Utah Senate approves a slate of bills, clears a $5.5 million settlement and honors retiring staff

The Utah State Senate opened Day 31 with an invocation from the Right Reverend Scott Hayashi, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Senator Scott Jenkins. The chamber confirmed a quorum and moved quickly through committee reports and a long consent calendar, approving a series of bills for transmission to the House and several measures on final passage.

Senator Hilliard described a negotiated payout in longstanding litigation that the Senate voted to approve as Senate Joint Resolution 19. "There's been litigation going on in the State of Utah for a long period of time," Hilliard said, and the negotiated settlement is "about $5,500,000" covering more than 1,000 people with awards "the lowest will be about $1,800 and the highest will be about $100,000." He said the amount requires legislative approval because it exceeds $1,000,000. The chamber approved the resolution by voice and roll call votes.

On the consent calendar and in third reading the Senate passed an array of policy items. Measures approved included Senate Bill 160 (Federal Funds Procedures Act amendment) to bring certain federal grants under legislative review; Senate Bill 172 (political-subdivision administration amendments); first substitute Senate Bill 226 to expand certain income tax credits to include 100% electric vehicles; and House Bill 67 changing bonding-authority procedures. Many of those measures passed by unanimous voice votes or recorded yea votes and were forwarded to the House.

A notable floor amendment came to first substitute Senate Bill 157, a property-tax revisions measure. Senator Bramble moved to change language so that a county’s equalized payment agreement could run "not to exceed 10 years" rather than 5 years and to remove a phrase limiting the provision to centrally assessed properties. Bramble explained the change: "For purposes of equalizing the payment … 5 years is too short to make it a viable, alternative." After discussion and a statement from Senator Stevenson that his earlier concerns had been resolved following consultation with the Tax Commission, the amendment was adopted and the amended bill passed the Senate on final reading.

The chamber also took action on judiciary-related reforms. First substitute Senate Bill 212 (judicial evaluation amendments), the product of a long task force, was advanced by unanimous consent after the sponsor moved to suspend the rules and read the bill for second and third readings in the same day.

Senators paused the business of the day to recognize three long-serving legislative employees. The reading clerk presented official citations honoring Joy Miller for 28 years of service, James Wilson for 30 years, and Stuart Smith for more than three decades of staff work. Senator Bramble asked colleagues to offer applause in recognition of their careers.

Other measures the Senate passed included bills on historic-site protections (SB 243), retirement system divestment (SB 112), career-service amendments (SB 120), post-retirement employment fixes (SB 127), property-rights ombudsman amendments (first substitute SB 56), and a consumer-disclosure bill on car rental fees (SB 214); for SB 214 Senator Adams proffered intent language clarifying that the statutory word "includes" is to be read as inclusive rather than exclusive. The Senate adopted the intent language and recessed until 2:00 p.m.

Votes at a glance

- SB 160 (Federal Funds Procedures Act Amendment): Passed (consent) — 19 yea, 0 nay recorded on floor. - SB 172 (Political subdivisions administration): Passed (consent) — unanimous on voice vote. - SB 203 (Executive residence/Thomas Kearns Mansion): Passed — 24 yea, 0 nay recorded. - SJR 19 (Houghton settlement approval): Passed — 22–24 yea (roll calls recorded) — authorizes legislative approval of settlement ~ $5.5M. - SB 226 (Income tax credit expansion for electric vehicles): Passed — first substitute passed 25–0 on floor. - SB 157 (Property Tax Revisions) as amended (payment schedule extended to 10 years): Amendment adopted; bill passed on final reading. - SB 212 (Judicial Evaluation Amendment): Rules suspended and bill passed; forwarded to House. - HB 216 (Reunification Services amendment): Passed on final passage. - HB 103 (County election staggering): Passed 26–0 on roll call. - SB 51 (ZAP/local sales/use tax amendments): Amendment considered and bill passed (votes recorded). - SB 112, SB 120, SB 127, SB 308, SB 243, SB 56, SB 214: Passed; forwarded to the House as recorded on the floor.

What to watch next

Several bills the Senate forwarded will now go to the House for concurrence and action; the settlement approved by SJR 19 requires downstream implementation steps to distribute funds to eligible claimants. Committees scheduled follow-ups: a Rules Committee meeting was announced to begin five minutes after adjournment; the Senate recessed until 2:00 p.m.

Sources and attribution

Direct quotes and vote tallies in this report are taken from the Senate floor transcript for Day 31. All attributions correspond to speakers explicitly named on the record during the session.