Ethics Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, is arguing that because the Board of Tax Appeals didn't rule on whether the legislative privilege from civil process applies to a lawmaker's personal tax appeal or not - they ruled that even if it did, Hart still exceeded the timeline for an appeal, so his appeal was rejected - that it may be difficult for the Ethics Committee to act on the charge against Hart of abuse of the privilege. "I think the question is do we want to go there and talk about the provision in the Constitution altogether, or do we want to base our decision on whether or not it was improperly used in this case? That might be a difficult thing for us to do, seeing as how the Board of Tax Appeals did not use that as an issue at all," Loertscher said.

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