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To see video of Ralph’s address at the Utah Democratic Party Convention, visit this website:
Ralph gave a powerful speech on the importance of education.
Check it out!
Ralph Becker, a long-time opponent of vouchers in Utah, applauded the Utah Supreme Court’s decision Friday that recognizes the will of the people and the letter of the law.
As the Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Becker (D-Salt Lake City) led the fight against vouchers, which passed the House by a single vote in February. Along with Senator Dimitrich and the Legislative Democratic Caucuses, he pushed hard for a special session to address the confusion of two voucher bills, urged the state board of education to stand up to the Utah Attorney General’s interpretation of the validity of the second voucher bill, and fought to clarify the language of the referendum for November’s vote.
“It is deeply wrong to underfund Utah public schools and at the same time subsidize private education,” Becker said on Friday. “Our per-pupil spending is last in the nation, and the distance between Utah and the next lowest state has grown to more than $1000 per student. Our children deserve the opportunity, the gift, of public education that only society can give them.”
Becker has a blueprint for how Salt Lake City will play an active role in developing a top-tier education system for its children. “The mayor has a responsibility to promote the interest of public school students and parents, as well as the interest of taxpayers who help fund the schools. As mayor of Salt Lake City, I will work hard every day to make Salt Lake City’s public schools the best in the region.”
In the next two weeks, Ralph Becker will present his education platform to accomplish these ambitious goals.
Today’s Deseret News looks at the inevitability of conflicts of interest the come from having a part-time state legislature. Here are a few excerpts:
As a citizen member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission several years ago, Becker said he pushed new conflict of interest rules for commissioners. “If you had any interest” in a pending commission action, “you had to declare it, and then you left the room. You didn’t discuss the change with anyone, you didn’t debate it, and you didn’t vote on it. Those tough rules served us well. And I think similar rules could serve the Legislature well,” Becker said.
Becker is a nonpracticing attorney who heads a local city planning/environmental consulting firm. He lists all his firm’s clients on his legislative conflict of interest form. And he believes other legislators can do the same thing, especially attorney/legislators.
“There may be a rare — and it would be rare — instance where (an attorney/legislator) can’t list a client because of attorney-client privilege. But by far most of the times they can.” That’s because it is no secret who a lawmaker/attorney represents, their names may be on court documents or readily known within the legal community.
Yet no practicing attorney/legislators list those clients on their disclosure forms.
“These job-related connections (of all legislators) can affect a legislator’s financial or personal situations, and certainly can impact their judgment” on an issue before the Legislature, Becker said.
Becker lists on his form all of his planning clients — a rarity in the Legislature. From certified public accountants to dentists to lawyers and engineers, many legislators who carry clients refuse to name those clients. No lawmaker/attorneys list their clients on their forms, although they say when they have a conflict, they verbally declare it before they vote without naming their clients.
Thanks to Stephanie Duer, Lisa Cohne, and a number of others who worked so hard to make Water Week an official state designation, we now have a terrific lineup of activites in the coming week.
From the Department of Environmental Quality’s press release:
Gov. Jon Huntsman signed HB 20 into law during the 2007 legislative session that commemorates the first full week of May each year as State Water Week. The bill, sponsored by House Minority Leader Ralph Becker (D-Salt Lake), is intended to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation, quality and supply in the state.
Don’t miss the screening of “Running Dry” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, Westminster College, Gore Auditorium.
Based on the book by the late Senator Paul Simon, this documentary explores global water issues including those created by a changing climate, increasing population, and a lack of access to safe water. Following the movie will be a discussion on the water outlook for Utah and the Wasatch Front lead by Brian McInerney of NOAA-National Weather Service, Jeff Niermeyer and Stephanie Duer, both of Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities.
Other events that are coming up:
Click here for more information on Water Week.
After years of effort, try this out: the Legislature will be visiting Salt Lake City this summer for its annual site visit. I have felt that we are not well understood by many of our legislative colleagues from out of town. (I’ll bet you feel the same way.) When some of my colleagues say we on the Wasatch Front don’t understand their issues in rural areas, I like to tell them that just because they work at the Capitol or shop downtown or go to a Jazz game (ok, don’t go there), that doesn’t mean they know about the community of Salt Lake City.
For many years they’ve been evading my request to come here for a site visit, but yesterday in our Legislative Management meeting, they agreed to come to Salt Lake City on August 16-17 and see what we’re up to. Let’s show them some hospitality and all the wonderful things happening here, and let them know what we care about and where we could use the State’s help, so that we can begin to turn around the poor treatment we’ve been getting from our friends on the Hill.