Legislative standing committees had their last meeting yesterday. It will be floor time all the time until the session ends. However, The Executive Appropriations Committee will continue to meet whenever needed to work on budget priorities.
Bills scheduled for floor debate may change as priorities change. High on the House list today is Substitute HB 348. It would allow county voters to petition and vote to repeal their current form of government, such as council manager, and return to another form, such as county commission. Two years after the original change residents could begin collecting signatures equal to either 10% or 15% of the turnout in the last election for governor, which could be a small number of people in small counties. Then the repeal would go on the ballot. HB 348 also decrees that county government elections can't be nonpartisan.
Once legislators decide how much to spend on tax cuts and transportation they will debate two circled House bills. HB 314 doubles the percentage of sales tax revenue earmarked for highways from 8.3 percent to 17 percent. Second Substitute HB 123 cuts top income tax rates, and reduces the state portion of the sales tax on food by 2 cents.
On the Senate board is Substitute SB 243 , Direct Entry Midwife Amendments, which defines a normal birth and clarifies when midwives should call for consultation or transfer a laboring mother to the hospital. A Senate tax bill, Substitute SB 223 , lowers the flat income tax rate from 5.35% to 5% and enacts a credit based on deductions and personal exemptions that phases out at higher income levels and is indexed for inflation
Two Senate bills circled for revisions concern school boards. Substitute SB 194 says that elections of the State Board of Education and local school boards in counties of the first and second class should no longer be non-partisan. Candidates would run as representatives of political parties. Small county races would still be non-partisan.
Third Substitute SJR 11 , a proposed constitutional amendment, would require the state superintendent of public instruction to be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the State Board of Education, rather than being appointed directly by the State Board.
Sandy Peck
League of Women
Voters,
(801)272-8683 fax (801)272-5942
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