2014 Session Photos

Calling the House to order as Speaker Pro Tem.

Running the House as Speaker Pro Tem

2014 Survey Results

2014 Constituent Survey

Representative Jim Dunnigan

Response: 452

Question 1:      In 2004, the following amendment was approved by 66% of Utah voters: “Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman.” If that amendment to Utah’s constitution were on the ballot today, how would you vote?

FOR:                    68%

AGAINST:           29%

UNDECIDED:     3%

Question 2:

(a)Do you believe that individual states have the right to define marriage?

YES:                     64%

NO:                      31%
UNDECIDED:      5%

(b) Recently, a Federal judge in Utah ruled that same sex marriages should be permitted. This decision is currently being appealed. Do you support Utah’s budgeting money to appeal the court’s decision?

SUPPORT:            57%

OPPOSE:              41%
UNDECIDED:       2%

Question 3:      The Utah Legislature may consider a bill this year that would increase the age when an individual can legally buy cigarettes and other tobacco products from 19 to 21. Do you support this?

YES:                     62%

NO:                      30%

UNDECIDED:      8%

Question 4:      Wood burning stoves and fireplaces account for about 10% of Salt Lake’s air pollution. Burning wood in a fireplace for 1 hour contributes as much pollution as driving a car for 1,000 miles. Should enforcement be increased on no burn days?

YES:                        66%
NO:                         23%
UNDECIDED:        11%

Question 5:      Currently, the Utah attorney general is an elected position. Should this position remain elected, or be appointed by the governor?

ELECTED:                70%
APPOINTED:           17%
UNDECIDED:          13%

Question 6:         

(a) Gas tax is used to build and maintain roads. Utah’s gas tax is currently a flat tax of 25.5 cents per gallon. Studies show that more money is needed to maintain our roads. Which of the following would you support?

NO INCREASES:                21%

INCREASE GAS TAX:         42%

INCREASE SALES TAX:      37%

(b) If Utah were to change the gas tax, should it remain a flat tax of 25.5 cents per gallon, or should it be changed to a percentage of the total purchase price of gasoline so that as the price of gasoline fluctuates, the gas tax would also fluctuate?  

PERCENTAGE TAX:         24%

FLAT TAX:                       76%

Question 7:      Currently, about 20% of the state’s overall budget is designated to Medicaid. As part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Utah has the option of expanding Medicaid to cover 111,000 more Utahns at an additional cost of about 60 million dollars per year. Do you support:

NO MEDICAID EXPANSION:                  38%
PARTIAL MEDICAID EXPANSION:        32%
FULL MEDICAID EXPANSION:               30%

Question 8: Revenue estimates indicate a possible budget surplus this year. If this is the case, how should this money be distributed? Rank in order of priority with 1 being the most important.

1 – Public Education

2 – Reduce Income and Sales Tax

3 – Rainy Day Fund

4 – Public Safety

5 – Transportation

6 – Higher Education      

Others: Clean air

                Return money to tax payer

                Medicaid

                Roads

                Reduce taxes

Question 9: The legislature is considering revising the state’s liquor laws. What would you like to see happen? Check all that apply.

DO NOTHING:                                            144
ALLOW MORE LICENSES:                       199
MAINTAIN VISUAL BARRIERS:              125
REMOVE VISUAL BARRIERS:                  178
OTHER:                                                        23

Other:

Government out of liquor business

Privatize liquor sales

Keep current or restrict more

            All liquors allowed to be sold at grocery stores

Week Seven of the Utah Legislative General Session

We’re wrapping our last week here on the hill, and tonight at midnight, Utah’s 60^th Legislature will adjourn sine die. Apart from a few interim sessions throughout the year, today we complete most of our legislative work.

Most notably, this week we passed a $13.5 billion dollar budget with no tax increase. The Utah House and the Utah Senate came together to discuss and negotiate how best to serve the citizens of the state of Utah. We were able to appropriate a great deal of money to public education and to higher education. There is enough money in the budget to fund growth and increase the WPU (per pupil spending) by 2.5 percent. We also were able to appropriate a substantial amount of money to higher education, including $50 of equity funding.

This Wednesday the final report from the House Special Investigative committee was presented. This concludes the House investigation into the actions of former Attorney General John Swallow. If you would like to read the final report you can view it here: http://le.utah.gov/investigative/investigativecomm.jsp . The House Special Investigative Committee had a difficult task, and the state of Utah should be proud of the responsible and fair way the investigation was conducted.

