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Senate approves a slate of bills on consent and concurrence including vision-screening, language-interpreter and renewable-energy measures
Summary
On Day 28 the Senate cleared a slate of consent-calendar and concurrence items: First Substitute SB 144 (vision screening) and several House bills passed on consent; Senate Bill 30 (local-option sales tax for transportation) and other concurrence items passed and will be returned to the House for action.
The Utah Senate used its consent and concurrence calendars to move a range of bills forward with minimal floor debate on Day 28.
Notable consent-calendared approvals included First Substitute Senate Bill 144 (vision screening amendments), which passed by unanimous recorded vote of those present (26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent); House Bill 232 (Medical Language Interpreter Amendments), which passed (25 yea, 0 nay, 4 absent); and House Bill 192, which classifies methane from abandoned coal mines as renewable energy and passed (26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent).
On the concurrence calendar the Senate concurred with House amendments to Senate Bill 30 (local-option sales and use taxes for transportation) after the sponsor described amendments to address an interlocal agreement; the Senate recorded final passage for SB 30 (29 yea, 0 nay) and the measure will be returned to the House for the speaker's signature.
Other bills advanced on the calendars include second-substitute Senate Bill 114 (motor vehicle accident reports), First Substitute Senate Bill 89 (legal notice/website), Senate Bill 38 (HOV lane / ethics complaint procedures), Senate Bill 61 (sales-and-use tax exemption for web search portal equipment) and Senate Bill 73 (aircraft MRO tax exemption). Several of these were presented with sponsor remarks about economic development or technical fixes and then placed on the third-reading calendar after recorded votes.
Sponsor highlights included Senator Stevenson's pitch for Senate Bill 61, which would remove sales taxes on certain web-search-portal equipment to encourage capital investment and jobs; Stevenson noted a small fiscal note and urged colleagues to support the economic-development policy.
Next steps: several of these bills were placed at the bottom of the third-reading calendar or returned to the House for signature, as recorded on the floor.
