“Democrats hold less than 20% of the seats in the Legislature,” says King. “When you have a superminority status, it’s hard to get traction up here.”
That’s not to say they haven’t been able to score some wins this year.
“We have got to educate people more about these successes we’re having when people ask us ‘what are you doing up there?'”
Like what?
I think of clean air for example. We, as a caucus in both the House and the Senate, have been at the forefront of many years of clean air initiatives. You are seeing that come to fruition this session in a way that it never has before. That credit needs to be placed squarely at the feet of Democrats.
King says he wishes the Legislature would spend more time finding ways to improve public education instead of spending time on what he says is bad public policy.
“For years we have talked about public education. But, the response you see to the growing concern from many Utahns about our education system from our colleagues across the aisle is unhealthy in the sense that it’s mostly an attack. That’s why you see things like getting rid of compulsory education and tax credits for homeschoolers.”
King also says he favors the compromise that lawmakers reached with the “Count My Vote” initiative backers.
“I think that SB 54 is a good compromise that goes back to the roots of what they were trying to accomplish in the first place.”