Utah Senate clears multiple bills on consumer protection, taxes and education funding

The Utah State Senate on Jan. 30 passed a series of bills addressing consumer protection, procurement practices, tax enforcement and school finance while leaving a values-in-education measure as unfinished business.

In a recorded vote the chamber approved first substitute Senate Bill 39 (telephone solicitation/telephone fraud prevention). Senator David Watson, the bill sponsor, said the measure closes a registration loophole used by some businesses and extends the state's existing telephone solicitation law. The Senate recorded the first-substitute SB39 vote as 27 aye, 1 nay and 1 absent, and advanced the bill to the third-reading calendar for final passage.

On the consent calendar the Senate approved SB45, which removes the Utah Highway Patrol from a revenue-sharing provision in an earlier house bill; the president directed a unanimous recorded vote and ordered the bill transmitted to the House.

After extended floor debate, the Senate approved first substitute SB9, updating procurement-code rules for public bonding and prohibiting incentives that tie local governments to a specified bond counsel or underwriter. The floor announcement recorded the tally as 19 aye and 10 nay votes; the bill was sent to the House for further consideration.

Senators also approved SB61 (reauthorizing the property tax task force) with a floor tally announced as 25 aye, 2 nay and 2 absent; and SB66 (extending certain investigatory access to financial records for the State Tax Commission) with 28 aye votes, no nay votes and 1 absent. The Business Opportunity Disclosure bill, SB41, won a floor vote of 28 aye, no nay, 1 absent; the bill lowers the registration threshold for certain business-opportunity sales from $500 to $300 and corrects a fund designation in the committee amendment.

Large education measures received extended attention. First substitute SB19, a substitute to expand state guarantees for local voted and board leeway, was debated at length on funding, equity and long-term fiscal impact. The Senate later recorded SB19 as having 28 aye votes, no nays and 1 absent and passed it to the bottom of the third-reading calendar; appropriators will determine funding. Meanwhile, SB26 (teaching of values in public schools) drew substantial floor discussion about scope, legal limits and fiscal effects and was left as unfinished business to be resumed at a later date.

The Senate adjourned after announcements and scheduled its next session for 10 a.m. on a subsequent day.

Provenance: Key floor actions and vote tallies are recorded on the Jan. 30, 1995 Senate floor transcript.