Saundra McDavid

Sticking up for the people seems to be the unpopular thing to do these days. I sat in on the Senate committee hearing on House Bill 577 today. The bill was created to fix a loophole in our Local Improvement District (LID) statute which currently allows cities to pass bonds without the consent of a majority of the residents in the LID. Now, if a city knows it won’t be able to get a bond passed to fund a project, it will simply create a LID and force the bond through. Clever thinking on behalf of the Eagle City Attorney Susan Buxton, but an injustice for the residents.

I was shocked that the Senate Committee voted today against sending the bill to the Senate floor so that it may be voted on by the rest of the Senate. Not one person in that committee was willing to stand up for the rights of the citizens in District 14,and the rights of the citizens in their own Districts; instead choosing to allow a City to continue on with what is clearly an abuse of the Local Improvement District (LID) statute. Testimony by those against the bill claimed that people should simply vote out politicians who go against their wishes. Perhaps the voters need to take that into consideration with electing their representatives to legislature.

Interesting enough, there was not one regular citizen who spoke out against Bill 577 at the Senate meeting today. Those opposed to the bill were city attorneys and city mayors. Imagine that. Not one person stood before the senate committee and claimed that he would like to be taxed by his city without a vote in the matter.

Also absent from the committee hearing was current District 14 Senator Stan Bastian. Senator Bastian had an opportunity to help the residents in his district, but he choose not to. This makes sense since he was one of the Eagle City Councilmen who created the LID in the first place. This appears to be a major conflict of interest. I am running for Senator Bastian’s seat in our State Senate. I have always put the voice of the people first, and will continue to do so as Senator.

Representative Raul Labrador had the courage to take the unpopular position and speak out on behalf of the people in front of his legislative colleagues. He was the only legislator in that room today willing to do so. Please remember that on May 27^th and vote for the voice of the people.

Remember on May 27th who was willing to stand up for the rights of the residents, and who instead choose to stand up for the rights of government.