We are not having a full moon this week, so it is hard to understand why we are considering so many lunatic bills. There are several worthy contenders, but the two winners in terms of lunacy are Mesnard’s SCR1005 and Steele’s SB1009.
SCR1005 – legislature; ninety house districts
This bill calls for the establishment of 3 house of representative sub-districts within each of the 30 senate districts, effectively increasing the number of representatives from 60 to 90. This action would entail a constitutional amendment, meaning that if SCR1005 passes both chambers, it will be sent to the voters for an up or down vote. The crazy part of this bill is that it will create an increase in the total number of legislators from 90 to 120, an increase of 33%. Does that mean that that we will have an increase of 33% in the number of introduced bills? If it did, it would mean dealing with about 2,200 bills instead of this year’s 1,700. Another concern is the availability of space. Can we accommodate 30 more representatives in the current building or will we have to add another wing? There is also the matter of cost. In addition to building expansion costs, we would have salary and benefit costs.
Actually, this bill has one good feature in that it calls for electing one representative from each district instead of the current two. Under the current system, the second-place candidate is always elected, which does not make any sense. The way to fix SCR105 and move it from the insane column to the acceptable column is to amend it so that we split the senate districts into 2, not 3, representative districts. This would alleviate the afore mentioned problem without creating a cost and logistics nightmare.
SB1009 – state vehicle fleet; electric vehicles
This bill requires that beginning in 2022, every vehicle purchased by the state shall be electric. Unlike SCR1005, this bill has no redeeming qualities. For one thing, electric vehicles have some very serious shortcomings. To name just a few:
- Reliability Problems
- Battery recycling and disposal issues
- Battery components, such as cobalt, are highly toxic
- Low resale value
- More prone to fires than internal combustion vehicles
- Long idle times because of long charging times
- High cost
The one alleged advantage of electric cars is that they reduce emissions. But that is a myth because what is saved in tailpipe emissions is offset by smokestack pollution. There is no way that there can be enough “clean” energy produced to handle the increased demand for electricity created by widespread use of electric vehicles. Therefore, there has to be an increase in the use of fossil fuel generated electricity.
But even if electric vehicles were the best thing since sliced bread, there is something inherently wrong with forcing state agencies into one and only one type of vehicle regardless of merit. Our position would be the same if SB1009 were to call for forcing state agencies to purchase gasoline power vehicles exclusively.
Our recommendation is that SCR1005 be amended or defeated, and that SB1009 be soundly defeated.