As legislative sessions go, the recently concluded 2001 Legislature wasn't exactly a barnburner. With plenty of money at their disposal, the debate wasn't whether high-profile requests would be funded; the issue was instead how much they'd receive. As for the issues the Legislature addressed, it was pretty tame stuff compared to many sessions in recent memory.
Legislative leaders seemingly saved the fireworks for last. In waning hours of the session, legislators attempted to debate the creation of a college to oversee applied technology education. Meanwhile, sponsors of legislation intended to strengthen Utah's hate crime laws were waging their own battle to move the bill to the House floor for consideration.
When the curtain fell at midnight, Utah was without a plan for the governance of applied technology education, and the hate crimes bill had languished in the House Rules Committee.
With regard to the proposed Utah College of Applied Technology, this debate was best left to another day. There is no question that the issue of applied technology governance needs be addressed. But it's not appropriate to address such a broad-reaching education policy decision in the pressure-filled last hours of a legislative session. Gov. Mike Leavitt has said he will call a special session of the Legislature to address the issue later this year.
As for the hate crimes legislation, it was most regrettable that the bill approved by the Senate was not released to the House floor for debate. Credit sponsors Sen. Pete Suazo, D-Salt Lake, and Rep. Gerry Adair, R-Roy, for refining the bill in an attempt to address opponents' concerns. If anything, the Senate's passage of the bill and the House's reluctance to even hear the bill were defining moments of the session, with the House appearing more conservative on many issues than their Senate colleagues. Early on in the session, pundits believed the opposite to be true.
That said, the session was fruitful on many fronts, with legislators making significant financial commitments to address capital issues on Utah's college campuses, establish a $24 million package to help the Utah Transit Authority build commuter rail between Ogden and Salt Lake City and fund an additional $1 million to improve the salaries of state troopers.
Despite the tension between legislators and leaders of the Utah Education Association, the state budget provides a record 12.6 percent increase in public school spending over the current year. Higher education received a robust 13.5 percent spending increase.
In total, the state budget exceeded $7.6 billion.
In some respects, it was the best of all worlds for lawmakers this year. Not only did they have plenty of revenue, they had the luxury to cut taxes. Legislators rebracketed income taxes, dropped people whose incomes are under the poverty line from state tax rolls and removed the per-bed special tax on nursing homes.
Much was accomplished this session and lawmakers should be commended for their hard work and devotion to public service. This page was particularly heartened by the lawmakers' focus on drunken driving but disappointed that legislators — once again — made no progress in the government reform area and would not move certain issues to the particular bodies for debate. Lawmaking needs to be a public process, where legislation can rise or fall based on its merits rather than the political whims of a committee chairman or other leader.
By and large, it was a mild but productive legislative session. We thank legislators for their efforts and look forward to a full debate on the applied technology issue.