pockets of Draper and Sandy and Cottonwood Heights residents.

"We're making hasty decisions and they're not usually well-conceived," said House Minority Leader Ralph Becker.

Apparently worn out from orating, lawmakers punted, dispensing with the money question as they do so many complicated issues - with a task force.

Don't worry. I'm sure it will be very statesmanlike. Like yesterday.

walsh@sltrib.com