The Last Day of the Legislative Session Ends with a Noisy Protest against H.B. 477

As the last day of the 2011 legislative session ends, many community members unite to "shine the light" on our legislators. After many controversial bills have been run through the system, H.B.477 has empowered members of our communities to rally. H.B. 477 specifies that voice mails, instant messages, video chats, and text messages are blocked from the public access. The bill also increases fees for "GRAMA (Government Records Access Management Act) requests" for public records. Protesters plan to write a petition. They would need thousands of signatures within 40 days in order to initiate a referendum on the bill. Governor Herbert signed a bill (H.B. 165) that bans electronic signatures that makes it more difficult to meet this quota.




Kelli Bellon, an artist, gardener, and fifth generation Utahan, expresses her concerns about the focus within our legislature. She contends that our representatives are putting themselves before the people in our state. They are forgetting that we are the one's that have hired them to do their jobs. "They want to have us in a microscope," she argued, "while they sit and hide between their excuses." According to Bellon, these bills are not being geared towards our community but towards the legislators themselves. She participated in the rally because she believes our legislators are forgetting who they are supposed to be representing. If we are not allowed to view what they are doing, why should we pay them to be secretive? We have been taken advantage of by the people we trusted. Now, it is time to unite. We have taken the first step by voicing our opinions, it's time to take the next step and become more involved.



Larry Curtis, another protester who gathered today at the capitol with his two sons, was especially enraged and concerned about H.B. 477. As a republican and citizen of Utah, he stated, "The most important thing for our government to do is be transparent. As a citizen I worry that legislators are looking out for themselves instead of the people. We need to be more active within our government, currently nobody is being represented equally but we need to gather together for change." A very important subject that was continuously brought up by protesters tonight was the lack of representation within our government.



Everyone who works, lives, and engages in our communities, contribute to this state and we only ask that our legislators do the same. If we continue to live passively, our legislators will continue to serve themselves instead of the people. We highly encourage everybody to educate themselves and inform others of their concerns. We need to take what we learn and act. Getting involved in an educated way is how we create a more effective government.

H.B. 477 passed both the house and senate in a matter of days after being brought out with little notice. Surprisingly, the governor also signed the bill with surprising quickness, even after the bill received local and national opposition. Opponents to the bill do not plan on giving up the fight to repeal the bill, however, and plan on taking protests to the Governor's mansion.