Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THIS MORNING

Three proposals to finance Public Education and compensate teachers will be reviewed in THE HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE. HB382 (Newbold) would add money to education coffers by raising the minimum property tax rate imposed by school districts statewide to 0.00200 per dollar of taxable value. HB471 (Hughes) would require a school district or charter school to provide a salary supplement of $5,000 for teachers who fill a mathematics or science position for which there is a critical shortage. That includes secondary school level mathematics, integrated science in grade 7 or 8, chemistry, or physics. Teachers would need to apply for the supplement. SB35 (Stephenson) would also supplement by a market incentive of $5000 the salaries of math and science teachers. They would have to have a major or coursework equivalent in their subject or a related subject.

SENATE TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES AND TECHNOLOGY will consider SB286. It would exempt a public transit district that extends across two or more counties from following county or municipal land use ordinances when constructing a rail fixed guideway such as the planned commuter rail line along the Wasatch Front. The exemption would apply also to structures that serve the fixed guideway. HB406(Dunnigan) requires the Department of Transportation to study the impact of raising the speed limit above 75 miles per hour on parts of a highway. The department would look at factors such as population density and the geometry of the roadway.

SENATE JUDICIARY, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE will be voting on HB339 (Herrod). It criminalizes human smuggling of persons who are not legal residents of the U.S. for profit or commercial purposes. Human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation would also become a felony. Under HB374 (Ray), educational child abuse prevention and treatment programs could be presented in public schools if permitted by local school boards.

THIS AFTERNOON

Floor time all the time begins today. No more committee meetings are scheduled for the rest of the session, although sometimes an emergency comes up. Today, both House and Senate will be on the floor morning, afternoon and evening until 9 p.m.

For more information, visit your legislature — in person or online at www.le.utah.gov

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

Yesterday the House Transportation Committee approved Substitute HB146, School Bus Amendments, sponsored by Rep. Johnson. The substitute softens the school bus idling portions of the bill, designed to promote cleaner air.

The Air Quality Board, in consultation with local school districts, will adopt idling reduction standards. Bus drivers would have to turn off the bus engine upon stopping at a school and couldn't turn it on more than five minutes before departing. Funds to match federal grants to local school districts that buy or retrofit clean school buses are in the bill, too.

Discussion ensued about the need to idle during cold weather to thaw water in the brakes so they would work. A state school board representative explained that this is a myth. Water in brake lines is a result of maintenance practices, and prolonged idling is not the best response to the problem. This apparently contradicted the opinion of Rep. Kiser's bus driver neighbor. But the bill passed anyhow.

The House passed HB201, an income tax credit of up to $2000 a year for investing in utility-sized solar projects. It was proposed by St. George City Light & Power, which would build a solar project next to its water treatment plant. The idea has been praised as a "cool" thinking-outside-of-the-box, uniquely Utah solution to promoting solar energy. It passed with nary a nay vote.

Yesterday the SENATE passed SB210 from the Second to the Third Reading on a vote of 16-10-3. SB10 requires proof of citizenship documents such as birth certificates, driver licenses, naturalization papers or copies thereof, to be attached to new voter registration applications. The bill is opposed by Wasatch Front election clerks, the Utah Association of Counties, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, mainly because there have been no cases of non-citizens voting in Utah. So the bill is unnecessary. They believe it would do more harm than good since the poor, elderly and disabled are less likely to have such documents and find it difficult to travel to county clerk's offices to register. Registration door-to-door and at events would be stymied by the lack of copy machines and voters fearful of identity theft if they provided copies or photos of driver licenses to just anyone. The Senate will vote again this morning on SB210, perhaps more thoughtfully.

Sandy Peck
League of Women Voters