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Show Under The Capitol Dome I By Harry f Marlowe ', The 31st Utah Legislature accomplished ac-complished the impossible and thereby made history. They managed man-aged to do what no legislature since 1931 has been able to do although nearly every session since 1941 has tried it. The 1955 legislators came up with a re-apportionment plan that passed. Naturally, the plan is not all that everyone would have liked to see. No compromise proposal will ever please everyone. But it went quite a long way to taking care of a number of inequities. First, and probably foremost, the plan divides Salt Lake, Weber and Utah counties into senatorial districts. This means the Senate make-up will reflect every passing pass-ing political change in these counties. coun-ties. Under the plan, Salt Lake will have six senators (losing one) and Weber and Utah will still have two each. By setting up the Senate membership mem-bership at 25, and cutting Salt Lake by one,, rural control of the Senate was realized. Three counties coun-ties Iron, Wishington and Sevier got a senator by themselves. That makes up the increase and and several of the counties got a realignment. For instance, Wasatch was taken tak-en away from a five county district, dis-trict, and goes into a senatorial district with Duchesne. Daggett was added to Uintah County in another change. That leaves, Kane, Wayne, Garfield and Piute counties, coun-ties, four of the smallest, lumped into the only district with more than three counties. 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 having hav-ing nnlv rnp rpnrpsenf a ti vp anH Sanpete with a declining population, popula-tion, having two. 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. 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 job. They held the line pretty well on expenditures. They raised as much added revenue rev-enue as they could without unduly un-duly increasing taxes, even though the $44,000,000 - plus minimum school fund will necessitate a state-wide 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. |
