I’m from the government and here to help you…
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
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Every state legislature runs roughshod over local officials.
Unfunded mandates, laws to enforce and sometimes just meddling in general.
It was a small item tucked into a budget bill filled with similar small items that shouldn’t have been there.
But the controversy that erupted around it showed one more thing that’s wrong with how the state Legislature operates — one more thing that needs to change.
The provision allowed “a federally recognized American Indian tribe in this state having a reservation … encompassing not less than 60,000 acres nor more than 70,000 acres or any business entity that is wholly owned and operated by such a tribe” to get a Class B beer or liquor license from the state instead of from its municipality.
It just so happens that the Oneida reservation is about 65,000 acres. That’s one of the tricks the Legislature plays. It doesn’t come out and say, “This only applies to Oneida.” It writes general language that really only applies narrowly.
But there’s a bigger issue here. The Oneida provision caused a stir because the village of Hobart had been in a dispute with the tribe. Oneida owed Hobart $500,000 in taxes and fees, but hadn’t paid. As a result, the village pulled the tribe’s liquor license at the tribe-owned Thornberry Creek Golf Course before the dispute was settled.
Hobart officials had no idea the provision, which took away their leverage with the tribe, was in the budget until it was too late. They’d like to know how it got in the bill. And that’s the problem.
The Legislature has little transparency about who adds provisions to bills, or a host of other actions lawmakers can take. They just happen and the public has no idea who’s responsible for it.
In this case, we know it was added in the Senate caucus. But a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker said she didn’t know if Decker was responsible for it. No legislator has stepped forward to say, “I suggested it.”
No surprise there. If there’s any way legislators can avoid taking responsibility for something that might cause them a problem, they’ll take it.
It’s cowardly and it ought to change. Any provision added to a bill and any action taken in the Legislature has to have a sponsor whose name is open to the public, just like any other bill introduced in the Legislature. It’s one more layer of secrecy in the capitol that needs to be pulled away.
Incredible story.
If I were on the Hobart Village Board I would be “smokin’ pissed.”
There is only one explanation … money.
The only question besides who wrote the provision in the budget, is how much were they paid to do so?
Hopefully we will find out some day.
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