Following the Utah Legislature 3/12/09

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Thursday, March 12, 2009

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY

Today is the very last day of the 2009 general session of the legislature. It ends at midnight. Floor debate began at 8 AM and will go until midnight if necessary. Lunch will be from 12 to 2 and the dinner break is from 6 to 7 this evening. The House has set a time certain at 9 am for HCR 10, a Concurrent Resolution Honoring the Life and Contributions of Larry H. Miller.

IN THE HOUSE

Nine bills are on the Concurrence calendar awaiting HOUSE approval of changes made in the Senate yesterday.
One interesting one is Substitute HB 444. The Senate added $500,000 for the Department of Health’s tobacco cessation program, plus money for children’s museums at the Leonardo and Thanksgiving Point, and assistance for the Shakespeare Festival, all to be funded by tobacco settlement money.

Still circled on the House’s Senate bill calendar are SB 28, Prohibited Activities of Gang Offenders: Substitute SB 199, Equal Recognition of School Parent Groups such as the PTA: and SB 64, which would give the legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee a new power: checking to see whether state agencies were spending appropriations as the legislature intended.
However HJR 23, a Joint Rules Resolution, is on the Board as well. It would allow Executive Appropriations to consider citizen and legislator complaints about whether appropriations were being spent as the legislature intended.

IN THE SENATE

The Second Reading list is long. Under Substitute HB 290, a person who texted or emailed on a handheld device while driving a moving vehicle would be guilty of careless driving, a class C misdemeanor.

Also on the Board are HB 392, which would authorize the PSC to allow a subsidized rate for natural gas vehicle fuel, and Second substitute HB 272, Utah Scenic Byway Designation Amendments. SB 61, favoring Home School and Private School Students’ Participation in Extracurricular Activities, SB 164, allowing In Person Voter Registration outside the clerk’s office, and Second Substitute HB 141, Billboard Amendments, still sit circled on the Third Reading calendar.

Throughout this long last day, bills will come and go on the boards, between House and Senate, and in and out of the Rules Committees, in the rush to get everyone’s priority bill passed.


Thursday, March 12, 2009

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

HB2, the huge Minimum School Program budget bill, traveled back and forth between the House and Senate yesterday and ended up on the House Concurrence Calendar today for consideration of the Senate’s amendments. A provision that would have gradually shifted funding of charter schools from the state to local school districts was removed. That means the state would continue to pay 75 percent of charter school costs.
$400,000 for teacher performance pay was restored, and teachers at the state School for the Deaf and Blind will get a raise. The WPU, Weighted Pupil Unit, will not increase. It’s set at $2,577 per pupil and 13,000 new students are expected next year. The education budget overall has been cut by 6 percent.

The Senate also made a small but interesting change in HB 412, Energy Policy Amendments, yesterday. They had a long discussion of whether HB 412 meant taxpayers would have to pay twice to study the economic impacts of “legislation, including a bill or resolution, or an executive action, including an executive order” that addresses climate change.
Yesterday’s amendment simply took out the “legislative action, including a bill or resolution” part, since legislative fiscal analysts already analyze the economic impact of proposed legislation. The economic effect on Utah industry business and consumers would still need to be determined before climate change action by the executive branch could be adopted.

SB 48, Teacher Licensing by Competency, sponsored by Senator Buttars, did not get a warm reception in the House. The bill failed very definitely, 17-49. It would have allowed individuals to apply for a competency-based teaching license to teach in middle school or high school if they held a bachelor’s degree, and had demonstrated a high level of competency in an academic subject.
Rep Menlove thought the bill was unnecessary. Programs to increase teacher competency already exist. Former AP English teacher Moss, said good teaching is 20 percent inspiration and 80 percent preparation. Teachers need skills such as how to prepare sequential lessons, time management and knowledge of adolescent psychology.

The immigration bill HB 64 has now passed both House and Senate but with some changes. It sets up a multi-agency strike force to combat violent and other major felony crimes associated with illegal immigration and human trafficking. Legislators found an interesting source for the $891,000 that will be given to the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice instead of the Attorney General’s office for administering the program. Money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the federal stimulus package, will be used.

Yesterday the Senate unanimously passed HB 120 - Snake Valley Aquifer Research Team and Advisory Council. The bill is designed to be sure groundwater now shared by Utah and Nevada is used on a sound scientific basis. Imagine! What a concept! HB 120 now goes to the Governor for his signature

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