OCR Text |
Show Support Grows For 75 Member House By MARK D, MICKELSEN SALT LAKE CITY Support is growing among Utah Legislators for a reapportionment plan aimed at retaining 75 members in the House of Representatives, Representa-tives, according to Rep. Merrill W. Harward, Republican Repub-lican co-chairman of the Legislative Reapportionment Reapportion-ment Committee. ' UTAH LAWMAKERS on Wednesday will have an opportunity to review the proposed House reapportionment reappor-tionment plan which, if approved, w ill assure Davis County residents another half a representative and cut Weber County representation by two. Under the House reapportionment plan Davis and Weber counties will each have seven representatives and will share an additional representative for a combined com-bined member total of 15 legislators. THE SHARED district will consist of Clinton and Sunset in the northwest part of Davis County and Hooper in Weber County. Weber County currently retains nine House representatives. Davis County has seven. According to Rep. Harward, a majority of the population in the combined Davis-Weber district is in Davis County. Therefore, Davis representatives may have an opportunity to control a greater portion of the House vote. STATEWIDE, the House redistricting plan will have greater political consequences in northern and central Utah, Harward said. Salt Lake, Weber and Utah counties will face the most drastic changes. Salt Lake County will pick up one-half a representative represen-tative for a total of 32 voting members. TOOELE COUNTY will have two representatives instead of one-and-a-half. Weber County faces the most critical drop in representation, rep-resentation, from nine to seven-and-a-half members. mem-bers. WHEN THE call for reapportionment came last year, Rep. Harward said a variety of problems began to pop up in planning and research committees. Since redistricting requires consequential changes in the existing political boundary lines, many counties coun-ties complained when their districts were split, Harward Har-ward said. IN ADDITION, the courts have concluded that legislators may not cut or increase representation in any one area by more than five percent. Many sectors, sec-tors, Harward explained, had to be completely redrawn red-rawn because representation factors reached the six or seven percent mark. Further into the reapportionment process some legislators suggested the possibility of reducing the House of Representatives to 69, but Harward said the House split 31-31 on a decision. HE SAID several Davis County representatives opposed the plan because it would have required a splitting of the exisiting Kaysville district. "We've abandoned the 69," Rep. Harward said, adding "there is substantial support building to keep the House at 75 (members)." DESPITE WEEKS and months of planning, Rep. Harward said there will be some definite advantages to the proposed reapportionment plan. FIRST, UTAH will gain an additional congressional congression-al representative. Second, acting congressmen will have smaller areas to campaign in during election years. THIRD, THE people's vote will be equally important impor-tant in all areas of the state. Industry in south Davi'j County will be included in a special district, separate from the adjoining cities of North Salt Lake, Bountiful and Woods Cross. THE REASON, according to Rep. Harward, is that the industrial areas feel as though their wishes and ideas have not been adequately reviewed in the past. A number of south Davis government officials feel the same way, he added. REP. HARWARD said Tuesday final plans for the reapportionment presentation are coming to a close after nearly a year of research and investigation, planning and redistricting. One amendment to the proposal by Utah lawmakers lawmak-ers "can shoot the whole process down," he said, thus "knocking over the rest of the dominos." One amendment to the proposal HE SAID the Legislative Reapportionment Committee Com-mittee has convened 15 or 16 times during the past year to arrive at some concrete solution over redistricting. redis-tricting. Wednesday's gathering of the Legislature will spell the end of a long process, but perhaps the beginning of an even longer commitment if lawmakers lawmak-ers vote the proposal down. REP. HARWARD, who Tuesday was putting the finishing touches on the proposal, said he will make recommendation to the committee to accept tHt House plan as written, with "some" modificall4. |