By paul rolly

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah taxpayers can designate contributions to various programs by checking the relevant box on their state tax return, sending money from their refunds or from additions to their tax payment to such causes as non-game wildlife, homeless shelters, organ transplants, schools, cat and dog neutering and spaying, drug rehabilitation and body armor for police dogs.

Taxpayers can also check a box to send money to the political party of their choice, but that is not a contribution from the designated donor. That is money taken from the general fund. So if you check a buck for your favorite political party, you have just assigned all the other taxpayers a share of that contribution, whether they like it or not.

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So Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork, has sponsored HB50, which has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. It would abolish the check-a-buck program for political parties.

Dougall said he decided to take action because most people he asked did not know the donations were taken out of the general fund, which meant other state programs were losing dollars to the political parties, which are private entities. The bill passed the House on a 50-21 vote, with Democrats voting against it.

Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake, acting as the point man for the Democratic caucus, said the money is split between the state and county parties, and some of the small county parties rely on the little bit of cash to operate at all.

Republican State Chairman Thomas Wright said he agrees with Dougall’s bill because it appears most people didn’t know they were taking money from state programs to fund political party operations. But he said he would support a check-a-buck program that was a straight donation from the individual taxpayer to the party of his or her choice.

Five Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against the bill, which would save the state a small amount. State Treasurer Richard Ellis said that last year just less than $100,000 was given to the parties through the check-a-buck-program. The Republicans got about $50,000, based on the designation of the program participants, while the Democrats got about $35,000. The Libertarians received some $3,500, the Constitution Party about $1,600, the Personal Choice Party $80 and the Green Party $4.

A larger issue, which is being discussed privately among some legislators, is the primary elections, whose rules are controlled by the political parties, though operations and expenses are borne by state and county taxpayers.

It costs about $3 million to operate an election, said Mark Thomas of the Utah Elections Office. That is, $3 million for the general election and $3 million for the primary election. The Republicans have a closed primary, so only registered Republicans can participate, even though all taxpayers fund it.

The political reality in Utah is that the Republican primary usually produces the eventual winner, and voters who are not registered Republicans are ineligible to participate.

There is some irony here. Several years ago, the Republican Legislature passed the Payroll Protection Act, which disallowed public employees and teachers from having contributions to their respective associations automatically deducted from their paychecks. The state was sued on the issue, but prevailed in court. Of course, the unions affected by the law often tend to support Democrats.

So Democratic-leaning organizations cannot receive contributions from their members if any government resource is used. But primary elections exclusive to Republicans get $3 million each election year from the taxpayers.

Go figure. Shouldn’t take you long.