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While state law bans government entities from spending public money to influence bond votes, a University of Utah-owned laboratory has donated $100,000 to help persuade voters to approve Proposition 1, that would provide $15 million toward the cost of a new Utah Museum of Natural History.
Meanwhile, the museum recently launched a highway billboard campaign. Signs don't mention Proposition 1, but they have the museum's name in large letters with a picture of a Utahceratops dinosaur.
The museum says it isn't designed to influence the election but to promote science. Still, the signs come just before the museum will close for at least 10 months beginning Dec. 31 — or longer if the proposition fails — so it may be an unusual time to promote museum attendance.
While both the museum and ARUP Laboratories say their actions don't violate the law on spending by public entities, the author of that law, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, isn't so sure and is crying foul.
"I am going to look more deeply into whether this is a violation of current law or if we need to tighten up the law to prevent abuses," he told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday after it told him about spending by the two enterprises.
Stephenson said he passed the law several years ago "because school districts and others were using public money to promote tax elections or bonds, and I wanted to make it clear that no public money should be used to influence voters for, or against, ballot propositions."
Stephenson is also president of the Utah Taxpayers Association. It is neutral on Proposition 1, which would raise the tax on a $265,000 Salt Lake County home about $2.40 to help finish construction of a new building for the museum at the university.
Because the museum, as a public entity, couldn't spend its own money directly in relation to the proposition, a separate political-issues committee — Natural History Now — was formed to do so.
Its financial-disclosure forms filed this week indicate it raised a total of $112,400 — of which $100,000 came from ARUP Laboratories.
Dr. Edward Ashwood, president and CEO of ARUP, said, "We are a nonprofit corporation owned by the University of Utah. We are a corporation, not a public entity. But we are owned by a public entity."
He added it's not a charity, and donations to it wouldn't be tax deductible. He said it is self-funded by pathology services that it offers to 600 hospitals nationwide.
"We are like a nonprofit hospital, but we are a nonprofit laboratory," he said.
Ashwood said ARUP's lawyers looked at state law and determined that it could legally make its big donation because it is a corporation.
"Does that mean cities can get around the law?" Stephenson asked. "They have enterprise funds for garbage or sewer that operate as independent entities and receive all their funding from such things as garbage fees. So does that mean a city could promote a bond if they had money from the sanitation fund pay for it, instead of city coffers? I don't think so."
Ashwood said ARUP decided to donate after museum officials approached it. He said he then consulted with Carl Kjeldsberg — who isn't only chairman of the board and past CEO of ARUP but is also a member of the museum's board. Ashwood said he sought Kjeldsberg's help because of his knowledge of the museum.
Ashwood said ARUP donated as part of its philanthropic efforts.
"It met our criteria. It's an educational endeavor" that promotes science, he said. "We really need to help interest kids in science. We have 2,800 employees, and I need to hire about 100 new employees a year. … So we tend to support things related to science."
He said other examples of donations by ARUP include contributions to The Leonardo science museum, the Utah Symphony and an event by U. researcher and Nobel prize winner Mario Capecchi for high school students.
Meanwhile, Sarah George, director of the museum, said the highway billboard campaign it's funding was geared to celebrate discovery of the Utahceratops and not to sway voters.
While the Utahceratops was discovered in Utah about three years ago, she said formal publication of the discovery in a scientific journal occurred in September — and billboards were timed to celebrate it.
The billboards depict the dinosaur, but they don't include its name or any discovery information. They do, however, have the museum's name in large lettering.
"The museum is all about educating, and this is about the dinosaurs," she said. "We also are closing our doors in December and wanted to go out with a bang instead of whimper."
She said the museum's current location on Presidents Circle at the university will close on Dec. 31. It will remove its exhibits and collections before the building is razed.
Museum officials hope to open the new facility near the university's research park next November, she said. But if the proposition fails, it may take longer because it would need to look for another source for the $15 million that the proposition would provide to complete the new building and exhibits. The museum has raised more than $86 million from public and private sources. —
What the law says
20A-11-1203 • Unless specifically required by law, a public entity may not make an expenditure from public funds for political purposes or to influence a ballot proposition.
20A-11-1202-9(a) • "Public entity" includes the state, each state agency, each county, municipality, school district, local district, governmental interlocal cooperation agency, and each administrative subunit of each of them.