Exhilarating and exhausting day at the Capital today. Almost all of it standing where the above picture (of the Supreme Court) would have been taken from, which looks exactly the same, if you could turn the camera around, except it would say House of Representatives across the top.

My Constitutional Amendment, which you can read here

http://le.utah.gov/~2008/bills/hbillamd/hjr012.htm

was 15th on the agenda for the House of Representatives today. (To make a long story very short, it would allow the Treasurer to put 6-8% of the $974 million permanent state school fund into private equity/venture capital, a volatile but historically 16% averaged category, which every endowment in the world half our size has a portion in, the only reason we can't is Constitutional legalese surrounding 19th Century problems caused by states backing railroads ... if even that is too complicated, more tax-free money to schools is the 6 word version)

Last week it passed out of committee 8-3 after some personal politics in regards to the candidates running for Treasurer threatened to derail it. Last Friday its prospects didn't look good, especially because 2/3 in each House and then being on the ballot in November is a high threshold. Constitutional Amendments only come up once every 2 years, and on many of those even years there aren't any, usually no more than 2 or 3. It was bleak for something we'd put a lot of work in.

So, this morning...Mom and Dad, Oscar Night holdovers, got me up at 5:02 and were shoveling snow when I came out ready to leave. I got to work early and by mid-morning I had my talking points handout and I was up at the Capital with my 2 fellow non-lobbyist lobbyists. We spent about 6 hours outside the House chamber, passing notes in for Reps to come out and discuss the bill with us. Some Reps told us no, others said they thought about using this as a personal statement against someone, others were supportive. Pretty much all were arrogant.

About 4 its time had come, and we could do little more than go up to the gallery and watch. Some spoke for it, one against it, and then they started tallying votes on the LCD screens. 5-1 for it, 10-3, 20-3, 30-2, 40-1, 51-0, 71-0.

At that is how it ended, 71-0, unanimously in support. It was quite a joyful rush for Mr. Smith here, who was beaming a few minutes later showing Brittany and the kids around the rotunda and gallery. Kind of cool to see the House floor for the first time ever, sort of a Fenway Park for geeky attorneys kind of feeling, and even better to have your first trip inside involve the House passing your Constitutional language unanimously, with former and future Gubernatorial candidates winking up at you.

On to the Senate, but it is almost a sure thing now. This started as decades of problems between my boss Margaret and the State Treasurer on one side, and the Attorney General's Office and State Supreme Court on the other, telling us we couldn't put the money in real estate trusts, in venture capital index funds, and who knows what else (any investment paperwork that said the forbidden word "subscription" on page 1241 was no good, basically). Reading a book by the Harvard and Yale Endowment Fund directors on the TRAX last September, this became an idea in my head; then a conversation with Bruce and the rest of our staff in October. The Investment Advisory Committee was all for it of course, these guys are like the Wasatch Capital President, Huntsman Corp's financial manager, the #2 at Zions Bank. So this morphed through meetings with the Treasurer, the Investment Advisory Committee, the Constitutional Revision Commission, meetings with the Treasurer's attorney, meetings to get House Majority Leader and possible next Governor Dave Clark to sponsor it, etc. etc., and now hopefully all the way onto the ballot in Nov. 2008 and into the Utah Constitution after that.

There are 7 days left in the Session, but today was big. You can track the status of the bill here

http://le.utah.gov/~2008/status/hbillsta/hjr012.htm