SALT LAKE CITY – It looks like those signatures of Utahns on“Save My Credit Union” petitions to Congress could hit 150,000 bythe time they get packaged and shipped to Washington, but thequestion remained last week as to when the Utah legislature mightactually send off its anti-CU resolution. “It's really up to ourLegislative Research division as to when it will go,” explainedHouse Majority Leader Rep. Jeff Alexander, an author of theresolution adopted in final form by the legislature Feb. 21 andwhich encourages Congress to look at taxing both state and federalCUs and reviewing NCUA rulings. A spokesman for the research unitsaid “the enrolling process on bills should take another week” butmeanwhile Alexander, a Provo Republican who often is labeled a CUantagonist and a staunch friend of the banking lobby, repeated hisearlier public comments that he has talked to Utah Senator RobertBennett about the resolution and he remains “interested” in itscontent. In an interview with Credit Union Times, Alexander said hehas not spoken to Orrin Hatch, Utah's senior senator, or the otherthree Utah House members, specifically about the resolution butthat Bennett for one, has “an interest in doing something” on thetax/NCUA issues raised by the legislature's 2004 FinancialInstitution Task Force. However, Alexander said Bennett told him amajor roadblock remains Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) chairman ofthe Senate Banking Committee who has voiced support for the CU taxexemption. “Bennett said he was interested in hearing from the Utahlegislature but that he would be unable to act on the resolutionuntil there is a change in the chairmanship of the committee,” saidAlexander Regarding the now-ended legislative battle over theresolution, Alexander said his views on CUs have long beenmisconstrued and that the anti-CU resolution “really has nothing todo with taxes but with getting direction from Congress on federalcharters.” The Task Force, of which he was co-chairman and whichdrafted the resolution, was simply questioning NCUA authority as “athree-member agency – a bureaucracy that is making huge decisions”with impact on the Utah economy. “We simply want to know theintentions of the Congress” regarding NCUA policies, saidAlexander. NCUA is an agency “that has gone too far” in wieldingits authority and that issue is a legitimate one for the Congressto look at given that the courts have also raised concern, he saidreferring to a U.S. District Court Dec. 9 order remanding asix-county FOM expansion plan for a group of Utah CUs back to theagency. The leadership of the Utah League of Credit Unions, whichhas been conducting the signature drive and ad campaign attackingthe resolution during the last two months, has long dismissedAlexander pronouncements as nonsense and accused him and others inleadership positions of being frontmen for the Utah BankersAssociation in its long-running campaign to attack CUs on field ofmembership and business lending expansion. The Utah League alsopredicts the anti-CU resolution will go nowhere in Congress becausefederal lawmakers have no appetite for wading into the bank/CUfight over taxes. Apart from Bennett, Alexander said he does “planto try” speaking to all the members of the Utah Congressionaldelegation once the anti-CU resolution is on its way to Washington.As adopted by the legislature, the resolution is also to be sent tothe Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. Alexandersaid he was “unimpressed” by the Utah League's “Citizens Petition”campaign which began in February to collect signatures of Utahnsfor delivery in Washington at the same time as the anti-CUresolution hits Congress He charged that the Utah League would nothave gone to the lengths it has in developing its ad and signaturecampaign if it was not uneasy with the outcome. He said there wasnothing to stop Congress from looking at the issues and “comingback and agreeing with the League that the state charter needs tobe fixed.” But the campaign waged by the League was totallymisguided and simply “wrong.” Constituents he has talked to “oncethey heard what the Task Force wanted to do” were totally mystifiedby the League campaign to undermine support for the resolution, hesaid. On another topic, the Provo legislator denied the bankinglobby was influencing the Task Force work. “I have not talked toHarris Simmons in two years,” said Alexander referring to thechairman of Zions Bancorp, identified frequently by the League asthe ringleader of the CU attacks. Simmons is also chairman-elect ofthe American Bankers Association. [email protected]