Senate advances funding for Pete Suazo Community Legal Center

The Utah State Senate voted to advance Senate Bill 44 on Jan. 28, 2002, a measure that sponsors say would provide a one-time capital contribution of $800,000 toward creating the Pete Suazo Community Legal Center, a proposed $4 million facility intended to house several legal-aid organizations.

Sponsor Senator Hilliard told colleagues the building would centralize services provided by the Disability Law Center, Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake, the Multicultural Legal Center, the Senior Lawyer Volunteer Project and Utah Legal Services. "We now have pledges of over $2,000,000 to take care of that," Hilliard said, and he emphasized the state's role would be a single capital outlay rather than an ongoing obligation: "The state is not going to fund it. It's not an ongoing obligation."

According to the sponsor, consolidating the organizations in a single facility near West High School would reduce rent burdens and free funds for direct legal services to low-income residents. Hilliard said the center would also reduce pressure on courts by lowering the number of unrepresented litigants.

There were no substantive questions on the floor about the bill; the Senate recorded a roll-call tally advancing SB44 to the third-reading calendar with 26 aye votes, no nays and three absent. The measure’s sponsors characterized the appropriation as a capital, one-time investment to be paired with private fundraising to complete the project.

If adopted, the center would be created by statute under the Pete Suazo Community Legal Center name and the sponsor said the state appropriation would be a portion of an overall fundraising package. The bill will next appear on the third-reading calendar.