All Posts By

Curt Bramble

Mar 04
Love1

Coming into the Final Week

By Legislation, Legislative Update No Comments

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Please Join Us on Saturday Morning
I hope you will join us for an informative Legislative Update. If you have questions about bills, issues, policy, come join us.

Saturday, March 7th, 9 am – 10am
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center
Northwest Plaza – Clark Auditorium
Corner of 500 West and Bulldog Blvd., Provo, Utah

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We’re entering the home stretch for the 2015 session. As of noon last Friday there were 133 Senate bills in the House committees and 192 House bills in Senate committees. In all the House had introduced 467 total bills and the Senate has introduced 301 into the process.

So far, 99 House bills and 73 Senate bills have been passed and are in possession of the Governor.

Important Issues

Our revenue numbers are favorable. Overall, the state’s committed budget is just over $14 billion. We have a revenue surplus of $739 million. Of that, $389 million is ongoing money meaning it is derived from sales taxes. While we don’t know the exact dollar amount each year, we know that there will be some money from this source, which is why it is called “ongoing.” The remaining $350 million is “one-time” money, which means it is a sort of unplanned bonus. This money is surplus tax revenue from last year. So it is money in excess of what we predicted would come in from tax revenue. You can listen to the meeting where the budget numbers were released and see the corresponding documnets.

Bringing those numbers down to our level of everyday living level is sort of like saying that if your household income is $140,000 per year and you just got an extra $3,500. Now the question is what to do with it? Do you spend it? Save it? Pay off a debt? Those are the decisions to be made this coming week.

We have a constitutional requirement to balance our budget. We have a strong history of economic prudence. That foundation will guide us in our final decisions.

Prison Relocation. There is a lot in the news about the recommendations from the Prison Relocation Commission. If you would like to view the reports you can find more information here.

Education. There has been some concern about excessive testing requirements in the schools. Last year legislation was passed reiterating that although schools were required to administer the national assessment tests, students were not required to take them. Nor could schools or teachers be negatively affected if parents exercised their option to opt their children out of those tests. However, the language of last year’s bill proved to be a little bit ambiguous causing different school districts to interpret the statute in different ways and the results were confusing to parents. To remedy that, SB 204 further explains parent’s rights in the directing their child’s education and clarifies how the opt-out option to testing works.

Medicaid Expansion. The decision on what will actually happen regarding health-care expansion is by no means over, the House has their own opinions as to what the best solution would be but ultimately, the House, the Senate and the Governor have to agree on a final solution, so the negotiations and the ideas will continue to work through the process. It has been a frustrating and long process to try and solve this problem and perhaps the fact most infuriating of all–is that in spite of all the time and worry that so many people have put into coming up with what would be the best possible solution for a problem we did not create–there is another case pending before the Supreme Court next month that could throw everything into yet another tail spin. The case is called King v. Burwell and it challenges whether or not it was legal for subsidies to be given to individuals who bought their coverage through the federal government’s HealthCare.gov exchange or if everyone is actually required to purchase their coverage through the state exchanges. Here is a news article from Washington D.C. that discusses the issue with Governor Herbert:
And here is a link to all the amici briefs that have been filed thus far for the case. This continues to be a frustrating issue that can only be blamed on federal intrusion.

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Working to keep you informed

Thank you for your interest and for the emails you send. I would appreciate you taking a few moments to fill out this year’s Legislative Survey. Just click the link above.

Sincerely,

Curt_signature_red

Feb 17
Love5

Working on the Budget

By Legislation, Legislative Update, State Budget No Comments

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There are many very important issues that we will address in the coming weeks. But top among those issues is the budget. In Utah, we are known for exercising fiscal caution. We are required by our state Constitution to pass a balanced budget, something that many other states and obviously our federal government does not do. One thing that we do during the legislative session is spend a lot of time deliberating expenditures and procurement. We do this in the appropriations committees. Another key element to our budgeting is the requirement of fiscal notes. Every bill is essentially given a “price tag” letting us (and you) know just how much it would cost the state (and therefore all of us as we pay taxes) to implement the bill if it were to become law.

The Legislature’s website has several useful tools to track spending through committees and help you to understand the issues we work to deal with as we match needs in our state to available funding.

I serve on the three of the nine appropriations committees and have included a link to our budget page for each one. You can view the purpose and requests, as well as the trend in funding each of these areas.

Business, Economic Development, and Labor Appropriations Subcommittee

Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee

Retirement and Independent Entities Appropriations Subcommittee

On the Senate Blog, Senator Hillyard’s provides an explanation of the budgeting process that may be helpful.

