Senate advances measures on arbitration, education funding, health and taxes; SJR2 on tax-threshold moves forward

The Utah Senate on Feb. 12 advanced a slate of bills across judiciary, health, tax and water policy and moved several measures to third reading or circled them for further work.

Key outcomes at a glance

- Senate Bill 117 (Uniform Family Law Arbitration Act): Passed on third reading. The presiding officer announced that the bill "having received 26 yay votes, 0 nay votes, 3 being absent, shall be read a third time." The bill establishes a framework for arbitration in family law cases and coordinates arbitration clauses with existing code.

- Senate Bill 147 (Youth Service Organizations Amendments): Passed on third reading with the chair announcing 25 yea votes, 0 nays and 4 absent. The measure alters the previous mandate by changing a requirement from a "shall" to a "may" to accommodate situations where required identification to run background checks may not be available.

- Senate Bill 102 (second substitute → fourth substitute): Sponsor moved and the body approved deleting the second substitute and adopting a fourth substitute. The substituted language removed repeal language and set a five-year review cadence for certain programs; senators voted to "circle" the bill for additional work in the public education appropriations subcommittee.

- Senate Bill 92 (first substitute): See separate coverage. The measure, which directs a study of publicly owned golf-course water use and requires…