Lawmakers tried again to reprimand the U for standing behind its no-gun policy, but legislation that could have punished U administrators financially failed to pass in the last hour of the legislative session Wednesday.
In the afternoon, the Senate approved the bill, but with a vote of 37-34 in the House, at 11 p.m., Senate Bill 147 died. The proposed bill would have enabled lawmakers to cut the salaries of top administrators in half if they support rules or policies that violate state statutes.
Bill sponsor Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-Salt Lake, now claims that the bill is not targeted at U President Bernie Machen’s determination to support the no-gun policy on campus, but the argument on the House floor said otherwise.
Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Salt Lake, spoke against the legislation, stating the bill makes lawmakers accuser, judge and jury.
“This bill does not make sense,” Arent said. “We already have the authority to cut state agency budgets anyway.”
It is obvious this bill is targeted, it should have never made it this far and should have stayed at the committee level where it was voted to be held, Arent said.
U lobbyist Nancy Lyon said the bill is “shocking” because of the way it switches the balance of power to one body of the government.
Speaking in support of the bill, Rep. Matt Throckmorton, R-Provo, said, “When agencies flaunt the law, there has to be consequences. If government agencies don’t have to stick by the laws why do citizens have to?”
On Feb. 5, the bill failed out of committee, but Waddoups resurrected the bill Wednesday when the Senate approved the proposal 15-11.
U lobbyists had a big job pushing lawmakers to vote against the bill. The Utah Gun Owners Alliance, Eagle Forum and Gun Owners of Utah each had multiple lobbyists trying to raise support.
In the end, “justice prevailed,” said Fred Esplin, vice president for university relations.
“I’m pleased the Legislature will allow this dispute to be settled in a court where it should be. The dispute is, at its root, a difference in the interpretation of the law.”
“Lawsuits are phenomenally expensive,” said Sarah Thompson, executive director of Utah Gun Owners Alliance. The tax payers should not be responsible for paying the cost of this kind of lawsuit, she said.
The gun rules came under fire last year when Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told lawmakers that the state Legislature alone had the right to create gun laws unless it gave that right to another entity.
Universities and colleges have not been given that right and are therefore breaking the law, Shurtleff said.
Lawmakers and U administrators have agreed to settle the dispute in what both sides are calling a “friendly lawsuit.”