Issues we are discussing this Session

Education Funding. There’s always a request for more funding. However according to this poll, most do not believe that raising taxes is the answer. Please take my survey and share your thoughts about education funding with me.

School Board Election. We are discussing restructuring the way our school boards are elected. Last year, a judge rulled that our current method – the Governor selecting two names from each district’s list for the ballot — was unconstitutional. There are discussions about whether it should be partision, non-partision, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the the Senate. I’d like to hear your thoughts. Please include them on the survey.

Medicaid Expansion. A Task Force has been sifting through multiple Maidicaid Expansion options. There are two plans endorsed by the committee to expand the coverage definition of “medically frail.” The Task Force committee did not advocate the Governor’s Healthy Utah plan as a practical solution.

The Committee found Healthy Utah to be untenable for a number of reasons, but the most alarming is the unpredictability of our future funding needs. Other states have staggered under covering the cost of the more than double the predicted enrollment of those who are in “the gap.” Further, even if our assumed enrollment numbers are correct, in a mere four years, the cost to cover those able-bodied individuals within that “gap” could easily exceed $80 million. In six years the cost would be close to $100 million.

For those reasons, the Task Force did not feel they could recommend such an open-ended payment stream with no dedicated funding source.

Here is a link to the recording of the Task Force meeting where the recommendations were given.

Gas Tax Revenue. Revenue from gas tax is dedicated to construction and road maintenance. Currently, gas tax is assessed on a per/gallon purchase basis. But as consumption decreases, it erodes the revenue stream and when that is coupled with inflation, the real purchasing power of the gas tax revenue is decreased even further. Right now gas tax revenue has lost close to half of its purchasing power since the tax was last increased in 1997, but during those same years, the construction costs for road building and maintenance has increased nearly 300%. The Legislature’s Interim Transportation Committee held a special meeting in Vernal last month to consider how to cover what could be an $11 billion shortfall for priority projects needed by the state to keep up with growth and maintenance in the next 25 years.

The committee has been working on this problem for well over a year. We will look at the different funding/taxing options as the session progresses. I would appreciate your thoughts. Please take the survey.

Working to keep you informed

Thank you for your interest and for the emails you send. I would appreciate you taking a few moments to fill out this year’s Legislative Survey. Just click the link above.

Sincerely,

Curt_signature_red

Feb 25
Love0

Preparing for the Fiscal Challenges Ahead

By Federal Money, Fiscal Responsibility, Governance No Comments

A bill package called Financial Ready Utah is being presented to the Utah Legislature. Senators Henderson, Harper and Osmond recently held a press conference to explain the purpose of the legislation is to prepare Utah to be lesss dependent on federal money. We cannot just sever ourselves from all federal funds, and I am not sure that we will ever want to do that. But we certainly need to be more cautious about how much we are accepting and the strings and requirements that come with the federal money we do accept. We need to be more self-sufficient and be less dependent on federal money. This move from dependency needs to be happening on every level right down to our families.
Here is a link to the press conference and the seven bills being proposed to move us in this direction.

The Financial Ready Utah website has been prepared in conjunction with these ideas. Here is the link:
This is an interactive website. Please contribute your ideas on frugal living and debt reduction and help spread the word.

Senate president Wayne Niederhauser, House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart, Richard Ellis the State Treasurer and John Dougall the Utah State Auditor, co-authored an article encouraging everyone to be involved in preparing for the upcoming financial challenges.

We continue to work on our job of oversight of our state funds. In order to help you understand how the Utah State Budget is divided out, I’ve provided a graphic. As you can see the majority of the budget is oversight through careful management of resources and working to fund essential services. Changes in federal funding, and managing our explosive growth while trying to meet the current needs present a real challenge.
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Feb 22
Love2

News from the Senate

By Legislative Update No Comments

Helping you stay informed and educated.

I wanted to highlight a few bills from the first and second weeks of the session.

SB12  sponsored by Senator VanTassell protects information collected by UTA and classifies customer account information and travel data as a private record under GRAMA. Senator Reid’s bill, SB 20 deals with tightening the security level of data stored by the state. This bill is a response to the data breach last year that compromised the health information of 780,000 Utahans, and cost our state hundreds of thousand of dollars. It directs the Utah State Department of Technology Services to adhere as closely as possible to government and industry best practices for security.

