Utah Nullification

The books were sent out a couple weeks ago. We’ve had a few responses back.

Rep. Mike Noel (R-Kanab) wrote this:

Thank you for sending the Thomas Woods Jr. book, Nullification. I have been reading it this past week. My vote against taking the $100 million dollars in federal funds was directly related to some of the positions outlined in the book. I believe that as a state legislature we need to say no to the over-reaching of the federal government in this state and in all of our lives. Thanks for standing up for freedom.

Other positive responses have been received which we’ll soon hopefully post. On the other end of the spectrum, we received back one of the books we sent, from a legislator who thought the gifted book was in conflict with this law passed in the 2010 general session which restricts gifts from lobbyists.

My response to this legislator was:

I received in the mail today the copy of Nullification we sent to you, marked “return to sender”. Your writing on the back, indicating that you cannot accept gifts over $10, appears at odds with my understanding of the recently-enacted law to which you are referring.

Here is the bill which was passed: http://le.utah.gov/~2010/bills/hbillenr/hb0267.htm

The relevant text reads:

(1) Except as provided in Subsection (2), a lobbyist, principal, or government officer may not make or offer to make aggregate daily expenditures that exceed $10.
(2) A lobbyist, principal, or government officer may make aggregate daily expenditures that exceed $10:
(a) for the following items, if the expenditure is reported in accordance with Section 36-11-201 :
(i) food; ii) beverage; (iii) travel; (iv) lodging; or (v) admission to or attendance at a meeting or activity that is not an approved meeting or activity; or
(b) if the expenditure is made for a purpose solely unrelated to the public official’s position as a public official.

The definition for lobbyist and principal are as follows:

(11) (a) “Lobbyist” means:
(i) an individual who is employed by a principal; or
(ii) an individual who contracts for economic consideration, other than reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses, with a principal to lobby a public official.
(14) “Principal” means a person that employs an individual to perform lobbying, either as an employee or as an independent contractor.

As an unpaid volunteer for the Tenth Amendment Center, receiving no compensation for my duties, and not being employed in any official manner, it is clear that I am not a lobbyist. As such, this law does not apply to me, and the distribution of a $13 book to each legislator is not prohibited by this law.

This legislator replied:

I have no idea if you are a registered lobbyist or if your firm hires one. Our rules are not as friendly as perhaps they could be. I also have concerns about entrapment. I would rather be safe than reading about a problem I might have in the newspaper. Thank you for responding. I did not have intentions to offend anyone in your organization.

Despite being corrected on the fact that our organization does not lobby, and that as unpaid volunteers we are not lobbyists, and further, that this law therefore does not apply to us, this legislator was unwilling to receive the book.

For him and any other legislators that incorrectly assume this connection and refuse the book, we’ll be preparing some articles and materials to send that will put their minds at rest (since a few photocopied papers will clearly be under the $10 limit that does not apply to us).