This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Clear Horizons Academy, a private school for autistic children in Orem, received $100,000 from the Legislature this year — even though it was not on any appropriation subcommittee's priority list and had no public hearing.

But it does have well-connected lobbyists.

The school's lobbyists, Christopher Kyler and Mike Ostermiller, are with the Utah Association of Realtors, the largest single contributor to legislative campaigns in the state. They also have dozens of other clients.

Legislative leadership put the appropriation into the budget bill in the session's final days.

The school received a similar subsidy in 2014 after the request came before the Business, Economic Development and Labor Appropriations Subcommittee. But that was one-time money, and it had not been up for refunding this year.

Bureaucratic expediency • The owner of Cucina Deli in Salt Lake City holds one of Utah's precious liquor licenses, which can be a good or bad thing.

Because the state holds a monopoly on all liquor distribution and sales, restaurants, bars and nightclubs must go through the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) to order spirits and wines for their customers.

The deli's owner placed an order with the DABC in October for a special reserve cabernet from Casillero winery in Chile. He received an email Oct. 29 from the DABC informing him that his special order was submitted for review. On Nov. 18, he received another email telling him his order had been placed with the vendor. Then on March 30, five months after his request, he got the good news: "Your special order product has arrived in the warehouse and will be shipped to the [state liquor] store you requested. You should be contacted when the product has arrived at the store."

Two Gary Herberts? • On March 26, Gov. Gary Herbert sent letters to House Speaker Greg Hughes and Senate President Wayne Niederhauser stating that he had signed SB94, which requires the Utah Tax Commission to refund corporate tax overpayments, and sent it to the lieutenant governor for filing.

Then on April 1 — and you know what day that is — Herbert sent letters to Hughes and Niederhauser telling them he had vetoed SB94 and explaining why.

So the measure was signed — and vetoed.

Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter said the bill was always on the veto list. The first letter contained a typo. It was supposed to be confirming the signing of a different bill.

The veto occurred because the measure would have taken effect July 1, 2017, but it would have been retroactive to Jan. 1, 2015, sticking the state with overpayment obligations amassed during the previous 2½ years.

Request for funds • After reading about the $500,000 the Utah Legislature stuck in the final budget bill during the final hours of the session to pay some well-connected lobbyists to keep nonexistent wolves out of Utah, Tom Alleman believes he deserves some consideration.

"Since my faithful dogs and I started patrolling the foothills north of Price there has not been one polar bear attack, let alone sightings," he wrote. "But we have fallen on hard times. My truck has over 200,000 miles on it and it needs to be replaced. I need new shoes and my dogs could use winter boots. Since the legislature can manage to find money to fund the group who keeps the wolf out of Utah, don't you think they could find $300,000 to help me keep polar bears out of Price?" prolly@sltrib.com —