Monday, February 4, 2008

MORNING COMMITTEES

To start off the week, SB81, a comprehensive illegal immigration bill, is scheduled in SENATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS this morning. It has some 20 provisions, some of which are in other bills already making their way through the legislature. SB81 would affect college students, workers, public and private employers, contractors, and undocumented individuals who receive government benefits. Undocumented students at state universities could not pay instate tuition after May, 2010, or receive college scholarships or financial aid. An individual not legally in the United States could not be granted a liquor license, and county sheriffs would have to try to verify the citizenship of prisoners charged with a felony or driving under the influence. Public employers would have to verify the citizenship of not only employees but employees of companies they contracted with. Firing a lawful employee while keeping an unauthorized alien in the same job category would be considered employment discrimination. Independent contractors who failed to document the status of their laborers would have to pay state income tax at the top rate. State agency benefits administrators would have to the verify citizenship of recipients, although the bill has many exceptions for health and safety. Recipients would have to sign affidavits saying they're here legally. The Attorney General would make an agreement with the federal government allowing local law officers to enforce federal immigration and customs laws. Knowingly transporting or sheltering an alien would be a Class A misdemeanor. A fiscal note on the cost of enforcing SB81 is not yet available.

SENATE REVENUE AND TAXATION will consider SB178, Senior Citizen Property Tax Safe Harbor, which abates or defers property taxes for the poor and individuals over 65, and for unmarried surviving spouses. The committee will also continue discussion of Substitute SB48, a plan to fund capital costs of constructing and renovating school buildings. They hope to find a fair combination of local property taxes and state funding that will meet building needs in districts that have different levels of property tax income and school population growth.

AFTERNOON

Appropriations Subcommittees meet this afternoon. Capital Facilities and Government Operations will consider requests to pay for Shakespearean Festival land and building purchases and appropriations for the LeRay McAllister Fund, which buys land to preserve open space.

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

WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK

Last Friday, The HOUSE REVENUE AND TAXATION COMMITTEE passed HB54, which requires tax assessors in counties with large populations to use a computer assisted mass-appraisal system to update assessed values annually. This could help to remedy the sticker shock that property owners complain about when reappraisal is done only every 5 years as property values rapidly rise. In fact, in Bountiful it wasn't done for 10 years.

Voters impatient for information about candidates and elections may also get some relief with the enactment of HB309, Election Information Amendments, which passed HOUSE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS on Friday. Local election results would be posted on county websites as well as in newspapers. Prior to an election, the Voter Information Pamphlet that's put out by the state would be mailed to each household in the state instead of being distributed only by newspapers. Newspapers don't reach everyone and often the VIP gets lost among a stack of ads in the paper. That's even happened on occasion to the League of Women Voters printed voter guide. The League often gets phone calls from shocked Californians who have moved to Utah and are accustomed to receiving their voter information in the mail. HB309 also calls for the VIP to include the complete text of a law that's being submitted to voters in a referendum (such as the education voucher law recently voted on). In committee, the bill was amended to add that the changes in the law should be underlined and bracketed for clarity.

HOUSE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES passed substitute HB326, which requires the Department of Health to keep enrollment in CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program, open for all eligible children. Enrollment is currently open, but in past years has been closed part of the year due to insufficient funding, leaving thousands of eligible children uncovered.

Advocates for clean air are puzzling over what happened back on January 24 in the Transportation, Environmental Quality, and National Guard Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the Division of Air Quality. The recommendation of the Legislative Analyst was for $2.21 million for air quality planning, but the preliminary vote was for $1.5 million, significantly less. Members of the committee say this was not actually a vote, and besides $1.5 million is about the right amount. Then why did the analyst recommend $2.21 million? Clean air advocates, which is most of us, would like to know.

Sandy Peck
League of Women Voters