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Show jpppl lijggii Jliii some sort of reapportionment might come out of this session. Two new bills were introduced in the Senate calling for compromises comprom-ises which may go through. The major bill would call for a House of 69 members, controlled mainly by Salt Lake, Weber, U.tah, Davis and Carbon counties, with a combined total of 42 to 27 for the other counties, and 25 Senators Sen-ators with rural regions holding a margin of 13-12 over the above mentioned five counties. I Under this plan, Sevier, Iron and 'Washington Counties would each be given a Senator. All three are now in districts with other counties. coun-ties. Salt Lake County would drop from seven to six senators. Uintah Uin-tah County, now in with Duchesne, would join with Daggett in one district. Duchesne and Wasatch would share a senator, leaving Morgan, Rich and Summit counties coun-ties in the district in which Wasatch Was-atch is now. - In the House, Salt Lake County would be upper from 19 to 23 representatives, re-presentatives, Davis County would go from one to three, Utah and Weber would each gain two and Sanpete would lose one. The other new measure would seek to freeze the new senatorial arrangement into the constitution so that control of the Senate would always be in rural hands while the House control would be determined deter-mined by population. ,The Utah Legislature's "big-bill" "big-bill" the multi-million dollar appropriations ap-propriations bill was being hammered ham-mered into shape as Utah legislators legis-lators ended their fifth week of the 1953 session. All indications point to a compromise com-promise measure which will be slightly higher than the budget asked by Gov. J. Bracken Lee and in most cases well under departmental depart-mental requests. The joint appropriations committee, com-mittee, set for day-long sessions until the bill is ready, claim the money bill will be ready for introduction in-troduction on the session's 40th day last day for introduction of bills. Advance reports indicate the biggest areas of compromise will be in the appropriations to institutions in-stitutions of higher learning. These schools suffered the biggest reco- mended slashes under the budget presented by the governor. It is also quite probable that in most instances where Gov. Lee recommended a department get less money than was spent last biennium, some adjustment upward up-ward will be made at least to the same figure received for the last two years. The generally conservative makeup of the joint committee, however, precludes any wide variance var-iance with the total proposed by the governor. In fact, many solons feel the governor deliberately kept his recommendations low and would not be too displeased with an appropriations bill somewhat higher than his proposed figures. Preparing for windup of the session, ses-sion, the solons have cleared the most controversial issue of the session the Sunday closing law. House supporters of the measure meas-ure have strength to spare over the ' 40-vote two-thirds margin needed to over-ride the veto of Gov. J. Blacken Lee. But it ap- , pea'-s unlikely enough Senators ' could be 'oued oyer to support of the measure to get the 16 votes needed in the upper house to pass-the pass-the bill. From this week on, fate of the majority of the legislation lies in the hands of the sifting committees commit-tees of each house. The seven-man Senate group assumed life-or-death power over some 132 measures meas-ures at the end of the fifth week and a 17-man House committee took over 109 bills. And these do not include more than 300 measures meas-ures which have yet to come out of standing committees and then go right back into sifting. There were also indications that |