Senator Stephenson’s SB 34 Special Elections Date for Ballot Propositions would make it so that special elections dealing with tax increases be allowed only on regular elections dates. This will make public awareness and participation easier and add to the transparency of the issues.

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SB 19, sponsored by Senator Van Tassell. It dealt with safety issues when truck drivers use cell phones. We took a moment to honor Utah Highway Patrol trooper Aaron Beesley who fell to his death during a rescue attempt. Our Troopers portray courage, bravery and professionalism, often at great risk. I am grateful to them and their families for the sacrifices they make.

We passed HJR6. I would like to clarify this bill. There have been some news reports that by passing this legislation, we are giving ourselves a raise. That is not the case. It is not a raise. It defines per diem limits and procedures. For years, the Legislature paid the bulk of their compensation through housing or food stipends. This bill ensures they receive compensation through an actual salary. It makes all compensation much more accountable and more transparent. Under the new plan each legislator will receive a salary of $16,380 per year.

SJR1, sponsored by Senator Stevenson clarifies that performance notes and fiscal notes be handled in the same way. These notes are essential to passing bills responsibly.  A fiscal note is attached to every bill and tells us how much funding the legislation will require if it is implemented into law. The performance note will require the bill to set functioning goals. It allows us to ask questions and get answers to questions like: How is this program expected to help the state’s citizens? Which citizens would be helped; would any be hurt? What key performance indicators will be used to track the progress of the program? Is anything being does to improve current deficiencies? Having this sort of information is critical to making value judgments on potential legislation.

SB 122 is a good example of the usefulness of a fiscal note. The requested amount is $240,000. It is not much money in terms of the entire budget, but even so, it is necessary for us to do a cost/benefit for each proposed program so that even small amounts of money are spent wisely.

SCR 3 is a Resolution addresses the advantages of local control when dealing with endangered species. There are many past instances where local conservation timeline efforts have been very efficient. This Resolution supports Iron County in their local efforts to remove prairie dogs from endangered species list.

Congressman Chaffetz spoke to us on Friday. He said that his number one concern is the lack of fiscal discipline from the federal government–the United States currently pays $700 million in interest each day. In the first quarter of this fiscal year entitlement spending increased 16%. He also reiterated the importance of balancing the budget with spending cuts, not tax increase. It made me appreciate Utah’s balanced, well-managed budget process.

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Supporting Israel

Sponsored Legislation

SCR 4, was heard in the Senate Business and Labor Committee. I am the sponsor of this Resolution. It states that the Utah Legislature and the Governor support Israel in its legal, historical, moral and God-given right of self-governance and self-defense upon its own land.

The bill also commends Israel for its cordial and mutually beneficial relationship with the United States and with Utah. The bill also recognizes that Israel is neither an attacking force nor an occupier of the lands of others and that peace can be afforded the region only through a whole and united Israel.

Committee Assignments and Budget Oversight

The Committees, consisting of both House and Senate members continue to work on individual budget as part of preparing the final budget to be passed. Education expenditures make up the largest percentage (just over half) of the State’s budget. The Education Appropriations Committee meets frequently to discuss how to allocate the available funding. They are looking at efficiency levels of the money being spent. And although it will be a few days before final numbers are available, we are seeing a sizable share of the budget will go to Medicaid reform.

With such large portions of our budget allocated to Education and entitlement programs, we have worked to anticipate this issue through wise management. Unlike many states, Utah is not in the red. We do not know how much we will see from Federal funds, but we, as a state are in a much better place than many states, to address these critical issues. It will be challenging, but I, for one am glad that we are not addressing it from a deficit position.

The Infrastructure and General Government Committee is tasked with allocating funds for state buildings and properties. For example, one of the requests made to the committee was from Southern Utah University. They were asking that $2.7 million be appropriated to them to purchase property that could be used for expansion of university housing and parking.

The committees I am serving on are:

Appropriations:

Business, Economic Development, and Labor Appropriations Subcommittee

Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee<

Retirement and Independent Entities Appropriations Subcommittee

Standing:
Senate Business and Labor Committee (Chair)

Senate Retirement and Independent Entities Committee

Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee

Interim:

Legislative Information Technology Steering Committee

Senate Business and Labor Confirmation Committee (Chair)

Senate Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Confirmation Committee

Senate Retirement and Independent Entities Confirmation Committee

Working to keep you informed

Later this week, I’ll be sending reports of last week’s work at the Legislature. Until then…

Feb 14
Love2

Bills I’m sponsoring

By Governance, Legislation, Transparency No Comments

I wanted to introduce you to some of the bills and issues, I’m working on including an additional measure to increase accessibility for the public to public records through enhanced GRAMA efforts.

