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Show By Harry Marlowe The 31st Utah Legislature accomplished the impossible. impossi-ble. They managed to do what no legislature since 1931 has been able to do although nearly every session since 1931 has tried it. The 1955 legislature come up with a reapportionment reappor-tionment plan that passed. Naturally, the plan is not all that everyone would have liked to see. No compromise proposal will ever please everyone. every-one. But it went quite a long way to taking care of a number of enequities. First, and probably foremost, the plan divides Salt Lake, Weber We-ber and Utah counties into senatorial sen-atorial districts. This means the senate make up will reflect every passing political change In these counties. Under the plan Salt Lake will have six senators (losing (los-ing one) and Weber and Utah will still have two each. Rural Control By setting up the Senate membership mem-bership at 25, and cutting Salt Lake County by one, rural con-Itrol con-Itrol of the Senate was realized. Three counties, Iron, Washington Washing-ton and Sevier, get a senator to themselves. That makes up the I increase and several of the counties coun-ties get a realignment. For Instance, Wasatch was taken tak-en away from a five county senatorial sen-atorial district, and goes into a senatorial district with Duchesne. Daggett was added to Uintah County In another change. That leaves Wayne, Kane, Garfield and Piute counties, four of the smallest, lumped into the only district with more than three counties. I In the House, Salt Lake goes up two, Weber, Utah and Davis add one each and Sanpete loses one. That makes 64 members and takes care of the biggest inequities inequi-ties populous Davis County I having only one representative and Sanpete, with a declining population, having two. Not Perfect, But Workable By 1960, when the new census is taken, Davis, Salt Lake, Weber and Utah will all go up. And that Is as It should be. The plan, as we said before, Is not the best in the world. But it does not hurt anyone unduly and it is workable. work-able. And the very fact that it passed makes history. With the lawmakers through, or nearly so, an overall look shows that the 1955 Legislature did a pretty good lob. Thev held the line pretty well on expenditures. expendi-tures. They raised as much added revenue rev-enue as they could without un- duly increasing taxes, even though the $44,0OO,0OO-plus mini-mum mini-mum school fund will necessitate a statewide property tax of no mean proportions. What to do about school financing fi-nancing remains a problem that will have to be faced more and more in an expanding population. But the 1955 Legislature faced with a big Job and without too many tools with which to work as far as financing went, did a workmanlike job. |