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Committee backs bill banning state-funded facilities from being named for local officials during office and two years after
Summary
The House Naming & Designating Committee voted 7-3 to send House Bill 434 forward with a positive recommendation. The bill would bar state-funded public facilities from being named after local elected officials while they hold office and for two years afterward, with limited exceptions.
Vice Chair Fritz told the House Naming & Designating Committee on March 10 that House Bill 434 would bar public facilities funded wholly or partly by the state from being named after a local elected official while the official is in office and for two years after they leave office.
The bill, sponsored on the floor by Vice Chair Fritz on behalf of Representative Roper, makes exceptions for facilities named with private funds, for deceased individuals and for those “honorably discharged,” and retains a provision barring honors for officials convicted of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude.
Committee members said why it mattered. Speaker Marsh said constituents had called because several local projects “are already in progress that are going to be named after local individuals” and asked for more notice before the rule would apply. Representative Jones asked specifically whether the felony provision remained in the text; Vice Chair Fritz confirmed it did.
Supporters described the measure as aimed at preventing elected officials from using state funds to secure naming rights for themselves. Fritz said the bill was “intended to prevent local elected officials from using state funds to name facilities after themselves.”
Opponents raised procedural or scope concerns during the discussion but offered no amendment that changed the bill’s core provisions. After debate, a question on the bill was called. The clerk reported a committee vote of seven ayes and three noes. The committee sent HB 434 to the State and Local Government Committee with a positive recommendation.
The bill’s text, as explained during the committee, applies to “any public facility, funded fully or in part by the state,” and specifically mentions parks, buildings and roadways as examples. The transcript records that exceptions include privately funded name changes, deceased persons and those honorably discharged; the felony/moral turpitude disqualification also remains in the bill.
No statute citations or fiscal notes were read into the record during committee discussion. The transcript does not specify whether the bill would require implementing rules or how enforcement would be handled if a naming were challenged.
HB 434 now proceeds to further committee consideration as part of the regular legislative process.
