Since late February, many unfriendly bills were passed and are on the way to the Governor’s desk.
On March 5, the House took up the challenge of debating SB 5974 with its 50 amendments. This is the bill that can be weaponized by partisans to unseat elected Sheriff’s.
Sad news all around in that its bad provisions remained intact while zero of the Republican’s 50 amendments were accepted, versus two Democrat (Goodman, Fosse) amendments that were. The majority party stood together and voted the R amendments down with ‘arguments’ that were weak and sometimes completely off-topic.
The only silver lining is that four Democrats voted against it with the Republicans.
Voting Nay: Leavitt (D-28), Richards (D-26), Shavers (D-10), Walen (D-48)
Amy Walen is a known moderate. We view all the Nay votes as likely pandering for votes in purple districts this fall. But perhaps a thank you to them would be useful to get them to hear our other arguments or better bill ideas.
Here’s a short list of the worst bills (in our opinion), that have recently passed the legislature:
Date Bill No. Category, Description
Feb. 28 HB 1750 Voting, Creating guidelines for voter suppression and vote dilution claims.
Feb. 28 HB 2320 2A, Restricting gun parts manufacture; Granting AG more power to investigate
Feb. 28 SB 5892 Voting, Anti-DOJ, Voter registration database; Only SOS can disclose voter data
Mar. 3 HB 1916 Voting, Criminalizes voter challenges
Mar. 3 SB 5855 Anti-ICE, Law Enforcement can’t wear masks
Mar. 3 SB 6035 Online voting for military, overseas, Native American, and disabled voters, thereby opening voter rolls to more serious, untraceable fraud.
Mar. 5 HB 2156 AGO increased investigative powers; AGO attorney’s granted (unarmed) LE Officer status. (New addition to CCRP list)
Mar. 6 SB 5068 Sanctuary state, Allowing non-citizens to be in law enforcement, officers need only have “legal authorization to work” (Green card?)
Use these bills, which all lack apparent common sense, to hold accountable those who voted for them.
Upcoming is the expected debate on the unconstitutional (Millionaire’s) Income Tax SB 6346, which has been moved to the general floor calendar.
SSB 6355 Creates an Electric Transmission Authority at the state level, which has many of the attributes of BPA. It can construct, own, and operate electric transmission facilities in order to supposedly reduce electricity prices and provide for a more reliable system. It is designed to help small green energy projects become economical. However, such projects cannot afford to pay for the transmission necessary. So, the taxpayers will pay one way or the other. Worse yet, projects like this have a history of reducing reliability rather than enhancing it. Finally, the sponsors are low-balling the cost of this bill in order to get it passed. Estimates of $2 million dollar operating budgets in the fiscal note are more likely to be greater than $2 billion dollars (electric transmission typically runs $2 million/mile) when capital costs are taken into account. Please contact your representatives and ask them to vote Con on this bill.
