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Senate advances wildfire suppression fund; amendment to tap rainy-day account fails
Summary
After extended debate, the Utah Senate moved Senate Bill 143 (wildland-fire suppression fund) to third-reading while rejecting a proposal to seed the fund with $500,000 from the state's rainy-day fund on a 12–16 roll-call vote.
The Utah Senate advanced legislation to create a wildfire suppression insurance fund but rejected an effort to seed it with $500,000 from the state’s rainy-day fund. Sponsors framed the bill as an insurance-style mechanism to smooth the cost of unpredictable wildland fires for counties and the state.
Senator Leonard Blackham, sponsor of Senate Bill 143, told colleagues the proposal “is basically to establish an insurance fund which allows the counties to put money in the insurance fund basically to try to protect themselves in the event that they…
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