Monday, February 8, 2010

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY

Today Legislators debate new bills in Standing Committees from 8 to 10 and on House and Senate floors from 10 to noon. This afternoon they’ll turn to budgets in Appropriations Subcommittees.

MORNING COMMITTEES

HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT will consider Substitute Senate Bill 36, a revised wolf management bill that asks wildlife officials to remove wolves from areas where they are listed as endangered or threatened. In areas where they are not listed as endangered, SB 36 asks wildlife officials to prevent wolf pack formation.

HOUSE JUDICIARY is looking at HB277, which encourages prompt reporting of lethal alcohol over-consumption. A person under 21 who possesses or consumes alcohol illegally, but calls the law when someone else is in danger due to consumption of alcohol, could receive a mitigated sentence.

SENATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS will debate SB136.
It says the proposed Independent Legislative Ethics Commission would not be defined as a “public body” under Open and Public Meetings Act. The Commission could close an open meeting while reviewing an ethics complaint in order to reach a decision on the complaint or to discuss legal, evidentiary or procedural matters. A related bill, SB138 would allow Commission records related to an ethics complaint to be considered private under GRAMA, unless they were classified as public under legislative rule. An important third bill, Senate Joint Resolution 3, spells out in great detail rules for membership and procedures to be followed by the new ethics commission.

SENATE WORKFORCE SERVICES AND COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT will hear HB51. It removes the requirement that single minor parents receiving public assistant must be employed. Recipients would still spend at least 20 hours a week working towards a high school diploma or participating in education or training.

AFTERNOON APPROPRIATIONS

Higher Education Appropriations has a long agenda dealing with budgets for educational TV, medical education, the Educational Savings Plan, New Century Scholarships, the Higher Education Technology Initiative and funding for Prisoner education.

WHAT HAPPENED FRIDAY

The House passed Second Substitute HB70, Retrofit Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles Amendments (Jack Draxler, R-Cache), which would allow relatively inexpensive kits to be used to convert vehicles for use of natural gas as a fuel, instead of the federally approved and very expensive kits.

It also passed HR3, House Rules Resolution—Recodification and Revisions (Ben Ferry, R-Box Elder, Cache), which amends House Rules to better reflect current practices. Interestingly, an amendment proposed by Jackie Biskupski (D-Salt Lake) that would have required standing committees to allow public comment at their meetings failed. At present, public comment is at the discretion of the committee chair, although it usually is allowed.

A preliminary Minimum School Program budget Substitute HB1 passed the Senate, appropriating $2.6 billion for FY 2011. Enactment of the bill would establish the estimated minimum basic tax rate at 0.001513 and change the value of each Weighted Pupil Unit from $2,577 to $2,487, a possible reduction of up to 3.5 percent. Final decisions await revenue predictions next week, as well as possible use of Rainy Day funds and/or tax increases.

The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee passed SSB109 (S. Jenkins, R-Plain City), which would allow the governor to select the chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court. Now the Chief Justice is elected by the five justices themselves. At issue is checks and balances among the legislative, judicial and executive branches. Justice Jill Parrish said justices are more likely than the governor to pick a chief compatible with their fellow justices. The bill is also opposed by the ACLU and the Utah State Bar.

Sandy Peck