Serving as your Representative this session has been a privilege and an honor. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

The House Special Investigative Committee gave its final report on the floor of the Utah House of Representatives this Wednesday. Representative Dunnigan was the Chairman of this committee. The committee had an eight month investigation which ended on Wednesday when the final report was presented. The final report is available online at http://le.utah.gov/investigative/investigativecomm.jsp.

House Passed Legislation

H.B. 128 S1 - Electronic Device Location Amendments (Rep Wilcox)

This bill requires that government entities obtain a search warrant before obtaining the location of a device. Which means that your cell phone can’t be tracked without a warrant.           

H.B. 414 S1 – Legislative Subpoena Amendments (Rep Dunnigan)

          This bill amends provisions relating to a legislative subpoena. This allows that someone can be compelled to obedience to a legislative subpoena.

H.B. 61 – Clean Air Programs (Rep Arent)

            This bill allows electric-hybrids to be eligible for the program, and removes the state match requirements for a grant for refueling infrastructure and describes the requirements for receiving a grant from the Division of Air Quality and authorizes the Air Quality Board to make rules.

H.B. 159 – Regulation of Child Care Programs (Rep. Hughes)

            This bill creates the Child Care Center Licensing Committee to regulate and make rules for center based child care and provides for duties and powers of the Child Care Center Licensing Committee and provides for appointment and membership of the Child Care Center Licensing Committee.

H.B. 188 – Court Security Revisions (Rep. Dee)

This bill specifies that the state court administrator shall enter into a contract with the county sheriff and pay the costs for bailiffs and building security officers and shifts responsibility from the counties to the state court administrator for costs related to security administration, supervision, travel, equipment, and training of bailiffs.

H.B. 276 – Disorderly Conduct Amendments (Rep. Oda)

This bill provides that displaying a dangerous weapon in public under certain circumstances may be disorderly conduct and confirms that merely displaying a dangerous weapon in public without other behavior is not disorderly conduct.

S.J.R. 8 S1 – Joint Resolution on Term of Appointed Lieutenant Governor (Sen. Urqquhart)

This resolution proposes to amend the Utah Constitution to modify the term of an appointed Lieutenant Governor to be consistent with the term of Governor.

H.B. 429 – Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Rehabilitation (Rep. Hutchings)

This bill directs the Division of Motor Vehicles to collect an additional 50 cent fee to register an off-highway vehicle and deposit the additional fees collected into the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Rehabilitation Fund.

S.B. 140 – Advanced Placement Test Funding (Sen. Mayne)

            This bill allows the State Board of Education to allocate money to pay for test fees of those eligible low-income students.

 H.B. 411 – Victim Restitution Amendments (Rep. Wilson)

This bill requires the court to maintain jurisdiction of a case and continue probation for a defendant who has unpaid accounts receivable related to fines, fees, or restitution.

H.B. 206 – Driver License Testing Revisions (Rep. Eliason)

This bill provides that if an applicant has been issued an equivalent learner permit by another state or branch of the United States Armed Forces, the applicant is subject to the driver education, testing, age, and fee requirements.

S.B. 209 – School Grading Revisions (Rep. Hughes)

This bill modifies procedures and standards for assigning a letter grade to a school based on the proficiency, learning gains, or college and career readiness of the school's students.

S.B. 267 S1 – Governmental Immunity Act Amendments (Sen. Weiler)

This bill provides that a governmental entity may not challenge the timeliness of a notice of claim filed within a specified time if the claimant had in good faith previously filed a notice of claim with another governmental entity and if other conditions are met.

S.B. 75 – Primary Care Grants Amendments (Sen. Christensen)

This bill creates the Primary Care Grant Committee and directs the committee to evaluate applications for primary care grants and make recommendations to the department, directs the department to review and rank applications for primary care grants, and recodifies provisions related to community outreach and education contracts.

H.B. 148 – Off-Highway Vehicle Amendments (Rep. Noel)

This bill provides that a full-sized all-terrain vehicle that meets certain requirements may be operated as a street-legal all-terrain-vehicle on certain streets or highways unless the highway is an interstate freeway or a limited access highway and specifies equipment requirements for a full-sized all-terrain vehicle to be operated.

H.B. 401 S2 – Utah Medicaid Program (Rep Dunnigan)

            This bill instructs the Health Reform Task Force to study and evaluate proposals for coverage of the Medicaid population.

