ST. GEORGE — Members of the Utah Legislature’s “Sunshine Caucus” attended a forum Thursday where they were asked to recap the big issues and successes had in thus year’s recent legislative session.
The civic leaders were also asked about bills that did not survive the Legislature that they wished had passed.
The forum was a part of the monthly luncheon held by the Washington County Republican Women. Hosted at Santa Clara City Hall, local lawmakers who attended the forum included Sen. Even Vickers and Reps. Walt Brooks, Colin Jack, Neil Walter and Joseph Elison. Sen. Don Ipson was unable to attend due to family reasons.
“We dealt with DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and dealing with protecting females in bathrooms and dressing rooms,” Vickers said as he started the forum. “Those were taken care of early in the session and set a tone for how it was moving forward.”
Vickers spoke of HB 261 and HB 257, the former restricts how institutions of higher learning apply DEI policy, while the latter dictates that a transgender person can only legally enter the bathroom or locker room of the gender they identify with in Utah if they have had gender-affirming surgery and have it specified as their gender on their birth certificate.
Both Vickers and Elison mentioned new laws related to state sovereignty that the Legislature that included SB 57 and HB 164. SB 57 gives the state a framework to challenge federal policy that may be deemed as overreaching or unconstitutional and restricts it being enforced by state agencies until it is ruled on by the courts. Under HB 164, the state will not recognize central back digital currency as legal tender.
Elison also touched on the bills and funding related to homelessness in the state that passed. Among them are bills that adopt elements of the Switchpoint approach to combating homeless in St. George, he said.
“There’s a lot Dixie can teach the rest of the state of Utah,” Elison said.
He also said he was happy with the passing of HB 29, which gives public school officials a process to review and remove books from schools that are considered to contain pornography or other “sensitive material.”
Walter focused on education and how the state provided increased funding for students ($212 million for weighted pupil spending which amounts to a 5% increase) and education in general.
“Over the past couple of years we have increased public education funding by 56%,” he said. “It’s a significant increase. Our schools are well funded.”
Walter also said $100 million has been put toward school safety and recognized the efforts of Ipson to make that happen.
The Legislature is also working to make sure public schools are places of learning and not ideological advocacy, he said, adding that similar efforts are being made in higher education as well,
Among the legislative highlights Jack shared were the passing of energy bills he authored, as well as a law aimed at protecting children from lewd acts.
HB 424, the “lewdness involving children amendments,” lists various acts that, if performed on in the presence of a child can results in penalties that range between the misdemeanor and felony level. He thanked members of the Washington County Republican Women for supporting the bill as a number of them testified before House and Senate committees in favor of the bill.
“That bill got passed and I was very happy with that,” he said.
As for energy, Jack has three of his bills pass, all of which carried a common theme of “keeping the lights on,” he said.
Collectively, the goal of the legislation is to prevent the early retirement of established power generators if there is no replacement set up to take their place. They also seek to protect the state from perceived federal overreach by restricting the state’s adoption of federal programs that could lead to the early closure of electrical plants.
“Let’s not tear (a power plant) down prematurely until they have been replaced with something of equal or greater capacity,” he said.
While Brooks let his fellow lawmakers do most of the taking during this part of the forum, he did say he was happy with the ongoing tax cuts the state has made over the last four years which is estimated to have saved Utah taxpayers $1.2 billion.
The bills that didn’t make it
Vickers said he wanted to see HB 442 pass, which would have allowed municipalities a local option sales tax for the funding emergency services. The bill made it through the Utah House yet went unheard in the Senate. HB 442 was sponsored by Elision who also said he wished it had passed.
“EMS is a huge issue statewide,” Elison said. “That is what I’m going to be focused on this interim (session).”
The issue of emergency medical services statewide — which are often associated with ambulances — is big one that warrants wider discussion, he said. He also said he believes that lawmakers wanted to look into the issue in more detail and saw that as part of the reason his bill was not taken up by Senate.
A bill Brooks plans to run again is yet another bill cutting the state’s tax on Social Security. In recent years Brooks has either gotten individuals tax-cut bills passed or has his legislation included in larger bills with the ultimate goal of eliminating the tax at some point. Efforts to continue that crusade did not work out this year and will likely return for the 2025 session.
HB 303 was a bill Walter hoped to see pass, yet failed in the House. The bill would have amended provisions in Utah code that “prohibit school officials and employees from endorsing, promoting, or disparaging certain beliefs or viewpoints.”
Walter gave the example of a gay pride rainbow flag hung in a classroom as a symbol that would come under the scrutiny and be removed if the law had passed.
Though he had a “very fruitful session” as far as getting his other bills passed, Jack said one of his bills that failed to advance was HB 474. A criminal justice bill, it was drafted after Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby spoke to Jack about about some problems he saw in the state’s criminal justice system. The bill sought to clarify points in state law regarding probationers and parolees, drug penalties, violating a pretrial release and other issues.
The bill was eventually carved into five pieces with two being put in other bills that passed and the rest to be studied for an upcoming interim session. Once it is all figured out, Jack said he plans the run the bill again.
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