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Utah may sue to keep from taking fed money
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| Contributor | particleman |
| Last Edited | particleman Aug 21, 2010 08:50am |
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| Category | News |
| Author | robert gehrke |
| Media | Newspaper - Salt Lake Tribune |
| News Date | Saturday, August 21, 2010 02:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Utah House speaker has asked Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to weigh in on whether the state could prevail if it sued to prevent the federal government from forcing Utah to take $101 million in education aid. House Speaker David Clark, R-Santa Clara, huddled with Shurtleff on Thursday to discuss the potential for litigation.
Shurtleff said questions he has been asked to explore are whether Congress can usurp the Utah Legislature and give money directly to school districts if lawmakers decide to reject the funds and whether Gov. Gary Herbert can accept the federal money without the Legislature’s approval.
“We are working on an opinion, probably informal, but working on an opinion and we’ll compare notes” with legislative lawyers, Shurtleff said Friday. Two attorneys from his office are researching the issues. He expects to have answers by next week.
Herbert has until Sept. 9 to request the funding. According to the law, if the governor does not do so, the U.S. Department of Education can send it directly to districts or “other entities” to spend. The feds say the money could fund about 1,800 education jobs.
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, said he met separately with a lawyer in the Attorney General’s Office and that the Legislature’s general counsel also is examining the issue.
“They are looking into the legalities of it,” said Wimmer, specifically whether the Legislature could “pursue an extraordinary writ or injunction until we could get a court ruling on whether what the federal government was doing is a violation of state sovereignty, the Constitution and the 10th Amendment.”
Wimmer worries the state is being forced to take the money with strings attached, undermining the Legislature’s control over the state budget and making Congress a “super school board.” |
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