Tax revenues are booming, with all-time high revenue surplus projections estimated to be over $1 billion.

That means the Legislature can splurge on schools, highways and economic development initiatives and even have some left over to give voters a tax break in a year when all House members and half the senators are facing re-election.

It doesn't get much better.

Then why is the Legislature awash in bills aimed at taking political power from citizens, cities, school boards, the courts, the governor and even U.S. senators and concentrating it on the Hill?

It's enough to make even the usually deferential Huntsman administration come out swinging.

"This is a naked power grab," says Huntsman spokesman Mike Mower of HB352, a bill that would take away the governor's most powerful weapon in forcing the Legislature to compromise on a budget.

Meanwhile, a Senate bill (SB70) would erode Huntsman's ability to block waste disposal sites, instead giving the Legislature the final say. Both bills are briskly moving through the Legislature.

Another Senate measure is billed as a "soft repeal" of the 17th Amendment that transferred the selection of U.S. senators from the state legislatures to a popular vote.

Sponsored by Sen. Howard Stephenson, SB156 would give the Legislature's majority party caucuses control over the selection of senate candidates. In Republican-dominated Utah, that would be the equivalent of choosing senators.

Other bills would undercut local government powers to tax, zone, raise redevelopment money and select ambulance services. Sen. Al Mansell's SB170, for instance, would shift control over local zoning to the state.

Other legislators want to tell schools how to teach biology (with warnings that evolution is a disputed theory), restrict teachers' roles in advising parents about students' need for counseling or medication and decide what video games are safe for kids.

Senate President John Valentine caught the public's attention during the 17th Amendment debate when he said lawmakers don't know better than the voters, but "We know more than the voters do."

The Senate Republican Caucus spokesman just dug the hole deeper when he clarified Valentine's statement on The Salt Lake Tribune's legislative blog: "No one over here said legislators are smarter than the rest of the state. He just said the Legislature tends to be closer to more information and the minutia of policymaking. It's true."

Paul Mero, president of the conservative Sutherland Institute, supports many of the issues the Legislature is trying to deal with, but is troubled by an approach this year that smacks of arrogance.

"There seems to be this attitude that the Legislature knows what's best for everybody," Mero says. "The best power is at the local level where leaders are most accountable to the people."

Lawmakers' near obsession this year with expanding their power may be because times are so good, says one political scientist. In crisis, power tends to flow to the executive branch, which can react quickly and decisively.

"Relatively calm times is when the legislative branch will reassert itself and try to take back authority," says Quin Monson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. "If we have a fiscal crisis, the Legislature may give up power to the executive branch. They might allow the governor to set budget priorities."

Such power-grab gambits may be more common in Utah because a single party controls state politics. Republicans outnumber Democrats three to one in the Legislature.

"It's partly a function of a Legislature that does not see a lot of opposition," Monson says. "One check on this would be that you have a competitive two-party system. They might restrain themselves from some of these things if there were electoral consequences."

Matthew Burbank, a political scientist at the University of Utah, says legislators' chronic power envy is partly ego-driven.

"Legislatures often feel like they don't have enough control and they should be more important in the process," Burbank says.

Unlike governors, U.S. senators and even mayors, he says, "The Legislature comes and goes into session (45 days annually). They are going to feel they have less power."

The attempt to reassert the legislative power that existed before the 17th Amendment is particularly misplaced, Burbank says. "There is a huge difference between the nature of colonial America and the nature of politics and culture today. Anyone who wants to be well-informed can be equal to members of the state Legislature in choosing senators," he says. "It's perfectly reasonable to have in place a system that is more democratic and more participatory."

Stephenson, who sponsored the bill, says his intention is not a power quest, but a yearning to return to the Founding Fathers' intentions.

"It has to do with constitutional checks and balances," he says. "The Legislature's powers have been restricted [by the 17th Amendment]."

The 93-year-old amendment's corrosion of states' rights, Stephenson contends, has resulted in federal abuses such as unfunded mandates, onerous oversight of highway construction and draconian federal environmental measures.

The Legislature hamstrung itself in 1990 when it gave the governor the final say on commercial waste siting, he adds. Returning to the Legislature the power to override the governor's decision with a two-thirds majority is consistent with the Constitution, he says.

But Mower says bringing hazardous waste into the state is such a "tremendous decision" that citizens want a system that allows it to be blocked at five levels, including the Legislature and, finally, the governor.

Mower argues Dayton's budget bill - which she says is only meant to ensure the state a budget, even if the Legislature and governor are deadlocked - would fix a problem that has never come up. But it could lead to unintended consequences, including allowing one legislative chamber to freeze a budget in place.

"No one is ever completely happy with a compromise. This could do away with the necessity of compromising. It would be government by stalemate," says Mower.

As for the Legislature's downward swipes at local power, Stephenson points out that local governments, including school boards, constitutionally are "creatures" of the Legislature. "They hate being called our 'creatures,' " he adds.

The truth is, he says, the Legislature is closer to citizens than many local governments and because of its extensive checks and balances, is less likely to infringe on individual rights.

"City governments have greater potential for taking liberty and property rights away from people," Stephenson says. "The obligation of the Legislature is to protect the liberties of the people."

Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch shakes his head at that sentiment.

"I am always amazed that officials at any level, from presidential to the state level to school boards, always think they are the most enlightened and that only they have the true view of the citizen," said Hatch. "The balance of power in the state has been pretty good [between local and state governments.] But the state Legislature has begun to go too far."

Burbank says the assumption that lawmakers know better than citizens might be more easily swallowed in Utah. "Utah's culture has a willingness to have the state government be more directive. You would not see the same debates going on in Nevada, Montana or Arizona. They would lean more to the personal liberty side."

Even in Utah, some of this year's bills may have crossed the line.

"From the beginning this was going to run afoul of other people's views of how politics are supposed to operate. It's becoming clear these bills are stepping on other people's toes," said Burbank,

Mansell has already throttled back his zoning assault on local government, acknowledging his original bill went "over the top."

And Stephenson's "soft repeal" of the 17th Amendment triggered some phone calls from Utah's U.S. senators. It since has been stripped of its nominating provision and some co-sponsors are bailing out. And it hasn't even reached the full Senate.

"These kind of bills often start off with a big bang," Burbank says. "Apparently, a lot of other people thought this wasn't such a good idea."

gwarchol@sltrib.com

Bills that would put the Legislature in charge

l HB352 The "stick-it-to-the-governor bill," as gubernatorial staffers call it, would diminish the chief executive's ability to veto the state budget.

l SB70 Would take away the governor's final say-so over siting of hazardous, radioactive and other waste sites.

l SB156 The so-called "soft repeal" of the 17th amendment has been watered down from its original version, which would have turned over selection of U.S. Senate candidates to the Legislature.

l SB170 Would strip local governments of much of their authority over zoning and land use regulation.

l HB132 Would prohibit counties and municipalities from withholding approval of a land use application for reasons not specified in a statute or ordinance.

l HB135 Would require annual legislative audits of the most populous cities and counties

l HB206 Would require large cities and counties to operate under a council-manager form of government.

l SB97 Is intended to ban gay student support clubs in schools.

l SB96 Would require teachers to label evolution a theory not endorsed by the state and disputed among scientists.

l HB299 The so-called Ritalin bill would prohibit school employees from making medication recommendations to students.

l HB257 Would make it a crime to sell or give excessively violent video games to children.