Last year, I worked and passed a bill that enhanced government transparency and access to records. I’m working to take transparency even further by increasing access and reducing the cost of the access through an innovative approach to records management. Please watch the video to learn more about this important effort.

Here’s a link to my sponsored legislation.

There is a link next to the name of the bill that will take you to the tracking page of that bill. You can read the text, look at any amendments, and even click on a link to hear the audio for the Committee and Floor Debates.

There’s also a useful feature that allows you to track bills with a notice to your email of any revisions. We are trying to make it easier for citizens to be more involved in the workings of government.

A few highlights

SB54-Licensing of Nursing Care Facility Beds – This bill amends the licensing of non-Medicaid nursing care facility beds for a facility with 100 or more beds and provides continuity of care provisions for patients who have exhausted Medicare benefits.

SCR004-Standing with Israel – This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor recognizes Israel’s legal, historical, moral, and God-given right of self-governance and self-defense.

SB67 – Consumer Protection Revisions – This bill prohibits sellers from imposing a surcharge on a transaction paid for with a financial transaction card.
SB106 – Unemployment Tax Amendment -This bill modifies the Employment Security Act by amending the unemployment
10 insurance contribution rate for employers.

SB161-Restitution Amendments – This bill amends the Individual Income Tax Act, the Utah Code of Criminal Procedure, and provisions related to the Division of Finance to assist in, and increase, the collection of restitution for crime victims

SB168 – Certified Public Accountant Licensing Amendments – This bill modifies the Certified Public Accountant Licensing Act and sets educational requirements and board approval for taking qualifying exams.

This link also shows you bills that are currently in process.

Working toward more transparency

If you haven’t done so, please take a moment and take my survey. Just click on the button to the right and it will take you to my website. It helps me to have your opinions as I’m trying to create the best policy decisions.

Later this week, I’ll be sending reports of the first weeks at the Legislature. Until then…

Feb 06
Love2

Utah’s Economy, Healthcare Issues and Following the Legislature

By Economy, Federal Money, Legislative Update, State Budget, Transparency No Comments

Utah’s Strong Economy

Helping you stay informed and educated.

Here are my thoughts about upcoming legislation that keeps our state healthy for the long term. I hope you will watch:

Sound Policy and Sound Management

Utah continues to recover from the last recession in an admirable position, #4 in the nation.

Here are a few statistics that may be of interest:

Unemployment decline from recession peak: 3.1 percentage points
Peak unemployment: 8.3%
Current unemployment: 5.2% (tied-5th lowest)
GDP growth 2011: 2.0% (8th highest)

You can read more about Utah’s recovery in the The States That Recovered Most (and Least) from the Recession.

For the third year in a row, Forbes named Utah as America’s “Best State for Business”. Since 2006, our economy’s annual expansion rate has averaged at 2.3%. The national average for the same years is .05%. Our energy costs, which are 27% below the national average and the fact that we are one of only seven states who still has an AAA bond rating–something that even the United States no longer has–are two of the factors that have given us that number one ranking. Here is the link to Forbe’s article Utah Tops the list of Best States for Business.

I am optimistic about our revenue because of our sound management practices. We are a well-managed state, however, we are still part of the national economy. The federal government currently borrows 46 cents of every dollar they spend. That is not sustainable. 40% of Utah’s spending is from federal money, so that means that just over one-third of what we use as spending money on our state programs comes from a source that is not financially sound and over which that we have no control. As a result, we must be especially prudent. It seems that the wisest thing to do right now is adopt a “wait and see” approach until we see what happens at the federal level before approving new expenditures.

Healthcare’s Challenge

Another area of focus will be healthcare options. The health exchange system created by Utah several years ago was just given preliminary approval by the federal government. I am pleased that we have been granted that provisional waiver. It gives us some options we would not otherwise have had. However, the final decision has not been made as to which exchange system we will use.

Currently there are two camps of thought on this subject. One is that Utah can indeed do this on our own. We have done a good job with what we have done so far. Our health exchange (called Avenue H) is market based, which is important for our economy and if we take this option we will have the flexibility to make the program work for the individual needs of our state. The other line of thought is that the mandate for health care was a federal initiative and therefore the federal government should have to deal with the implementation and administration and any problems that come with that.

