Rep. Mel Brown spent 13 years in the Utah Legislature mostly in the 1990s representing a district in the Salt Lake Valley. Since 2007 he has represented District 53 that includes most of Summit County, all of Morgan and Daggette counties, half of Rich County and the northeast portion of Wasatch County.

This year Brown benefited from a change in the House leadership that put Rep. Rebecca Lockhart, R-Provo, in as Speaker of the House. She made him chair of the Executive Appropriations Committee the body that oversees funding for all other bills.

This demanding responsibility also brings privileges that include influence over the legislative process. Even though he has no control over what bills pass or fail, he does have influence over how quickly a bill moves through the complicated legislative process, he said.

This will benefit his voters because, in essence, he gets to play referee over funding bills that could help or hurt his constituency.

“If there are critical, important issues, it puts me in a position to better get that work done for them,” he said. “If something needs to be done, I can facilitate that easily.”

One important issue near the top of his priority list is to stop efforts to equalize school district funding.

In recent years, districts with tight budgets have been trying to change how tax revenue is distributed so there are no rich and poor districts. As members of a well-funded district, Park City educators oppose this plan.

Summit County leaders and lobbyists have previously said Brown’s influence was critical in stopping equalization last year. This year he has even more influence.

Six of the eight districts that would be most hurt by equalization are within his district, Brown said, including Park City, South Summit, North Summit, Wasatch, Rich and Daggett.

The only other district he represents is Morgan, and they also oppose the idea, he said.

Brown said his top priority for the 2011 session is balancing the state’s budget without creating a greater tax burden on Utahns, while still funding essential services.

Outside of balancing the budget and stopping equalization, Brown said he has a few personal goals, but hasn’t yet created bills for all of them.

Funding education

“Education funding in general is probably the single biggest issue my constituents are concerned with,” he said.

Equalization aside, voters are asking for students and teachers to have all the resources they need to succeed, he explained. Final budget projections won’t be ready until next month, but Brown said he’s optimistic. The state’s economy has been recovering, so tax revenue should be better than last year’s, he said.

Brown said he doesn’t share the concerns of Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City. Briscoe, who represents the Snyderville Basin. Briscoe said in an interview this week that too much money was being diverted from public to higher education.

Brown said public schools in the state saw 12,000 new students in 2010. Colleges and universities saw twice that number. In a bad economy, people seek education to make themselves more employable. Helping to fund that increased demand does not hurt public schools, he said.

Procedural transparency

One of Brown’s personal goals is to demand that governing committees or organizations make procedural rules clearer to citizens.

“They ought to know what rules you’re operating under so they understand what’s happening when motions are made,” he said.

This should happen for both local and state government bodies, he said.

“I know of cases where people have gone before a local planning commission and not known what was happening because there were no adopted rules for procedure there should be more organization and civility in the process.”

Resolution for Daggett

Utah legislators are well known for proposing resolutions condemning the federal government, and Brown said he has one of his own. In this case, it is something requested by Daggett County.

When Flaming Gorge Reservoir was created, there were some land deals made between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the county. In recent years, the bureau has not delivered on some of the maintenance agreements, Brown said.

The resolution would request the bureau make good on its promises, he explained.