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Utah House advances youth-violence package, tightens parental liability and adjusts fuel-tax indexing
Summary
The Utah House on the floor advanced several public-safety and funding measures: lawmakers increased the cap on parental liability for juvenile property damage after an amendment, approved school-based gang-prevention funding, created a coordinating council on juvenile violence, amended weapons language for juvenile offenders and passed a fuel-tax indexing bill; one liability measure for equine activities was circled for further work.
The Utah House moved a package of measures on Tuesday aimed at juvenile violence prevention and related policy changes, passing several bills unanimously or by wide margins and sending them to the Senate for consideration.
A contested measure proposing higher parental liability for property damage by minors drew the longest debate. The sponsor described a constituent’s case of roughly $10,000 in vandalism and said the bill ‘‘doubles the liability of parents basically who are not paying attention to what their children do and take no responsibility.’’ Lawmakers sparred over whether the parental cap should be $2,000 or $5,000, with supporters arguing a higher cap better deters neglect and opponents warning of financial hardship for single-parent families. Representative Reber moved to restore a $5,000 cap and argued, ‘‘the victim in these cases are often poor people as well,’’ urging accountability; Representative…
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