CEDAR HILLS -- Cedar Hills has unanimously passed a resolution that mocks the state Legislature for forcing the city to pass a preliminary budget, and challenges legislators to spend more time attending city meetings "so they can better understand how they force municipal government to function."

"Year after year, day after day, our beloved, benevolent beings of the Legislature have maintained meaningless statutes, in this case tonight mandating that the City Council adopt a completely nonbinding preliminary budget in advance of passing an actual budget in June, and in this case prior to full figures even being available from the county assessor's office," said Councilman Eric Richardson in a motion during a recent meeting. "Nevertheless wishing to be in complete compliance with even poorly written laws, I move that we approve the nonbinding preliminary budget for fiscal year 2010 and again publicly invite our esteemed public servants of the Legislature to actually attend more municipal meetings so they can better understand how they force municipal government to function."

Richardson wasn't alone in his feelings.

"I am outraged, in many cases, by the way that as a municipal government we are micromanaged, where the state reserves for itself much more latitude than they are willing to give anyone else, despite our history of fiscal conservatism," said Councilman Jim Perry in response.

State legislators often lament that if the federal government were run the way Utah runs its state finances, how much better off the country would be, Richardson said. But in truth, if the state was run "as tightly as they force the city to be, I think what a better place our state would be."

And then Richardson added, "Maybe that is why they are so good at making rules for us, even ones that don't make sense."

Then Perry took a moment to poke fun at federal representatives.

"When the federal government decides to blow the deficit from half a trillion dollars to $1.5 trillion in a year, it is a really low bar."

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Richardson said his motivation in making the motion was to point a finger at the Legislature's ineptitude, which actually gets in the way of the ability of Cedar Hills to be about its pressing needs.

"This is about the state-imposed requirements for municipal budgets," he said. "We are required to pass a preliminary budget in May in advance of the actual budget in June, and amendments throughout the year. I believe it's an attempt to solicit public input on the budget process, which I absolutely support. But I don't think it really accomplishes that goal. And instead of being harmless bad legislation, it's actually a distraction from the work we're trying to do into getting the most efficient government possible."

The budget is the most powerful policy document a city council has, Richardson said.

"Clear, transparent, efficient government is very important to me," he said. "But at the end of a four-year council term, I have yet to receive any feedback from residents on the preliminary budget. Maybe we're just really transparent, open, and effective already here in Cedar Hills, but I'd guess that it's also because the process of adopting preliminary budgets really doesn't gain anything."

Richardson said he knows his "little soap box issue" may not change anything, though it has become a tradition in Cedar Hills to make a point about passing the preliminary budget.

"No one hardly ever reads the motions, so I guess in that regard, the motion is as effective in changing the bad statute as the statute is effective in promoting good government," he said with a smile.

City councils are burdened by two kinds of legislative nonsense, Perry said -- unfunded mandates, meaning the city is ordered to begin a program but not given money to pay for it; and red-tape in the form of bills that are "just meaningless, silly, or even condescending," Perry said.

"The requirement to adopt a 'preliminary budget' by a specific date is both meaningless and condescending," he said. "It is meaningless because we work on our annual budget over a period of months, usually starting in April."

Adopting the preliminary budget means nothing more than adopting the working draft by motion, "so it accomplishes nothing other than using time from city staff and adding an agenda item, thus taking time from our meeting," Perry said. "This requirement is condescending because it seems state legislators think they need to baby-sit municipal officials and set artificial and meaningless deadlines as if we otherwise wouldn't be working on our budget process."

While there are good state laws, "I would obviously prefer the state Legislature reduce their interference with municipal government, and especially eliminate micromanagement efforts, which offer absolutely no benefit."

Municipal elected officials and city staff "are infinitely more knowledgeable on the issues and workings of the city compared to state legislators, and thus are in a better position to decide how to manage the budget process, and most everything else regarding their city," Perry said. "Eric's motion was putting voice to the frustration we feel when faced with meaningless or counter-productive restrictions from the state."