Thursday, January 31, 2008

MORNING COMMITTEES

This morning HOUSE LAW ENFORCEMENT/CRIMINAL JUSTICE will continue its debate of HB239, which would expire all driving privilege cards on December 31, 2008 and prohibit the Driver License Division from issuing any more. It was pointed out at the last meeting that discontinuing the cards is meant to discourage new illegal immigration. But legal as well as illegal aliens use driver privilege cards, which promote safe driving because card holders must pass a driving test and buy car insurance.

In HOUSE JUDICIARY, SB16 would allow a person convicted and imprisoned for a felony to ask the Attorney General for a new hearing when new evidence, including DNA evidence, is discovered. Under the bill, free counsel could be appointed and a person found innocent by clear and convincing evidence would receive financial assistance equivalent to the average annual Utah wage for each year of imprisonment for up to 15 years.

SENATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS will consider Senate Joint Resolution 5, an amendment to a section of the Utah Constitution concerned with changing the boundaries of legislative districts after the U.S. census is taken every 10 years. The amendment would clarify that the Legislature should redraw those boundaries no later than the annual general legislative session after the Legislature receives the results of the census.

Also in Government Operations: Senate Joint Resolution 6 would encourage Governor Huntsman to consider statewide geographic balance when making appointments to committees, boards and commissions in order to represent the unique needs and perspectives of all Utah citizens. Along the same lines, SB158 would increase the membership of the governor's Rural Partnership Board by including rural representatives of agriculture and the travel industry, and a representative of rural utilities.

THIS AFTERNOON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEES meet at 2 p.m.

The HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE will consider several Medicaid issues, including a follow up on the Medicaid Preferred Drug List, Medicaid Inflation, Restoration of Adult Dental services for Medicaid Clients and increasing compensation for providers of service to Medicaid recipients.

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

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

Supporters of clean, renewable energy were in the Capitol Rotunda yesterday listening to an explanation of SB173, Renewable Energy Provisions, sponsored by Senator Scott McCoy. The bill sets a goal of 25 percent of Utah's electricity coming from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric, by the year 2025. It also requires measuring progress towards that goal in the years between now and then. Currently, only 3 percent of Utah power comes from renewables.

Senator McCoy said that besides cleaner air, economic development would be boosted by his bill as new businesses developed these sources.

Senator Curt Bramble is drafting a similar bill, Energy Resource and Carbon Reduction Initiative, which doesn't have a bill number yet. It sets a goal of 20 percent renewables by 2025, but no interim targets. Rocky Mountain Power has been working with the senator on this bill and says they have brought wind power into Utah from Wyoming, Washington and Oregon.

Senator Bramble recently met with supporters of renewable energy, who are trying to persuade him of the advantages of these alternatives: no fuel, no emissions, no toxic waste, little or no water use, no need to separate, sequester or store anything. Their impression is that the senator still believes carbon reduction, or carbon sequestration, or nuclear are just as good as renewables.

Yesterday the House Business and Labor committee passed a substitute version of HB133, Health System Reform. The substitute still would be a joint effort of the Departments of Health, Insurance and Workforce
Services, the Governor's Office of Economic Development, and the Legislature - but with the Legislature taking a larger role in developing a reform plan. Many who spoke at the hearing asked for quick action to relieve the lack of insurance, rapid medical cost inflation and the burden on business of providing insurance. There were also concerns that the public is not involved enough in understanding the issue and not being asked to comment on the solution. A plan to require children on CHIP, the state/federal insurance program, to be covered instead by private insurers subsidized by public money, was criticized. Advocates of CHIP worried that families on CHIP can not afford the private insurance even if it's subsidized.

Sandy Peck
League of Women Voters