I attended a meeting where we heard from these members of the legislators. Any inaccurate and misinformation is the fault of the note taker. This is an entry for Caucus Corner.

Brady Brammer
– He is on the Judiciary committee: last year address two abortion bills.
– This year concentrates on the protection of religious liberty. One bill presents that a clergy member can be held accountable for not disclosing to the police a child abuse crime confessed to them. The democratic sponsor thought the right of the child was greater than the clergy/ confessor. Committee said ignoring the rights of religious liberty can tilt the balance in a negative way. It was proposed to the sponsor that religious leaders not be liable in the crime volunteer notified authorities. They won’t be sued. She was upset and did not accept the suggestion. Later she came back and decided it was a good compromise.
– Natural law precedes the constitution. After the constructional issues comes the law of the land. If you give a good reason why an alternative might be better. It can be sometimes accepted between opposing forces.
– Creating a baseline where people can succeed is an appropriate form of governing. Because the United States established roads and communication help accelerated the success of the country.
– Legislators suggested that universities teach class throughout the day and more at night. Increase the building use from 24% use to 35%.
– There is a bill that a warning label to be on pornographic content.
– Domestic abuse amendment; is someone not paying alimony or child support. If the source has to chase them, then it allows to collection fees in addition to originally owed alimony.

Keven Stratton
– no vote repeal of the tax sb2001 (tax restructuring bill)
– Feels he as a legislator has three goals.
1. must attend to the Fiscal state of the house.
2. oversight of the branches
3. ?
– There is three creation of policy.
– On constitutional defense counsel.
– He is also on the water conservations committee.
– On the federalism committee (limiting the 10 amendments) few powers are offered to the nation.
– Fiscally: the state has a triple-A rating. We have great revenue. Record levels of revenue toward education. A general fund. We do have a structural challenge. Pyramid taxing is when an item is taxed multiple times. For example 1. When you buy the raw material, it is taxed. 2. Items involved with the production are taxed. and 3. Selling the end product is taxed.
– The population will jump from three million to six million.
– Protect our liberty, our freedom, and our children.

Dan Hemmert
– Is the Senate majority whip.
– He is on the social services committee. The biggest bill is Medicaid. Ran a bill: remove Utah from the affordable care act. It did not get past attorneys.
– Law enforcement: somite
– The vast majority of bills are tweaks of old bills.
– Tweak: Yerkes are illegal. Make Yerkes no longer illegal. (He said a Yerkes is a type of house I think but I was confused by this part of his presentation.
– Concurrent resolutions more study to emotional support animals. Rise a bar of what represents a special needs pet. A man back east labeled beer as his emotional pet because it has yeast which is a live organism.
– Encourage private landowners to take personal action to negate wildfires. Get tax exemptions.
– Cost of prescription drugs: apply a wavier to import drugs from Canada. Out of country drugs or half or a third of the cost of US purchased drugs.
– Drug transparency bill> more transparency from manufacturers, pharmacy, and insurance and shows the cost structure and where are the rebates going to.
– Regent scholarship: is currently only available going to state schools. Want to expand to students attending credited non-state schools.

Question and Answer:
– How will k12 funding be secured? Address low pay for teachers. State income tax related to education. A report sees Utah 12th in the nation.
– Two red flag laws got killed in committee
– Sb54 (bill for caucus and signatures: The senator thinks it’s ok as currently is. the two representatives say follow the will of the people. Agrees with duel path.
– All agree to protect the rights of parents to protect parents on how they can educate their kids. Bill 241
– All three legislators support parents to have control over if or if not vaccinate their kids.
– How to modify regulations of Utah water go into Colorado goes to cal. We don’t use much of the water going off our mountain into the Colorado River. Maybe discuss the lake Powel pipeline instead.
– Should there be a cap for nonparents? One rep says no. An educated population is part of the public good.