Utah Senate advances series of bills, including tougher vehicle penalties and university counsel authority

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Senate on Feb. 11 received committee reports, assigned legislation to standing committees and advanced several bills to third reading, including changes to motor-vehicle penalties, a measure that lets university presidents hire in-house legal counsel, and funding for school-based gang-prevention programs.

The Senate adopted a committee recommendation for Senate Bill 115, a motor-vehicle code revision that a floor sponsor said would restore higher penalty levels for many offenses and raise two sections — failure to deliver title and operating as an unlicensed dealer — to Class A misdemeanor status. "This bill changes the code and raises the penalty levels to their previous levels," the sponsor said, arguing the higher penalties would give "our enforcement division, the Motor Vehicle Business Administration, the power and the tools to police this industry." The clerk announced SB 115 passed with 25 ayes, zero nays and four absent; the bill was placed on the third-reading calendar.

Lawmakers also debated Senate Bill 94, carried by Sen. Lyle Hilliard, which would permit presidents of institutions in the state system to hire separate in-house attorneys subject to written Board of Regents policy. Hilliard told the Senate the change would provide "separate legal counsel that could be, benefit to the president as he does his work," and said the University of Utah planned to fund such positions internally. He estimated individual attorney compensation could be roughly $100,000 including benefits and noted the university system's overall budget "of approximately $750,000,000," saying the institution would determine whether to use internal or appropriated funds. The clerk recorded SB 94 as passing to third reading with 24 ayes, three nays and two absent.

On the House side, the Senate adopted and passed several bills to third reading: HB 8 (repealing an archaic provision regarding alien-dependent status), HB 28 (reauthorizing a divorce, child-custody and visitation task force), HB 7 (authorizing reverse-mortgage counseling for older homeowners) and HB 34 (funding school-based gang-prevention and intervention programs). Sponsors and committee chairs summarized purposes and fiscal considerations: for example, HB 34 requires local schools to provide a 25% match for program funding and was described as a multi-year pilot that has shown local success. Vote tallies announced on the floor put these measures forward to third reading (HB 8: 26 ayes; HB 28: 24 ayes; HB 7: 25 ayes, two nays; HB 34: 26 ayes).

Senators also dealt with procedural matters: the Rules Committee, reported by John Holmgren, placed a House resolution (HJR 8) on the second-reading calendar for a time-certain next day; the Senate conducted motions to circle, uncircle and substitute bills (notably substitute SB 46), and a joint conference committee report on SB 30 (county-assessor certification) was adopted and sent back to the House.

Floor exchanges included detailed fiscal and scope questions about the university-counsel bill — senators asked whether attorneys would be retained or hired as employees and how smaller institutions might cover costs — and clarifications about definitions in child-protection language in SB 93. Sponsors and committee chairs responded that protections (for example, Board of Regents policy requirements and requirements that criminal liability require intentional or reckless conduct) were included in committee language.

With business concluded, the Senate made a handful of schedule announcements and adjourned until 10:00 a.m. the following morning.

The measures moved to third reading will return to the Senate for final consideration in its regular order; formal vote records, bill texts and fiscal notes are available from the Senate clerk's office for those items.