Utah is under a rather intense time frame to make this critical decision. If we do decide to use our own exchange, it will actually take quite a bit of work and money to get it to exactly the point where the federal government will fully accept it.

As you can see there will be many things to consider. I will do my best to represent you in the decisions we need to make.

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Tracking Bills in the Session

The bills to be discussed during the session are being written everyday. If you would like to keep track of any sort of legislation or any particular bill you can do it very easily on our website. Here is the link to the bill search page.

There are plenty of ways for you to keep track of what is going on during the session.

Every floor session of both houses is live streamed and every committee meeting is broadcast. The links will be on the main web page each day under the Audio/Video tab. (On that same tab you can even hear archived recordings from past sessions.)

You can follow the Senate on Facebook or the Senate Republicans on Facebook.

Here is my Facebook page.

The Senate Twitter handle is @utahsenate.
The Senate Majority Twitter handle is @utahsenategop.

The Senate also has a blog where you can read some more in-depth explanations about what we are doing and leave your comments.

Click this link to email me. My phone is 801-361-5802.

Let me know if you have any concerns or questions. Because session can get very busy, please be patient if it takes me a while to respond. I will do my very best to answer whatever question you have as soon as possible.

We are working harder than ever to make government open, transparent and accessible.

It is an honor to represent you. In my next email home, I’d like to introduce you to some of the bills and issues, I’m working on including an additional measure to increase accessibility for the public to public records through enhanced GRAMA efforts.

Jan 29
Love2
Senator Curt Bramble - District 16 Utah

The 2013 Legislative Session has Begun

By Legislative Update, State Budget No Comments

Yesterday was the first day of the 45-day session and I’m working to keep you informed throughout. Legislative sessions are always fast-paced, packed with information and hard work. I’m hoping to share weekly updates and information so that you can feel confidence that we are working diligently to represent District 16’s interests.

The Budget – Our Most Important Task

Creating, adjusting, and then adopting a Budget is our most important task. It gives us the roadmap to see where we are going, set goals for the future through policy and funding and track where we have come. Here’s how the budget process works in Utah:

First, each Legislator receives a copy of the base budgets for their committee. We immediately vote to approve those budgets, so we at least have a skeletal budget in place at the end of the session. It’s a safeguard, if we cannot come to an agreement on the final budget.

Then during the first 4 or 5 weeks of the session the appropriations committees meet to hear testimony, review priorities, and recommend decisions. They submit their budget request to the Executive Appropriations committee, which is tasked to bring all the various budgets together and create the full budget. Then the final budget is presented to the body to be voted on, and amended like any other bill. When it is passed, it becomes the working budget for the next fiscal year.

We receive final revenue numbers in mid-to-late February, so until that time we operate on our best estimates of actual numbers. Not knowing the federal levels of funding and if Congress does not act until March, it will create challenges in balancing our numbers and our ability to the holes the Federal budget may create. If this occurs, we may need to pass our final budget in a special session later in the spring.

Managing our Federal Funds

Our funding from the federal government can vary significantly from year to year and needs to be allocated appropriately. For example, money received from the 2009 American Recover and Reinvestment Act was one-time federal money. As we allocated that money, we were careful not to create new or one-time programs. Other states were not so careful and it caused problems for their current state budgets. We require that each department and the governor’s office submit a plan of how they would cut their budgets in the event of a 5 percent or a 25 percent reduction of federal funds. We completed this task in FY2012 to create a good starting point. The report of this action is found here.

Budgeting is Difficult

You elected me to remember foremost that the budget money we are allocating is tax money from your pocket to be used prudently to provide the services needed most by our state. It is heart wrenching to hear passionate supporters advocate for every dollar and every program. There are just as many advocates who can explain why higher taxes would burden struggling people at the lower end of the economic scale and the “job creators” at the higher end. Working for the right balance is foremost in my mind.

Dec 08
Love4

Obamacare Impacts on Utah

By Federal Money, Governance, Legislation No Comments

How Utah will handle the new healthcare requirements is another upcoming issue that will affect state funds and policy on several levels.

The federal government has promised the States information about how the Affordable Care Act Exchange (Obamacare) will operate and how it will be funded. But we have not been given that information yet. Even without that important decision-making information, States have been given deadlines to make a choice. They can create their own exchanges, where they are allowed to manage a very small portion of the program or they can simply participate in the insurance exchange created by the federal government.

Regardless of which option a state chooses, federal approval must be obtained and by January 2015, each state must bear all operating expenses.

If it were possible, preserving state control and running our own independent insurance program would be a top priority, but that is no longer an option.

