Curtis Haring
Bills to Watch: SB 138, Health Insurance Mandate Accountability Amendments, Sen. Todd Weiler
If there is one thing I have come to watch during my “Bills to Watch” series, it is that I should automatically become suspicious of any legislation that attempts to change benefits to state employees. Why? Because it inevitably means that we will be screwing over the public servants who are trying to make the [...]
Bills to Watch: HB 87, Billboard Revisions, Rep. Melvin Brown
If there is one thing our Utah State Legislature is good at, it is talking out of both sides of its mouth. Take, for example, HB 87, Billboard Revisions, as proposed by Representative Melvin Brown (R-Coalville, District 53). It seems that every year we hear the legislature complain about how there is too much government [...]
Bills to Watch: HB 283, State Stores Pilot Program for Days of Sale of Liquor, Rep. Patrice Arent
One of the many perplexing liquor laws in Utah revolves around state liquor stores being closed on the more “obscure” legal holidays. Most Utahns don’t get holidays like Columbus Day or Presidents Day off from work, yet our liquor stores are inexplicably closed on those days. Thankfully Representative Patrice Arent (D – Salt Lake City, District 36) is attempting to [...]
Bills to Watch: SB 34, Production and Sale of Food in Utah Revisions, Sen. Casey Anderson
After reading through SB 34, Production and Sale of Food in Utah Revisions, I literally spat out a sigh of disgust/confusion/and general “huh?” a-tude. The bill, proposed by Senator Casey Anderson (R-Cedar City, District 28) says that if an agricultural product is grown, distributed, and consumed entirely in Utah, it is exempt from federal regulation. This was the confusion [...]
Bills to Watch: HB 70, Air Quality Task Force, Rep. Patrice Arent
On the list of “important things our legislature really should cover,” our metro area’s air quality should be at the top of the list. Year after year the inversion gets worse and worse, and yet our lawmakers seem to completely ignore it. This is somewhat ironic as the inversion always seems to set in at [...]
Bills to Watch: HB 64 – Amendments to Public Employee Health Care, Rep. Brian Doughty
I have to hand it to freshman Representative Brian Doughty (D-Salt Lake City, District 30). His bill, HB 64, Amendments to Public Employee Health Care would go far in proving that Utah is not some backwater stuck in the 1940′s. Doughty’s bill makes the revolutionary step to acknowledge that not every state employee fits into the classic [...]
Bills to Watch: SB 19, Voter Information Pamphlets, Sen. Peter Knudson
Senator Peter Knudson’s (R- Brigham City, District 17) heart appears to be in the right place when he proposed SB 19, Voter Information Pamphlets, however the timing is a bit off. Now, in the olden days, people actually had to walk uphill, both ways, with snow up to their ears to receive a voter information packet – it [...]
Bills to Watch: SB 117 – Publication of Education Fund Revenue Reductions, Sen. Ben McAdams
Senator Ben McAdams (D-Salt Lake City, District 2) is taking charge and working hard to hold legislators accountable with SB 117 – Publication of Education Fund Revenue Reductions. The bill is very straight forward, but will have big ramifications by holding lawmakers feet to the fire. The bill, in short, would require any bill that negativity effects [...]
Bills to Watch: SJR 7 – Joint Resolution on Priority Status for Bills
I don’t even know where to begin on this one folks. With SJR 7 – Joint Resolution on Priority Status for Bills, Senator Margaret Dayton (R – Orem – District 15) is such an overt attempt to squelch the rights of the political minority that it sounds more like the fiat of a third world dictator [...]
Bills to Watch: SB 31, Classroom Size Amendments, Sen. Karen Morgan
I must admit that I was impressed when I saw that Senator Karen Morgan (D – Salt Lake –District 8) proposed SB 31, Classroom Size Amendments. It is short, it is sweet, and it cuts to the very core of one of the principal problems with Utah schools: large class sizes. Morgan is proposing that there [...]
© 2012 Blue in Red Zion: Poorly Spelled, Properly Thought Out.
WordPress theme by Develop Daly