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.