This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Vaunted tea party conservative and Utah Republican rock star Jason Chaffetz committed an act Saturday that the GOP-dominated Legislature would normally castigate as blasphemy.
He signed a petition to get a referendum on the ballot for a repeal of HB477, the controversial, hastily passed bill that limits access to government records.
The Legislature hates referendums. They smell like democracy. He must be a hippie.
Chaffetz, Utah's 3rd District representative, stopped by the Utah County Republican Central Committee meeting in Provo on Saturday morning where petition sponsors were gathering signatures to get the referendum on the ballot — a process the 2011 Legislature made much more difficult.
Not only did Chaffetz sign the petition, but a majority of Central Committee members attending the meeting signed it as well. That sent a strong message to the Republicans they voted to represent them, and legislative leaders started calling for a repeal of the bill they passed just weeks ago. Of course, lawmakers want to repeal it themselves. They don't want the citizens to do it for them.
Gov. Gary Herbert, who signed the bill and then also called for its repeal amid public outcry, was scheduled to attend the Central Committee meeting, but he canceled at the last minute.
"Why fix something that isn't broken?" Chaffetz told me in an obvious jab at the Legislature's passage of the bill that severely alters the current government records access law, and at Herbert for signing the bill.
"Had I been governor, I would have vetoed it," he said.
It's the second time this week Chaffetz has said he would have vetoed a bill Herbert signed (the other was the immigration guest worker bill), fueling speculation that Chaffetz might be looking at challenging Herbert for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2012. Chaffetz also has not ruled out running against Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2012.
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Rest of the story • I wrote Wednesday about HB331, which would have removed the post-retirement, 100 percent-taxpayer-funded health care benefit bequeathed for life to legislators who have served in office at least 10 years.
I noted how the bill caught lawmakers by surprise when Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork, substituted it in a House committee, forcing members to either kill it — letting everybody know they voted to keep their benefits while approving cuts for everyone else — or look magnanimous by voting to treat themselves like they treat others.
The committee and the full House passed the bill without one dissenting vote. Then, it went over to the Senate, languished in the rules committee, and finally met a silent death without a public vote.
But there is more to the story.
The bill actually was nudged out of the Senate Rules Committee with a few days left in the session and sent to the Senate Business and Labor Committee. It was on the agenda for discussion in that committee, then was quickly removed from the agenda without a vote and sent back to rules.
Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, chairman of the Senate Business and Labor Committee, made sure no member would have to cast a public vote on the bill that would have forced them to leave the Legislature before Jan. 1, 2013, or lose their state-gifted health care for life.
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Of the people? • A reader perused all the bills passed this legislative session and came up with this bit of trivia. The only two bills that were signed by Gov. Gary Herbert within one day of their passage were HB477 (severely limiting public access to government records) and SB165 (prohibiting electronic signatures on petitions for ballot propositions).
So the two bills that most limit citizen participation in government were the ones that required no pause from the governor before he signed them. Most of the passed bills were presented before the governor for several days before they were signed.
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What's in a name? • Given all the flak over HB477 limiting public access to government records, and the fact the controversial bill was largely pushed through by House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, it seems only fitting that her government email address is blockhart@utah.gov.
Other interesting email names of legislators include: "pray" (Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield), "blast" (Rep. Brad Last, R-Hurricane), "parent" (Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek), "dipson" (Rep. Don Ipson, R-St. George), "wharper" (Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan), and "jbird" (Rep. Jim Bird, R-West Jordan).