Wednesday, January 24

Beginning at 7:30 this morning, legislators can get some helpful analysis of 2007 tax bills from the Utah Tax Review Commission in room W110. This commission is made up of both legislators and tax experts, and today they're reviewing HB 123, the bill that cuts top income tax rates, gives credits to middle income families and eliminates the rest of the food tax, for an total revenue loss of $250 million. The TRC will look at other income tax bills, too, and review a proposal to eliminate the minimum basic school levy.

This Morning:

HOUSE PUBLIC UTILITIES AND TECHNOLOGY (meeting at 8:30 in W025) is debating HB 243, which adds hydroelectric power to the renewable energy resources that Utah should develop, along with geothermal, solar, wind, biomass, biodiesel and ethanol. It directs the state to promote energy education about conservation, efficiency, supply and demand and energy-related workforce development. Energy policy covers non-renewable sources also, so the bill appropriates $150,000 to study electrical facilities that run on natural gas and oil and the creation of a pipeline infrastructure authority.

SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT (8 am in W015) will talk about trout habitat and nuclear waste. SB 29 authorizes a fishing group to apply to the State Engineer to temporarily change the way they use their water right for in-stream flow , in order to protect or restore habitat for native trout. The change would expire after 10 years.

SB 155 exempts radioactive waste disposal facilities licensed before December 31, 2006, from local government planning and zoning approval, legislative and gubernatorial approval, and some siting requirements. License amendments or renewals for those facilities would also be exempt from this oversight as long as the proposed change didn't go beyond the original facility boundaries. Energy Solutions recently proposed to expand up, rather than outside their boundaries, and SB 155 would allow that expansion to occur without approval from local government planners, the legislature and the governor.

This afternoon Appropriations Subcommittees meet from 2 to 5.

Then from 5:30 to 8:30 in W135, Governor Huntsman has scheduled a public hearing on Divine Strake, the planned test of a 700-ton chemical bomb over the old Nevada nuclear test site.

Sandy Peck

League of Women Voters, 3804 Highland Drive 8-D, Salt Lake City UT 84106

(801)272-8683 fax (801)272-5942

www.lwvutah.org

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