One lawmaker says he’s nervous ‘about empowering the citizenry,’ as committee pushes bill to delay effective date of voter initiatives

“I’m nervous about the concept of empowering the citizenry….”

Unbelievable. In our years of dealing with the legislature this is instantly one of the most disheartening, but telling sentiments we’ve heard from a legislator, not just because it would delay implementation of duly passed initiatives – we’ve sadly seen the date for serving patients pushed out over and over – but because by changing the rules for initiatives already submitted under the existing initiative law, HB471 is so contrary to the whole spirit of the democratic process we can’t imagine elected officials holding such a sentiment.

But this rep is not alone, as the bill passed out of Committee on a disappointing party line 8-2 vote.

Voting yes: Daw, B., Nelson, M., Perry, L., Peterson, J., Peterson, V., Robertson, A., Seegmiller, T., Thurston, N.

Voting no: Arent, P., Chavez-Houck, R.

The complete quote: “I’m nervous about the concept of empowering the citizenry to intervene so swiftly and rapidly as to even derail the deliberative and systematic processes of the Legislature.” (Travis Seegmiller, R-St. George).

Meanwhile, “Rep. Daw said, ‘There is a need to give the Legislature a session to clarify and clean things up’ before the initiatives kick in.”

Balderdash. The 2019 legislature meets shortly after the election and this is the ONLY time that year they meet, so they WILL get to work their will – and if they don’t, they don’t meet again until 2020, so a seven month delay seems mainly about the anti-cannabis’ faction to keep buying time for their irrational blockade of the public’s will.

One initiative on funding education would be delayed for over a year by this. And in terms of cannabis, a crop season would be lost. Rep. Daw (and the Committee) know this all too well.

Even Governor Herbert, who doesn’t often align with our POV, noted:

“Legislators have power ‘to make any needed adjustments. So I don’t think we need to set things aside and delay the implementation,’ Herbert said. ‘I think it’s contrary to the initiative petition process’.”

We strongly hope brazen actions like this rouse citizens to let legislators know who works for whom in a representative democracy!

You can find and write/call/text/email/tweet your House members with your opinion here: http://ift.tt/2mbMCJm

And, thinking ahead to the next Legislature, we hope more citizens get involved. This fall’s nominees are being chosen in June. So now is the time to start learning how to get involved. Typically, many candidates face only token opposition in the fall so the primary season is the best chance to inject new blood across the state.

Change feels sorely needed in a body showing it’s come to feel overly entitled.

Much more in the article…

#MMJ #UTleg #UTpol #HB471 #CitizensBeforeLegislators #TRUCE    

See full article – One lawmaker says he’s nervous ‘about empowering the citizenry,’ as committee pushes bill to delay effective date of voter initiatives