I first remember studying the separation of powers concept of our government back in 5th grade. The legislative, executive and judicial branches all have unique roles in forming laws, upholding laws and carrying out laws. That fundamental concept seems to be lacking this session.
The Senate Taxation Committee showed a lack of leadership today by letting an executive department (Department of Revenue) control so much of the lawmaking process that no legislator on the committee really knew what was going on. The situation revolved around HB 833, which was gutted to include almost every failed Department of Revenue bill from this session. Senate Democrats used a legislative loophole which allowed them to amend in 14 bills (and many other failed proposals) into HB 833. Most of these bills are intended to go after "tax cheats," but have been opposed by numerous groups because they have huge flaws and will affect all taxpayers. Here is a list of the bills: SB 139, SB 220, SB 120, SB 138, SB 174, SB 416, SB 99, SB 210, SB 439, SB 470, HB 108, HB 345, HB 147 and 816.
None of these bills made it through both houses of the legislature. Some, like SB 120, never made it out of the first committee. Additionally, when the Department of Revenue was asked what other bills or changes the amendments contained, they did not give correct information to committee members. Despite all of this, the Senate Taxation Committee stuffed all of these bills and more into HB 833 and voted it out of committee.
It's clear who is in the driver's seat. It's not the legislators, even though this is supposed to be the work of the legislature.
UPDATE: I didn't notice this MOTTO post until tonight. It's another great example of the lack of separation of powers this session. We will also see later this week if legislators are independent enough from the executive branch when they take a vote to override the governor's veto of HB 469, the wireless tax bill. The bill passed with huge veto-proof majorities in both houses originally, but I have my doubts that certain legislators will vote their conscience.
That is the unfortunate trade-off of legislatures in term limit states. The studies I've read primarily agree that the loss of professional politicians means a resurgence of the bureaucrats (to fill the knowledge/power vacuum). Though that doesn’t alter the point (legislative function), it’s just background.
Posted by: mtlibertyproject | April 17, 2007 at 12:01 AM