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House passes Senate Bill 5 to create parks-and-recreation grant criteria, despite debate on advisory council travel funds
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Summary
Senate Bill 5, creating criteria and procedures for awarding parks and recreation grants and a small $2,000 fiscal note for an advisory council's travel, passed the Utah House 43–31 after questions about preferential treatment and federal-agency eligibility.
The House approved Senate Bill 5 (parks and recreation amendments) on Feb. 17, 1993, by a vote of 43–31. Representative Price described the bill as establishing criteria and procedures for awarding grants to waterway projects and recreational trails, requiring matching funds from recipients and public input for trail projects, and creating a small fiscal note of $2,000 to cover advisory council travel expenses.
During floor questions Representative Fox and others asked whether travel allowances were standard for advisory boards and whether the program might create preferential treatment for certain recreational users or subsidize projects more than other taxpayers. Representative Brown asked about the possibility of grants to federal agencies and how such requests would be justified. Representative Price said the advisory council would consider requests (for example, BLM or Forest Service projects were on the board's morning agenda), that most grants would be to local agencies, and that the program was intended to leverage matching local funds for state-supported trails and riverway enhancement requests; he cited more than $6 million in pending project requests across the state as evidence of demand.
Representative Price urged support and the House voted to pass the bill; the measure was forwarded with a recorded vote of 43 ayes and 31 nays.
