Now voters, thanks to the judiciary, can decide for themselves whether to spend their taxes on private school tuition.
On Friday, the justices stated unanimously that the Legislature passed only one law, in two separate bills, to establish a voucher system. A citizen referendum petition places that law, contained in both House Bill 148 and House Bill 174, on the ballot this November.
When voters say yes or no on the referendum, their decision is binding on both bills.
The court's conclusion that HB174 "would be without legal meaning" on its own, should end a debate between pro-voucher and anti-voucher groups that has embroiled the State Board of Education, the Attorney General's Office, Gov. Jon Huntsman and the Legislature for months.
That debate is now resolved and we can now be assured that voters, not interest groups, will decide whether Utah will be saddled with the nation's first universal voucher law.
The court's common-sense decision clears up a legal muddle created by the Legislature when it passed HB148 by one vote and then overwhelmingly amended it with HB174. When a referendum petition targeting HB148 was certified, it put the law on hold pending the outcome of a statewide vote.
Voucher proponents, including legislators who had crafted the shady two-bill strategy for getting a voucher law passed after years of failure, proclaimed that HB174 alone was sufficient to implement the law. The court said that they are wrong: The Legislature never intended HB174 to do anything except make minor changes in the original.
The justices were responding to challenges of the ballot wording that explains what referendum voters would be deciding. Those favoring vouchers had argued that voters should be told that HB174 would be used to implement a voucher law, whether the referendum on HB148 succeeded or failed.
The anti-voucher group wanted the ballot to specifically state that the referendum vote would be the final word on this year's voucher law, regardless of HB174.
The court accepted the wording as it stands, with the vital clarification that brought order out of chaos.
