Utah Education Association says Amendment A ‘is misleading and inaccurate’ in supplemental complaint

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Education Association (UEA) filed a motion in court on Wednesday asking a judge to throw out constitutional Amendment A, slated for the November ballot, one week after a judge granted an injunction that voided Amendment D.

Amendment A seeks to erase a constitutional guarantee allowing income tax revenue to public schools.

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Last Wednesday, a judge voided Amendment D, while still allowing it to appear on the ballot.

Amendment D was created by the Utah Legislature in an emergency special session specifically to add it to the Nov. 5 ballot. The summary — what voters see on the ballot — said the amendment would "strengthen and clarify" the citizen initiative process for future Utah elections. Opponents argued voters' constitutional rights would be stripped.

State officials argued that Amendment D is necessary to keep "foreign" influence out of Utah's law structure.

Utah State Legislature's current model of income tax uses it for four purposes:

If on the ballot, Amendment A will be presented to voters as follows:

The UEA alleges that the amendment "is misleading and inaccurate" in Wednesday's filing. In their initial filing on May 29, the group alleged that a bill passed in 2023, known as H.B. 215, which created the "Utah Fits All" school voucher program, allowed the legislature to begin work on 2023 S.J.R. 10.

Work done in 2023's session on S.J.R. 10, allegedly led to constitutional Amendment A, slated for the November ballot.

"Amendment A would modify Article XIII, Section 5(5), to eliminate the requirement that income tax revenues be spent only on public education and certain social services, and replace it with an unlimited grant of authority to the Legislature to use such funds on any 'other state needs.'" the motion says.

The UEA's motion further alleges that the amendment will "extinguish the plaintiff's Article XIII Section 5(5) claim against the voucher program." The group also argues that the amendment's text must be published two months before the November 5 election. These arguments follow a similar pattern to arguments made in court last week against Amendment D.

The judge who ruled in this case, Dianna Gibson, agreed with the plaintiffs, which included the League of Women Voters of UtahMormon Women for Ethical Government

"...[I]t is unclear how the court could interpret 'newspaper' to mean an 'online website,'" wrote Gibson. "...No evidence has been presented that either the Legislature or the Lieutenant Governor 'has caused' the proposed constitutional amendment to appear in any newspaper in Utah," Gibson said in her ruling on Amendment D.

The Utah State Legislature has the full text of S.J.R. 10, online, it can be read on the Legislature's website.

Sorina Trauntvein contributed to this story