These are the political minutes I took of the of status of Utah legation. any inaccuracies is the fault of the note taker.

This is a submission to my caucus corner occasional blog.

– Brad Daw: tax reform: hope to see something soon. There is a big shift in tax policy. Broken the base, lower the rate and overall tax cut. Numbers of income is coming down.
– Curt ramble: 14 days left and not seen bill yet. One Proposal is for tax reform. If you trade in a car you pay sales tax on the difference. If you trade an old car and pay for a new car, you pay sales tax on both.
– Hoton: occupational freedom, reduce govern leaving home and coming to work.
– Adam: change of driver’s license. Change the license renewal period from 5 yrs. to 8 yrs.
– Clyde Peterson:? Approbations committee: Reported back to priorities. Did a reallocation of the committee. Executive proportions will build a budget based on what those committees have done
– Approbates determine the budget on that.
– Other people do it by volume.
– Q: tax reform always seems to be a crisis without being solved: Daw: years ago we had a higher tax rate. Shift made. No major change was done for a long time. We see sales tax as a viable income coming down. Because we are moving more into a service economy. Income tax is going up. Sales tax is paying for more state needs. Other rep: what are we spending in different categories on a per capita basis? Transportation was spending more. Gas taxes used to pay transportation. We can’t keep up with needs. A small pilot program being looked at by some states if road usage. Charge road would encourage less driving. Senator ramble: broadening the base and increase the tax on services.
– Q: why do need a hate crime; all crime is a hate crime? All crime involves hate: Jenkins says: if a crime against a broad group of people. It is a terrorize act because you are trying to hate a group. Should include restorative justice. Try to do something to educate them to what they are doing. Stratton: difficult to get in the mind of a person of a criminal. Need to enforce the law. Need to protect our first responders.
– Q: Can you define affordable housing: Thurston: there is no definition of affordable. The solution is supply and demand. All we need to do is buy more housing. We need to determine what kind of hosing can be constructed. One idea is high rise apartments as small units. Do a bunch of them and the price for them will go up. The best dealing is to expand the supply of start or second-tier homes. People move from apartments to start home to second-tier home. Rep is hesitant to tell a city what to do with their areas. Feel Utah county cities do a good job.
– Q; what are the chances of Provo airport getting funded? It’s going through IGD committee. Two requests looking for 9 million and an addition 18 from another place and 8 million from federal. Committee sent a request to another committee. Ogden discusses an airport funding as well. At halfway point in the probations committee
– Q: Stand at house road proposal: if affordable housing is improved. Cities that have more affordable housing get more funding.
– Q: Why do so many need to submit reports to the natural resources interim committee? We’ve empowered our rulemaking bodies is legislators and subdivisions that deal with environments (sewer treatments) are empowered to make regulations. There is a principle of delegation and a report of how things are going. This gives a chance for the pole to have a voice. Otherwise, we would have regulations without representation. Other rep: a lot of reports are being removed or sent in paper form. It does provide some accountability.
– Q: How do you feel about banning the establishment or expansion of sand and gravel pits (hb288)? Need source and raw material available to build roads. Need to balance local jurisdiction with other concerns.
– Q: Status of 18-week abortion passing the Senate? Another abortion bill 166 prohibits abortions of a child because of Down syndrome. 18-week abortion sponsored by Senator Henderson> issue with constitutional issue > woman has control.
– Q: Will UT c. receive 6.25 M appropriate requests for the fire mitigations and recovery efforts? It allows us to obtain funds to reseed the burned area. Working on putting a budget together
– Q: explain how agreement last yr. with our schools now, is causing my property tax to go up? It was an agreement. 10c tax shut down. Our school agreed to step back from their ballot initiative.
– Q: what do you think about the church involved politically? All voices should be heard. Other rep: I have been lobbied by more issues by the Catholic Church then the LDS church. One rep: says 7 yrs., he has never been contacted by the church about an issue. People who object also want their voice to be muted yet they want their voice to be heard. They resent that the LDS church has a stronger influence. All should have the freedom to speak.
– Q: what bill do you think will have the biggest impact this year? Medicaid expansion. Businesses asking to increase Medicaid reimbursement. Business going out of business can’t afford to run a business at the current rate. Rep: the appropriations bill is the most important. (Budget) has a series of bills.
Funding education is also high. Pari-mutuel bill: 1927: is making race tracks as legal. Legislation in 1929 then said no. We would have every Indian reservation have gambling casinos. Thought to raise funds and allow betting on horses. Rep: if we allow gambling it will open a whole host of other gambling.
– Q: stance on police taking possession of assets without a charge of crime? We all need to have loyalty to those facing the front lines. Need to be checks and balances. Supreme Court ruled: The constitution is against excessive fines.
– Q: 49% of the states k-12 growth is in Utah County. and 47% of all higher education resident growth is being handled by UVU. What can be done to increase the growth funding 2/3 of funding goes to education? Last 5 yrs. put in 1.2 billing into public education. UVU: committee cut down by half. Why? Wanted to shift more into performance metrics. Wanted more emphasis on graduation.
– Q: change Utah county form of government? Many need to change the form. We need 7 instead of 3. Other areas of the state have bigger commissions. Car inspections don’t make a difference. The main people lobbying to keep inspections were those doing inspections. Inspections are a great income source but there is no definite evidence that it improves the health of a car. One way we look at data we look at insurance rates. And there was no relationship.
– Review: we’ve passed 100 bills about 400 bills to go.

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