"I was appointed to fill a vacancy [at the Legislature]," says Mascaro, a West Jordan Republican of Utah's endangered moderate variety. "I got a phone call to take the job on a Saturday while I was out mowing my lawn. I've decided to do everything I can up here to make good public policy.
"I'm not going to substitute what I know is right for politics," he continues. "If the voters in my district don't like that they can send me home. I was perfectly comfortable mowing the lawn and playing with my grandchildren."
He has been re-elected twice.
If the normally mellow Mascaro sounds defiant, it's because Capitol Hill shenanigans last week pushed him there. On Monday he lined up enough votes in the full House to reverse an earlier Rules Committee decision that sent one of his key bills to a hostile standing committee.
Mascaro scored a strategic win against the conservative Republican base that rules the Legislature. House Rules, chaired by Rep. Rebecca Lockhart (R-Provo), not only decides which committees can do the best or worst by a bill, but can also kill legislation by never moving it at all.
What follows is the blueprint of Mascaro's political coup.
His HB24 seeks an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate to dentists who treat children in low-income families. The rate would be set at 75 percent of the Mountain Region fee schedule for dental services. The 2005 Legislature approved the change for one year only; Mascaro wants $2.7 million on an ongoing basis for the state Health Department to administer the program.
"There are tens of thousands of children who get no dental care because dentists can't afford to do the work at the low rate," Mascaro says. "This is like paying for immunizations. Lack of basic dental services in childhood can cause serious health problems later. This would save us millions and millions down the road."
The bill cleared two interim study panels last year. The best committee fit for it this year seemed to be Health and Human Services, whose members are well versed in complex Medicaid rules and issues.
Rules assigned the bill to the Business and Labor Committee. Mascaro says word reached him that members who opposed the bill were promising to "bury it."
"This is one of the things people can do by rule when they have the power to do so," he says. "So I decided to use the parliamentary procedure we all abide by to get my bill to a committee where people at least know something about Medicaid. If this bill is to fail, at least let it do so by people who know something about social services."
He spent last weekend shoring up support to overturn the Rules Committee. He needed 38 House votes to do so. He got 42.
HB24 will be considered at 8:30 a.m. today by the House Health and Human Services Committee, in the Capitol Complex West Office Building, Room W125.
In a Legislature that loves to exact revenge on its perceived foes - whether they be urban Democratic mayors, Republican U.S. senators, a Republican governor or even its own colleagues, Mascaro admits to concern about the fate of his other bills.
"I have other legislation I really need out of Rules," he says. "But I tried to act in a fair and proper manner. Feelings may be hurt, but I believe the integrity of people on the committee will rise above that."
And if life on the Hill gets too prickly, there's always a lawn mower with Mascaro's name on it.
hmullen@sltrib.com
