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Show By Harry Marlowe The story of the Twenty-eighth Twenty-eighth Utah Legislature is not so much one of what was done as it is of what wasn't done. Value of the session, which adjourned just three hours after af-ter the Kith day deadline, at 3 a. m. March 11, consequently lies in the fact that no particular particu-lar harm was done by the lawmakers. law-makers. At the same time, there were several things accomplished ac-complished on the affirmative side that didn't particularly hurt anyone, either. In all, the session passed 116 bills 48 Senate and (!8 House 11 joint resolutions, a concurrent concur-rent memorial, a concurrent resolutions and several intra-house intra-house resolutions. Most notable on the negative side was the failure of moves to repeal the Clegg-Vest Labor law, Utah's "Little Taft-Hartley," and the welfare lien law both of which were enacted by the Twenty-seventh Legislature Legisla-ture in regular and special session. ses-sion. These two moves were right out of the Democratic platform of last fall and they moved through the Democratic controlled House but died in Senate sifting. PID Allowed To Die Left out of the appropriation? bill and given none of the Motor Mo-tor vehicle registration funds from which it had drawn its finances, the State Publicity and Industrial Development Department was allowed to die. Even a bill to give a substituting substitut-ing State Parks and Publicity-Department Publicity-Department $100,000 for the bi-ennium bi-ennium failed to come out of House sifting after passing the Seriate. Also failing to get necessnr f-ttt for passage were bills n:,j-itlftorganize various state A:-Z,.s A:-Z,.s partments, particularly a set of Senate bills to remove the state insurance department from the business regulations and a se( of bills to reorganize the State Public Welfare Department. Both were passed by the Senate but not by the House. Among additional proposals to fail was a set of optometry bills to set the profession apart and" t5 provide a code of ethics including the restriction of advertising. ad-vertising. The biennial attempt to eliminate itemized disbursements disburse-ments from published financial j statements of school districts also went its usual way to dif I in siftjng. Of the legislation passed, twc measures likely to bring the most comment in days to come are the record $52,000,000 appropriations ap-propriations bill and a measure to set up a statewide retirsmen! system for public employes. The latter might draw a veto from Gov. J. Bracken Lee because be-cause of the debate against actuarial ac-tuarial soundness of the systems sys-tems of the state on an actuarial actuar-ial basis. It was the big appropriations bill that held up adjournment until after deadline. It finally passed both houses in its original orig-inal form after a week of bickering bick-ering between the House Democrats Demo-crats and the entire Senate over whether or not the amendments of the upper house in cuttin.r S930.900 out of the allocations was proper. Cities and Counties Slice Bigger Municipalities and counties made the largest financial gains of the session, getting all of the motor vehicle registration money through the B and C road fund. Heretofore at leas $600,000 has been taken out for the Publicity and Industrial Development De-velopment Commission. Somewhat of a new course was taken by the Legislature ir the matter of adding count-' roads to the state road system. After a debate over the bill tr designate certain roads to the state network, it was decide'' on motion of Sen. Orrice C. Mc-Shane Mc-Shane (R-Beaver) to eliminate all but three of the new sections. sec-tions. One of the added roadr was the "Hite road", connectinr US-66 with southeastern Uta)-via Uta)-via Hanksville. Another was three-mile stretch, in west Iron County near Beryl to connec' the state road with a county road, while the third is in Wayne county from Fremont tr Loa. While the session passed leg islation to ratify the Colorado River Upper Basin States Com pact and to provide a means o' paying for damage caused b game animals by using an increase in-crease in license fees for a claim fund, several agriculture bills filed. One of these would have provided refunds for taxes paid in gasoline purchased for non-highways use. Also killed, however, was a measure to eliminate the tax-on tax-on margarine, both yellow and white, after it had been amended amend-ed to make the tax on both the same. Weber College failed in its effort to become a four-year institution in-stitution and the Utah Symphony Sympho-ny lost a S 10,000 emergency appropriation, ap-propriation, both by veto of the governor after they had passed both houses. Among accomplishments o the session was the passage oi a bill to take the supreme court justices and district court judges out of partisan politics This was something the Legislature Legis-lature has tried to do since 194-1, when a constitutional amendment was adopted to pro vide for such a move. More constitutional amendments amend-ments were proposed, incidentally. inciden-tally. Appearing on the ballo. in 1950 will be the propositions to take the state superintendent of public instruction off the bal lot and provide his selection bj the state board of education Another proposed a'mendment would raise legislators' salaries from $300 per year to $500 pe year with $5 per day expense money while in session. Horse Racing BilL Loses Another bill which was killed for the third time in six years was a horse race measure which passed the Senate again and lost in the House. The bill this time would have permittee pari-mutuel betting but lim ited race meets to five days and restricted them to twc meets in each county per year. Several attempts were made to lift the bill late in the session in the House but each one failed. Few of the governor's appointments appoint-ments were turned down by the Senate. Mrs. J. L. Gibson, Salt Lake City, was finally named on the University of Utah board of regents along with five othc new members after the Senate had refused to accept either Dr James Kerby or Jeannette Garner. Gar-ner. Ken Scott was named di rector of the Utah Departmen' of Veterans Affairs after the name of E. T. O'Brien was refused. |
