The latest information from Gage Froerer on SB25 and SB53. SB 25 will be pushed out of committee Monday. Gage will be running an amendment to make the effective date Jan. 1, 2008. Gage feels we have a 50/50 chance of passing the bill with his amendment in committee and even less on the floor, but he wants to send a message to the courts in case it goes that far.
The top priority is to get a bill passed to correct HB466 with a retro provision if we were able to get one, would guarantee a court case and the new bill would be held off from becoming effective until the court case was settled.
Gage feels the best course is, if necessary, file a suit from the citizens group on the basis of our right to vote. The County and State likewise will not fight this effort and we would stand a better chance of having a judge rule on our behalf and put the burden on the backs of the developers to pursue litigation.
The Attorney General’s office does not review bills prior to enactment. That job falls on the Attorney’s in legislative research who have found it to be constitutional but have said there is case law on both sides of this debate and they feel it could be overturned with a lawsuit.
Gage wants everyone to know he is not backing down on this issue on the basis of the retro. He firmly believe that we need a replacement to HB466 first and foremost, then we can deal with Powder Mountain.
If we fall on the sword of retro and lose the battle, we will be stuck with
HB466 for another year and that is not acceptable to Gage or us.
He will keep us posted on SB 25 in Committee.
Gage is concerned that there is a misunderstanding of SB53. In fact the end result would be that planning and zoning boards would have a higher profile.
Larry Zini
