‘It’s not a power grab,’ says Utah House Speaker on special session over initiatives

SALT LAKE CITY — The leaders of the Utah legislature are defending the decision to call lawmakers into special session Wednesday, where they’ll propose a constitutional amendment aimed to change a ruling by the Utah Supreme Court on citizen-led initiatives.

“It’s not a power grab on my behalf or any other (politician), President Adams, or any other member of the legislature’s behalf,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said. “But we recognize that how important this is, and the devastation that this can cause to the state of Utah long term. And that’s why we’re so concerned about it.”

Schultz also revealed more details about what lawmakers will vote on Wednesday, outlining the language being proposed to voters. The amendment will ask voters to approve of the legislature’s reforming initiatives, and if that passes, they’ll loosen up the thresholds to repeal laws through referenda.

As of publishing, the bill to change threshold on referenda was public, and the language on the constitutional amendment was later released.

NEW: The proposed constitutional amendment language to be voted on in a special session tomorrow is now public. It adds the words “through the legislative process” to Utah’s Constitution — so the ability for voters to alter and reform their government “through the legislative… pic.twitter.com/bl509MT9Qa

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The language appears to give the legislature the ability to “amend, enact, or repeal” any citizen ballot initiatives — not just ones that deal with government reform.

It also adds a retrospective clause, meaning this version of the constitution could apply to any past initiatives. That would make it likely that it would impact the current case on redistricting and prevent any previous ballot measures from future litigation.

“We’ll ask the question, should the legislature be able to amend initiatives, and should the people be allowed to amend initiatives as well? So it’s just basically taking it back to the way it was before the Supreme Court ruled on this, and just add more clarity around it. And it’ll be a yes or no question, just that simple,” Schultz said.

When asked for clarity on whether the legislature would be allowed to repeal them, Shultz said, “I don’t think repeal, but yeah amend.”

He argued that loosening signature thresholds for referenda will make repealing laws for citizens easier.

“I want to be very clear. We are not taking initiatives away. We’re not making it harder for initiatives. We believe in that. We think the initiative process is important for people to petition their leaders to make necessary law changes that need to happen. But, however, there needs to be some flexibility inside that as well,” he said.

One Republican doesn’t want the session, or amendments

But not every Republican is on board. Marsha Judkins, R-West Provo, said she’s opposed to both the rushed nature of the session and changing Utah’s Constitution at all.

“The Constitution clearly states that, as with the people of Utah, that they have the right to alter and reform the government. And I think that’s a really important right that we need to be very careful if we’re going to take it away,” she said.

And she doesn’t like the plan to approve something only if voters approve the constitutional amendment.

“I can’t stand when the legislature does this,” she said. “We tied vouchers to teacher pay raises, we tied getting rid of the educational earmark with removing the sales tax on food, and now we’re trying this change. Each of these issues should have been looked at separately.”

Shultz said it wasn’t a tactic, rather he called it a “win-win” where each side gets a little of something.

Ultimately, the speaker argues that initiating a new law, if done incorrectly, could cost the state millions, or make a major policy shift. One example he gave, when voters passed medical marijuana in 2018. Shultz said because there was no enforcement written into that measure, voters –in theory — passed recreational marijuana without knowing it.

“We would essentially have recreational marijuana in the state of Utah. Had we not been able to make those changes.”

A campaign against the ballot measure

The executive director of the group suing the state over its Congressional boundaries, Better Boundaries, isn’t mincing words over the decision.

“This is an unprecedented power grab where you have the supermajority legislators legislature calling themselves into session, a power they took away from the government to override a unanimous Utah Supreme Court opinion. To me, it feels like consolidating power, and it’s deeply concerning,” Katie Wright said.

She said if the measure moves forward, they will campaign against it into November.

“We’ve had over 2,500 Utahns sign a letter saying that this is an unprecedented power grab and that they do not like it and they want lawmakers to stop.”

It doesn’t appear there are enough votes to make that happen.

“Those that are pushing back are scared of letting the voters make the decision,” Schultz said. “We want the voters to be able to make the decision.”