Robert Gehrke did an excellent job of breaking down the latest action by the Utah Legislature (The Tribune, Aug. 21) after the Utah Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the people’s will in the form of an initiative cannot be summarily overturned by the Legislature.
And, now the Legislature wants us to approve a constitutional amendment that will do just that — overturn the Supreme Court’s decision and once again allow the Legislature to negate the vote of the people.
The case in point established an independent commission to set the boundaries for voting districts. After the commission spent hundreds of hours conducting hearings throughout the state and submitted several possible voting district maps, the Legislature didn’t even pretend to consider the maps and simply enacted their own gerrymandered districts. The absurdity of the Legislature’s districts can be seen in state House District 33 that is contained within three of the four congressional districts!
Let’s not be fooled by the Legislature’s attempt to toss a bone to get people to vote for passage: Adding an additional 20 days to collect signatures for an already draconian process to even get an initiative on the ballot or throwing out the absurd statement that we should pass this amendment so we don’t become like California.
This one is easy: Just vote “No” on the proposed constitutional amendment and preserve the public’s right to pass voter initiatives.
David Bennett, Park City