Tuesday, February 23, 2010

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY

Today standing committees will meet only in the morning from 8 to 10.  Floor debate will be from 10 to noon and from 2 to 5 p.m. with a break for caucus lunch at noon.  

The Senate has a time certain at 10:30 for SB275 , which would make it easier for initiative petition signers to remove their signatures if they changed their minds.  The removal would no longer have to be notarized.


IN MORNING COMMITTEES

HOUSE JUDICIARY will hear HB 289, which would give the governor a greater role in the way judges are nominated.  The governor could appoint a member of his or her staff to be on the nominating commission staff.  Also, the authority to make the rules that nominating commissions follow when considering nominees would be transferred from the judicial council to the governor. HB289 is similar to 3rd substitute SB108 , which is circled on the Senate Third Reading Calendar, except HB289 would also remove the Chief Justice from her current ex officio position on the nominating commission.  Opponents of these bills say they would make judges and their decisions less independent and more political.  

HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES/AGRICULTURE/ENVIRONMENT will hear related bills HB143 and HB324. HB143 authorizes the state to exercise eminent domain authority on property owned by the federal government, except property that the state  has agreed to sell for federal buildings.  “Eminent domain” is government’s right to take land for public use.  
          HB324 directs the attorney general to use eminent domain to help the state get access to school and institutional trust lands or to increase their profitability.  Both bills have a long note from legislative staff at the end explaining that the bills are likely unconstitutional.  An 1894 federal law, the Utah Enabling Act, says Utah agreed to give up title “forever” to a lot of public and Indian land as a condition of statehood.
          Substitute SB32 will also be heard in Natural Resources.  It would allow homeowners to capture and store up to 2500 gallons of rainwater for a beneficial use.  They would have to register their name, address and storage capacity on the State Engineer’s website.
         
WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY
In Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment
Kathy Van Dame reporting;

HJR 5 Resolution on Clean Air , Rep Carol Spackman Moss's (D-SLC) vehicle idling reduction effort, sailed thru Senate Natural Resources Agriculture committee on a unanimous vote.  The Morningside School kids who helped write the bill turned out again. Hope they don't get an unrealistic impression of how easy legislation is.

HB228 , sponsored by Rep. Roger Barrus (R-Centerville) was passed unanimously out of committee.  
HB228 proposes to classify energy from burning solid waste as renewable energy.  

Rep Barrus acknowledged comments about past failures to protect public safety in the cases of houses being built too close to facilities such as Woods Cross refinery and Stericycle medical waste incinerator.  
He said he & Rep Becky Edwards (R-NSL) are working with refineries and may come up with legislation or a resolution to address this issue.

In House Revenue and Taxation
Gigi Brandt reporting:
I testified yesterday morning on Rep Brian King's HB90 .  It would have restored income tax rates of 6% on incomes over 250,000 and 7% on incomes over $750,000 (which is what all taxpayers paid on income over $8800 before the flat tax of 5% was enacted in 2008). The committee approved along party lines Rep Greg Hughes’ motion to send the bill back to the Rules Committee without recommendation.  The public testifying included two against (one a tea-party type--a member of the 9/12 group in Davis County). Rep Dougall disagreed with me and Canyon’s School Board member and former legislator Kevin Cromar about the progressivity of the current tax, saying that it was most progressive for the lower incomes and the current economic situation was not a downturn but part of the economic cycle.  He said that the Tax Review Commission recognized that (but he didn't say what plans they had to fund education in the event of downturns.)

At least a couple of the Republican legislators were wrestling with ways to fund education in addition to income tax, including severance tax revenue, and giving school districts more authority to raise property taxes if they can afford to. Rep King noted that the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce has recommended food and fuel tax increases. Other committee members doubted that taxpayers could afford to pay more in the current downturn.

Many of the people who were "pro" the bill viewed the fact that the committee spent more than 1 1/2 hours on the bill and listened to the public as progress and hoped they could get the bill to interim study.  

We agreed we all need to thank Rep. King for being brave enough to sponsor the bill and Rep. David Litvack for persuading the Rules Committee to send it to Rev and Tax for a hearing.
 
P.S. from Sandy Peck:
Much of the discussion was about whether the lower top tax rate of 5 percent is meeting it’s purpose of inducing company CEO’s to relocate in Utah.  Any data would be hard to interpret because of the severe recession since the rate change. Several cited studies in other states that put a well educated workforce and good quality of life higher on the list of reasons to relocate than taxbreaks.


In the Senate Education Committee
Marilyn Bown reporting:
The end of yesterday’s Senate Education Committee contained 3-4 minutes of silence
and stalemate on SB54 Reproductive Health Education . There was absolutely no motion to accept Senator Urquhart's substitute bill.  After a pregnant silence, Senator Stephenson said he wasn't comfortable with either the original bill or the 1st Substitute, so had prepared his own 2nd Substitute.  (All three bills are online)
Senator Stephenson's substitute bill would have provided for a reproductive health ed online course to be developed by the State Board, then submitted to Education Interim Committee which he chairs.
          Urquhart respectfully thanked those who had participated in productive discussion with him, recognized the number in attendance ready to oppose him, and acknowledged that he didn't have enough votes to pass the bill out of committee.
         Kudos go to Urquhart for his attempts to collaborate with educators, health officials, and others who're concerned about prevailing data.

Sandy Peck