S.B. 39 S1 – Home School Amendments (Sen. Osmond)

This bill modifies procedures for excusing from public school attendance a school-age minor who attends a home school and eliminates instructional requirements for a school-age minor who attends a home school and specifies procedures for the placement of a home school student who transfers to a public school.

S.B. 145 – Background Check Amendments (Sen. Bramble)

This bill clarifies that criminal history record information that does not relate to a conviction may not be released to an entity requesting an employment background check.

Week Six of the Utah Legislative General Session

We have one week left on the Hill, and it will be full of meaningful floor debate and final budget negotiations.

Now that final committee meetings have been held, most of our work will be done on the chamber floor. Between the House and the Senate, more than 700 bills were numbered this session. But that doesn't mean we'll pass that many new laws. Some bills are cleanup bills, making technical changes, and some fix problems or update existing law.

Of the bills that don’t make it to the floor, some are abandoned; others fail to make it out of committees and the rest fail on the floor of the House or Senate.

The state constitution requires that the general legislative session only lasts 45 consecutive days. That 45 days includes weekends, which means that the legislature has even less time to do the work of the state. This limited time frame, and the sheer volume of bills introduced, requires long days and judicious decisions from legislators.

We expect there to be more than couple late nights, and a lot of great debate during the next week. However, regardless of time constraints, we will pass a balanced budget totaling nearly $13 billion, we will increase education funding, continue to find responsible solutions for air quality, and better prepare the state of Utah for the future, and we’re pretty proud of that. As always, I look forward to hearing from you regarding your concerns and expectations.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Mar. 13 – Marks the last day of the 2014 Legislative session!

House Passed Legislation 

H.C.R.  8 – House Concurrent Resolution Regarding Moving the State Prison (Rep. Wilson)

This House Resolution concludes that it’s in the best interest of the state to move the state prison form its current location in Draper. This comes as recommendation from the Prison Relocation and Development Authority (PRADA) and its in-depth research and study.

HB 128 S1 – Electronic Device Location Amendments (Rep. Wilcox)

This bill requires a search warrant before requesting disclosure of the location of an electronic device; provides exceptions for emergencies.

 HB 394 S1 – Campaign Finance Reform (Rep. Dunnigan)

            This bill addresses campaign financing problems that were uncovered during the House Special Investigation. Requires itemized reporting of work done for the candidate by a political consultant so that what the money was used for in a campaign cannot be hidden. 

HB 121 – Air Quality Revisions (Rep. Edwards)

This bill authorizes the Division of Air Quality to create rules that are more stringent than corresponding federal regulations if additional regulations will provide added protections to public health and the environment.

HB 70 S2 – Forcible Entry Amendments (Rep. Roberts)

This bill requires law enforcement officers to identify themselves before forcing entry into a building; allows law enforcement officers to force entry without first issuing a demand or explanation if there is probable cause to believe that evidence will be easily or quickly destroyed, or there is reason to believe giving notice will endanger the officer or another person.

HB 379 S3 – Transparency of Ballot Propositions (Rep. Wilcox)

This bill provides that arguments in favor and against certain ballot propositions can be submitted and posted, and that a public meeting is conducted that allows the interested parties to present their arguments.

SB 52 – Utility Relocation on Highway Projects (Sen. Van Tassell)

            This bill provides that the requirement that the Department of Transportation pay certain percentages of the cost of relocation of a utility to accommodate construction of a state highway; provides that a utility company that has been notified of a utility relocation shall cooperate with the Department of Transportation.

 SB 61 – Revisions to Property Tax (Sen. Henderson)

            This bill defines terms; addresses the procedures and requirements for imposing a property tax levy that exceeds the certified tax rate; amends the timing for a public hearing held for the purpose of considering the imposition of a judgment levy; addresses the content of certain tax notices

SB 198 – Law Enforcement Exemption for Medical Information (Sen. Adams)

            This bill allows a health care provider to issue a statement as to whether a detainee is medically cleared for incarceration in certain circumstances.

SB 96 – Veterans’ Assistance Registry (Sen. Mayne)

            This bill creates a registry process at the Utah Department of Veterans' and Military Affairs that provides contact information to donors of materials and labor for veterans and their dependents.

Honoring Olympic Gold medalist, bobsledder Steven Holcomb, on the House Floor.