It does not seem prudent for Utah to allocate our precious state tax dollars to help create a massive federal program that does not reflect Utah’s health reform initiatives. The funding and resources needed to develop this federal program should not be borne by Utah’s citizens.

I will keep an open mind as we receive more information and the discussion continues, but at this point it seems the most practical and economical solution is to let the federal government be in charge of funding the creation and implementation of their own program.

Dec 07
Love2

November Budget and Fiscal Report

By Fiscal Responsibility, Revenue, State Budget No Comments

During the session, there are many many important issues that we discuss, but by far the most important job of the legislature is the allocation of the budget. As you are already aware, this year’s budget discussion will have many challenges because there are still so many unknowns. We do not know what will be decided in Washington or how those decisions will affect us. Predictions are grim no matter what they decide. If the sequestration is allowed to happen and the spending cuts take place, our state budgets will be affected. If some agreement is not reached and the debt reduction measures are essentially postponed, economist say that there could be extreme financial consequences within a few years.

You are also probably aware, that in spite of all the recent economic problems, Utah is doing better financially than most other states. Utah’s financial stability is not necessarily due to our Constitutional requirement to balance the budget each year. Forty-eight other states actually have that requirement in their Constitutions. But many of those states have found ways to work around that requirement. Utah’s level of fiscal stability comes from the legislature making responsible, informed decisions and the fact that we fund realistic budgets with the money we have available.

The only way the Legislature has money to spend on anything is if that money is taken from us as citizens in the form of some tax. It is always interesting to me how many times I hear, “The Legislature needs to spend more money on…” But I don’t hear, “The Legislature should raise taxes so that they can spend more on…” People seem to forget that first part about where the money actually comes from.

Careful Oversight of Tax Dollars

The majority of the Utah Legislature is not of a tax-raising mindset. Occasionally, as may need to be discussed this year, the incoming tax revenue is simply not high enough to cover the existing needs of the state. In that situation, the choices are simple: eliminate and/or reduce existing programs and/or increase taxes. Over the past few years, departments have been asked to cut and trim internally so that budget dollars can stretch and for the most part they have done a good job. But our state’s needs continue to increase, our school populations are growing and federal requirements are creating more of a strain. All of these elements add up to the possibility of increasing taxes.

Dec 05
Love2
Senator Curt Bramble - District 16 Utah

November Report from the State Senate

By Legislation No Comments

We met this month for our final interim committee meetings before the 2013 session begins in January.

The Administrative Rules Review Committee heard a discussion on necessary changes for food handlers permits and the need to more specifically define the terms “abuse” and “neglect” in the state’s rules and statutes.

Business and Labor approved draft legislation dealing with the licensure requirements of someone who braids hair professionally. This has been an issue in several states for the last few years. They also discussed draft legislation that will deal with creating master licenses for restaurants that would like to serve alcohol.

The Government Operations Committee approved seven pieces of draft legislation as committee bills, five of which dealt with elections or campaigns.

The Health and Human Services Committee listened to a very interesting report on the relationship between physical activity and the academic performance of children in school and how it relates to the obesity epidemic. You might enjoy listening to it as well. Here is the link.

The Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee held an extensive discussion on capital punishment in Utah. The legislators heard a report from the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst comparing the costs of imposing the death penalty compared to life in prison. Here is a link to that discussion.

The Retirement and Independent Entities Committee dealt with several issues regarding coverage and benefits of public employees for the state.

Revenue and Taxation approved a committee bill called “Cigarette and Tobacco Tax and Licensing Amendments” that will address the licensing of cigarette and tobacco products to be discussed and debated during the upcoming session.

The Transportation Committee approved four committee bills, one of which will create a special license plate that will say, “In God We Trust.” This idea was brought to the legislature by a young man who noticed that 12 other states have a license plate option that says “In God We Trust” and he wondered why Utah did not. This is a great example of how anyone can bring up an issue to be addressed by the legislature. Here is a link to the testimony that was given to the committee.

In order for the license plate to become an option, 500 people need to commit to purchasing the special license plate and then the legislature as a whole must approve it. So far about 100 people have said that they would purchase the plate.
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So far, the interim committees have approved just over 70 bills for the legislative session. If a committee approves a bill during interim, it will generally go straight to the floor, skipping the committee process during the legislative session. The vetting process that the “pre-approved” bills is the same as those that go through the committees during the regular session, but having those bills ready to go the first few days of session helps us get a running start to a hectic 45 days.