Morning:
SB 12 is under
discussion in SENATE TRANSPORTATION
PUBLIC UTILITIES AND TECHNOLOGY (in W020 this morning). It authorizes up to $500 million in general
obligation bonds to buy state highway rights of way and exempts those bonds
from the statutory debt limit. The
amount borrowed each year would depend on how much the Department of
Transportation thought it could reasonably spend, estimated by fiscal analysts
to average $44 million. Under the constitutional debt limit, if SB 12 passes,
about $728 million could still be borrowed for other projects.
HOUSE EDUCATION began work W135 at 8 am) with HB
236 a student club bill that requires club applications to provide to a
school considerable details about its budget, rules of procedure and selection
of officers, the maximum number of members, meeting times, dates and locations,
a constitution or bylaws. Extracurricular clubs must repeat this process every
year. The use of school buildings for meetings, faculty oversight, procedures
for investigation of complaints and appeals, and membership requirements
including parental consent are also covered in HB 236.
Schools will be able to limit clubs
that promote bigotry or criminal conduct or involve human sexuality or conduct
counseling or psychological services that require a state license in order to
protect the physical, emotional, psychological, or moral well-being of students
and faculty. "Involve human sexuality" means present information that
violates state sex education laws, advocate illegal sexual activity, or present
contraceptive information even for health purposes. The 9-page bill repeals a current provision
that allows a school district to require parental permission to join a
particular club, but only if permission is required to join all clubs in the
district. HB 236 appears to give more
oversight to individual schools.
HB 241 appropriates $692,300 to
the Board of Regents for the Terrel H. Bell Teaching
Incentive Loans Program. Students who
enter a teacher licensure program are eligible for the loans. Repayment is waived based on the number of
years the recipient teaches in the state.
HOUSE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (in W125 at
8:30 am) SB 7 provides that in
cases of exploitation of a vulnerable adult, if the plaintiff bringing a
lawsuit suit wins , the court may order
the defendant to pay the court costs and reasonable attorney fees of the
plaintiff. If instead the defendant
wins, the plaintiff may be ordered to pay those costs for the defendant if
their suit was frivolous, unreasonable, or taken in bad faith.
SENATE JUDICIARY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND CRIMINAL
JUSTICE (in W130) at 8 am addresses SB 50, a expands the successful
pilot study begun in July, 2005 to assess and treat drug offenders prior to
sentencing as an alternative to incarcerating them, under DORA, the Drug
Offender Reform Act. SB 50 appropriates
money to the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the Department of
Corrections, the Department of Humans Services and the Administrative Office of
the Courts to expand the program statewide.
It will now apply to anyone convicted of a felony. The Utah Substance Abuse and Anti-Violence
Coordinating Council will coordinate the screening and report results to the
court. The total appropriation is
$16,665,300 in FY 2008.
SB 112 would reduce the amount
of meth amphetamine precursors (ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) that can be possessed at one time from 12
grams to 9 grams, and limit the amount that can be sold at one time to 3.6
grams. The bill would bar over the
counter sales of products that contain the precursors, require retailers to
keep them out of reach and keep a transaction log Purchasers would have to show
photo ID. The crime of running a meth lab, a second degree felony, would be punishable by an
indeterminate prison term of from
SB 35, Uniform Child
Abduction Prevention Act, would enact a new law to allow parties to a child
custody suit who think a child is at risk for abduction to file a petition in
court outlining the risk. The court
could issue a warrant to take immediate physical custody of the child.
Afternoon
SENATE REVENUE AND TAXATION (meeting in
W130) might get to SB 13, Tax Credits for Alternate Power Generation, #6 on their list. The
bill offers individual and corporate renewable energy tax credits until the
year 2012. Solar, wind, geothermal,
geothermal heat pumps, hydro and biomass are covered. Calculation of the tax credit for commercial
energy systems (0.35 cents per kilowatt hour) would be based on how much
renewable energy actually was produced and used or sold, not just system
capacity.
HOUSE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (in W 025 at 2)
will debate HB 228, which makes murder of a child younger than 14 a
capital felony. Intentional or knowing murder of a child
younger than 14 would be defined as aggravated murder, a capital offense.
Also in committee is HB 252,
which creates a task force to study suicide and determine the best way to
prevent it in the state.
SENATE BUSINESS AND LABOR (in W015 at
HOUSE JUDICIARY (in W010 at
HB 112 establishes a new Utah
Council of Victims of Crime to advise the legislature, governor and courts on
enforcing and enhancing the rights of victims of crime, on victim restitution,
training professionals regarding the rights of victims, and enhancing victim
services.
HOUSE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS (
HB 246, Campaign Contribution
Amendments, would prohibit campaign contributions to the Legislature and
Governor during any special session and prohibit contributions anywhere on the
Capitol Hill complex. The current law
allows contributions during a special session if it's convened after July 1st
of an election year. (Under current law
promises of contributions during the session are also forbidden.)
SENATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND POLITICAL
SUBDIVISIONS (in W020) at 2 SB 128 calls for the withdrawal of the state of
Utah from the Compact for Education, which is governed by the Education
Commission of the States and organized to facilitate improvement of state and
local education systems. Under the compact and the bill, the governor is to
notify the governors of other compact states of
SR 2 is a Senate Resolution
affirming the fundamental and constitutional rights of the Muslim community of
(801)272-8683 fax (801)272-5942
www.lwvutah.org; lwvut@xmission.com
Return to Legislative
Updates ** Return to Legislative News **
Return to Home Page