OCR Text |
Show Under The Capitol Dome WW WW WW By J. J. Cuhoon Special Representative Utah State Press Association Salt Lake City, (Special to the Bulletin) Despite the possible unconstitutionality of-their actions, ac-tions, members of the Utah House of Representatives from 25 of the state's 2U counties have successfully success-fully stopped an effort by representatives repre-sentatives from Utah. Weber, Davis Da-vis and Salt Lake counties to enact en-act legislation providing for a re-apportionment of seats in the House. The "Big Four" counties had a population in excess of 340,000 in 1940, according to federal census cen-sus figures, while the remaining 25 counties had 210,000 residents. Representing this 340,000 population popu-lation in the lower house are 30 representatives, while the remaining re-maining 210,000 Utahns are represented re-presented by an equal number of house members. That is where politics enters the picture. Under the present representation, the 25 counties, standing together, can defeat any legislation desired by the other four counties. If the re-apportionment bill had passed, the four counties would nave 35 votes vot-es against the 30 votes from the WW WW WW Despite an $800,000 increase in sales tax revenues during the July 1942 January 1943 period. ' Rep. A. Sorenson, outstanding i welfare exponent in the house, arose against the measure and shed "crocodile tears" while saying say-ing that passage of the measure would completely wipe out the $3,000,000 reserve fund of the Welfare Department. Additional house action included: in-cluded: Passed SB-40, 41 and 42 to encourage en-courage mine leasing in Utah by relieving mine owners of the cost of social security, workmen's work-men's compensation and occupational occu-pational disease disability insurance. in-surance. Passed IIB-1 by Cowles, D., Carbon, to prevent legislators from accepting remuneration for any office filled by gubernatorial appointment. Passed HB-95 by Stringham, R Uintah, nd others, to levy a tax of 25 mills on all sheep and 10 mills on all turkeys to be paid into the state bounty fund to be used to pay bounties of $15 on mountain lion, cougar, grey, black or timber wolf; $10 on bear, and $G on coyote, lynx or bobcat. ;a outlying counties. Statutory law provides that the people of the state shall be represented in the lower house on the basis of one representative representa-tive for each 10.000 inhabitants or major fraction thereof, but that each county regardless of population, shall be entitled to at least one representative. The constitutionality of the lawmakers' lawmak-ers' actions was questioned because be-cause of a mandatory section in the state constitution which in effect says that the legislature "shall" provide for re-apportionment following each decennial U. S. census, if the census shows the need for such re-apportionment. Representative J. Welton Ward, D.,,Box Elder, states on the House floor that he was forced to vote in favor of the measure because he regarded a "no" vote as a violation of his constitutional oath. Other members from outlying out-lying counties who voted in favor fa-vor of the bill were Susan Alice Smith, R., Daggett and Amos B. Robinson, D., Rich. Several days later Rep. James L. Nielson, R., Sanpete, stated on the House floor that he would favor the measure if it came before the body again as he had decided that his constitutional oath made it mandatory for him to vote for the bill. Defeat of the measure can be partially blamed on three Sail Lake and Weber county representatives repre-sentatives who were absent at the time of the final vote. With the result showing a 28-28 tie, the additional three votes would have meant success instead of failure for the proposed act. During arguments on the measure, mea-sure, proponents of the re-apportionment pointed out that under un-der the present set-up the counties coun-ties of Daggett, Grand, Rich and Piute, with a total population of only 6,800 are represented by four members in the House, while the 57,300 residents of Utah county are allowed only five House votes. Even under the proposed re-apportionment, Utah county would be allowed only six members in the lower house. Utah taxpayers, already suffering suf-fering from a badly bruised and discolored tax jaw, suffered another an-other blow on the chin when the House killed a bill by Reps. Grant Midgley, D., Salt Lake, and Fred J. Milliman, D., Juab, to eliminate the two per cent sales tax on food and food products. |