HB267 is not so much a piece of legislation as it is a fit of legislative pique that should not become law. At least not in its current form.
The good news is that the bill, which would make it illegal for any public agency in Utah to engage in collective bargaining with a public employees union, did not win the overwhelming majority vote that most bills have coming out of the Republican super-majority Legislature.
Because neither the Utah House nor Senate mustered a two-thirds vote for the measure, it is doubly susceptible to being overturned.
First, there is at least a chance that if Gov. Spencer Cox vetoes it — as he clearly should — that negative might be sustained in the Legislature.
Second, because the House and Senate votes fell short of the two-thirds threshold, state law allows for a process whereby voters opposed to the bill can circulate petitions and, if they gain enough signatures, have the question put to a vote of the people.
That’s a difficult and expensive process, but one that has been used successfully a couple of times before, notably in 2007 when voters resoundingly overturned a law that would have funneled taxpayer money to private schools.
The weakness of support for the bill, plus the heavy pressure coming from teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees and union activists, has also opened some lawmakers open to the possibility of replacing HB267 with a version that wouldn’t kill public sector unions — just make it more difficult for them to be certified as bargaining agents.
Arguments that collective bargaining by public sector unions threatens the taxpayers of Utah are bogus. Unions are just not that powerful hereabouts.
This bill is nothing more than retaliation for the efforts of the Utah Education Association successfully opposing a proposed constitutional amendment that threatened to reduce the state’s already parsimonious support for public education.
The burden public sector unions create for taxpayers in some union-strong states is mostly due to unsustainably generous pension benefits. But Utah many years ago moved to a defined contribution model, rather than a defined benefit plan, for its public pensions, greatly reducing the exposure of public agencies to backbreaking costs.
Cox, who likes to talk about lowering the temperature of public debate, can play peacemaker here if he will immediately veto HB267 as it now stands and work for a less-punitive compromise measure.
If no compromise can be reached, and the session ends with no bill at all affecting public sector unions, that would be just fine.
