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Votes at a glance: Senate advances range of bills on Feb. 19–20, 1996
Summary
The Utah Senate on Feb. 19–20 passed a large slate of bills—covering driver's education, annexation voting rules, procurement authority, retirement adjustments and more—largely by recorded or unanimous voice votes; several bills were circled for later action or amended on the floor.
The Utah State Senate moved a broad package of legislation on Feb. 19–20, 1996, advancing bills across education, transportation, judiciary and retirement policy. The chamber recorded passage on numerous measures (summaries and vote tallies below) and placed other items on the consent or second‑reading calendars.
Key outcomes at a glance - House Bill 21 (driver's education): Allows students to obtain a learner’s permit three months before their 16th birthday and requires one hour of railroad‑crossing instruction in the course. Vote recorded: 25 ayes, 4 absent; referred to House for enrollment. - House Joint Resolution 7 (donations to state school fund): Proposed constitutional amendment to include certain land revenues in the school fund corpus; recorded unanimous support; transmitted to the House for enrollment. - Senate Bill 9 (annexation two‑thirds definition): Clarifies whether two‑thirds is of those present or constitutional threshold; passed and sent to the House (23 ayes, 6 absent). - Senate Bill 190 (procurement/design‑build authority): Clarifies authority for design‑build procurement for state facilities; passed and transmitted to the House (25 ayes recorded). - Senate Bill 196 (local cooperation/percentage change): Technical change lowering a percentage from 25% to 20% to maintain tax‑exempt bond status for the Intermountain Power Project; passed and sent to the House. - House Bill 164 (homicide jurisdiction): Changes burden and standard regarding jurisdictional questions in homicide prosecutions; passed on the floor and will be signed by the president in open session. - Substitute Senate Bill 116 (sound barrier appropriation): Passed (16 ayes, 10 nays, 3 absent); appropriates $8.7 million from the transportation fund for noise‑abatement projects (see separate story). - Senate Bill 122 (fax documents): Clarifies when faxed documents can be certified as received; does not apply to real estate deeds; passed by roll call (26 ayes, 3 absent). - Senate Bill 29 (retirement benefit enhancement): Corrects a retirement formula to restore a 2% provision; passed (26 ayes, 1 nay, 2 absent). - First substitute Senate Bill 155 (judicial retention information): Expands voters' pamphlet information about judges (biography, pictures, survey ranking) and passed (28 ayes, 1 absent). - Senate Bill 46 (capital outlay equalization): Amendment adopted adjusting required levy rate; as amended the bill passed and will be referred to the House. - Senate Bill 153 (contract venue/choice‑of‑law protections): After stakeholder amendments, the bill passed (23 ayes, 6 absent) to protect Utah parties from obligatory out‑of‑state forum requirements while allowing applicable out‑of‑state substantive law.
Procedure and next steps Most passed bills will be transmitted to the House for consideration or final enrollment as indicated. Several bills were circled or uncircled as members negotiated floor amendments; committee reports were adopted and multiple items were placed on the consent calendar for expedited handling.
Notes on the record: The transcript records vote tallies for the measures above; in some roll calls senators explained their votes on the floor. Individual roll‑call names are available in the official Senate journal and clerk’s roll‑call record for Feb. 19–20, 1996.
