House amends HB 442 bonding bill, strips highway projects and keeps building priorities

Representative Evans, sponsor of the committee amendment to House Bill 442, told the House the package preserved a set of building and education projects while deleting the highway series and adjusting several line items to reflect committee priorities. "All total, that represents a amount of approximately $79,836,000," Evans said while listing projects he proposed to include or remove.

Why it matters: The bonding bill funds capital projects across the state, including university buildings, technology centers and a proposed easement purchase at Hill Air Force Base. Lawmakers debated whether some items were acquisitions or construction and whether revenue bonds tied to a proposed Salt Lake City court complex should remain in the bill.

What the House did: The floor divided a prior Valentine amendment into two parts earlier in debate; the technical portion (which added economic development and other nonconstruction items) passed. Later, Representative Mortimer offered a wide-ranging amendment to delete many projects and bring the bond total down to roughly $64.07 million; that Mortimer amendment failed on the floor after a recorded standing/division vote.

Representative Brown highlighted that the bill as amended contained about $39.7 million of revenue-bond authorizations, saying the figure represented an additional revenue-bond commitment the body should understand before final passage. Representative Evans answered that the decision whether to use revenue bonds or lease-purchase financing is made later by agencies such as DFCM and the building board, and that revenue bonds are typically the least expensive option.

On the committee amendment that Evans presented, he listed detailed line edits: additions such as the University of Utah Marriott Library and Bridgerland Applied Technology Center; deletions such as one museum line; and specific inclusions for Snow College, Weber State University heat-plant work, and a Hill Air Force Base easement project. Evans asked legislative staff to adjust totals as needed to reflect correct sums.

A substitute motion that would have restored the original larger package with narrower deletions (offered by Representative Eubank) was defeated on a previous-question/closing vote. The House then voted to adopt the Evans amendment in two parts: first, the building/project portion (accepted by voice) and second, the deletion of highway (200-series) funds (accepted by voice). The clerk later recorded further floor actions on the bill and the body moved to reconsider and circle HB 442 for further action.

Key quotes: "All total, that represents a amount of approximately, $79,836,000," Representative Evans said when enumerating the adjustments he proposed to the bill. "I want you to be aware of that when you vote for the bill, you're voting for an additional nearly $40,000,000 worth of revenue bonds," Representative Brown said, noting the revenue-bond authorizations contained in the package.

Next steps: After the amendments were adopted, the House circled the bill and moved it on the calendar for further action and possible reconsideration. Representative Evans moved to reconsider the body's actions on HB 442 and the floor voted to circle the bill and place it at the top of the third-reading calendar.

Votes and formal actions recorded on this bill in the transcript: the Mortimer amendment was voted on and failed; the Evans amendment was adopted in two parts (building portion accepted; highway deletion accepted); the House recorded further procedural votes (including a motion to reconsider and to circle HB 442). The transcript also contains a later recorded tally line for HB 442 that appears in the floor record (see provenance).