I do believe that I have come up with a true cost cutter for the state of Utah – eliminate the Office of Legislative Research and General Council as it is clearly an office that is not used by wise and insightful legislature.

For those of you who do not know that LRGC is, don’t feel stupid, the legislature doesn’t either. The LRGC is to help draft and review laws to see if, amongst other things, laws will violate that ever so pesky Constitution. Oh, sure, they still weigh in on the legality of bills, but it is clear that the legislature never really gets that far down in reading any particular law.

Take this excerpt from Senate Bill 11, a law which passed the Senate 19-10 and the House 56-17:

As required by legislative rule and practice, the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel provides the following legislative review note to assist the Legislature in making its own determination as to the constitutionality of the bill…Congress has provided a comprehensive system for regulating the manufacture of firearms, including broad licensing requirements. Congress has also provided that contrary state laws are invalid. Existing judicial interpretations of Congress’s power to regulate intrastate conduct allow the manufacture of firearms to be restricted by federal law. Accordingly, because this legislation purports to limit the reach of the federal law and is inconsistent with the federal firearms provisions, this legislation is highly likely to be held to be unconstitutional under the United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

In other words: this bill is unconstitutional and we will most likely loose in court if you dig-bats pass it into law.

But, of course, the bill did pass by a wide margin and we probably will go to court over this issue (though, in this particular case, Montana was kind enough to pass a similar law first. We might just luck out and not get sued first).

And ignoring LRGC is a common trend in this message bill loving state.  Time after time we pass bills because they are “the right thing to do” to send a message to those filthy (insert derogatory statement here).

So I say dump em’. As I recall there were 8 to 10 staffers for LRGC who work throughout the entire year. Each one probably makes anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000 a year for a possible savings of $320,000 t0 $800,000 (not including other staff and supplies).

Woah golly! We might actually be able to afford those lawsuits after all.

Of course, if legislators would actually listen to these hard working individuals, they would be worth their weight in gold.  But these part time legislators, many of whom have no real concept of how the legal system works, must know best.