Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legislative Votes topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Votes at a glance: Utah House passes fireworks, bonding, tax cleanup and other bills; base budgets circled for third reading
Summary
The Utah House on Jan. 28 adopted committee reports, circled base budget bills for third reading and approved several bills including fireworks modifications (HB 59), public official bonding amendments (HB 64), state income tax cleanup (HB 60), and two administrative/oversight measures (HB 71, HB 73).
The Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday adopted multiple committee reports, circled base budget bills for expedited consideration and approved a slate of bills with largely unanimous support.
Key procedural actions
- The House lifted several base budget bills from Rules and placed them at the top of the third‑reading calendar, including HB 1 (Higher Education base budget), HB 4 (Economic and Community Development base budget), HB 5 (General Government base budget), HB 6 (Transportation and Infrastructure base budget) and HB 7 (National Guard, Veterans Affairs and Legislature base budget). The House also suspended the one‑day rule so those bills could be read for third reading without delay.
Votes at a glance (selected bills)
- HB 59, Fireworks Modifications — passed, 72 yes, 0 no. Sponsor Representative James A. Dunnigan described the measure as a technical cleanup that updates numerical hazard classifications following a national reclassification and said it completes a definitional change.
- HB 64, Public Official Bonding Amendments — passed, 68 yes, 0 no. Sponsor Representative James A. Dunnigan said the bill removes surety bond requirements where those bonds are impracticable and instead requires crime insurance for covered public officials; the change reflects that surety issuers cannot be reimbursed by the government employer under current law.
- HB 60, State Income Tax Amendments (technical cleanup) — passed, 70 yes, 0 no. Representative Karianne Lisonbee said the bill clarified language tied to expired enterprise zone tax credits and does not remove benefits for taxpayers who qualified before the zone program closed to new designations.
- HB 71, Committee of Consumer Services Sunset Amendments — passed, 73 yes, 0 no. Representative Doug Owens said the bill extends the sunset date on an advisory committee to the Office of Consumer Services; the agency reported the committee’s input is useful.
- HB 73, Administrative Procedures Act Amendments — passed, 72 yes, 0 no. Representative Lisonbee said the bill defines “final administrative action” in statute, adopting the test the courts have applied because Utah previously lacked a statutory definition.
Other actions
- The House adopted multiple committee reports sending a range of bills and first substitutes to standing committees for further work. The Rules Committee report reassigned bills to committees such as Education, Judiciary, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and others.
What happens next
Several bills passed by the House will now be transmitted to the Utah Senate for consideration. The circled base budget bills will appear on the top of the House third‑reading calendar for further floor votes.
