Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Appropriations Roundup topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate advances multiple appropriations and finance measures, including natural-resources and social-services base budgets
Summary
The Utah Senate passed a package of base budget and fee bills — SB 5 (natural resources), SB 6 (criminal justice/executive agencies), SB 7 (social services), SB 8 (state agency fees) — and approved consent items SB 60 and SB 82; most measures passed under suspension of rules and will be transmitted to the House.
The Utah Senate disposed of a slate of appropriations and finance-related bills on Day 9, approving several base budget measures and fee authorizations under suspension of the rules and sending them to the House for consideration.
Consent calendar items SB 60 (accident reports amendments) and SB 82 (road usage charge special revenue fund) passed unanimously. Senator Bramble explained SB 60 narrows access to accident reports by restricting private-investigator access to cases where the investigator is retained by a person directly related to the incident. Senator Harper said SB 82 creates the special revenue fund the road-usage charge program needs; both bills were recorded as passing 29–0.
On the second-reading calendar, the Senate approved multiple base-budget bills under suspension of the three-reading rule. Senator Hankins moved Amendment 2 to SB 5 (Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) to adjust several line items, changing a listed figure from $459,851,900 to $469,451,900 and explaining that SB 5 includes items such as $56 million approved to address last year’s fire suppression costs (including $51.2M to the wildland fire suppression account, $3M for landscape rehabilitation and $1.8M for a three-year prevention campaign). The bill as amended passed (reported 29–0).
Senator Owens offered Amendment 3 to SB 6 to fix a negative appropriation in the original base budget and to transfer $200,000 from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget to the University of Utah for the Kempe Gardner Institute; sponsor said SB 6 totals about $1,010,000,000 in total funds, about $741,000,000 from the general fund. SB 6 passed on final consideration under suspension of the rules (vote reported 29–0).
Senator Andrade presented SB 7, the social services base budget covering the departments of Health, Human Services and Workforce Services. Sponsor said the FY2021–22 total for SB 7 is roughly $7.3 billion, including about $1.2 billion from the general fund, and noted supplemental and reduction items the committee agreed with agencies. SB 7 passed as amended (reported 28 yeas, 0 nays, 1 absent).
Senator Ipsen described SB 8, which authorizes state-agency fees and internal service fund rates and appropriates $5,125,000 for FY2021 (including $3,889,700 from general and education funds); SB 8 passed (29–0). The Senate recessed into further appropriations work after these approvals and scheduled committee follow-up as needed.
All measures approved on Day 9 will proceed to the House for its consideration; sponsors and committee chairs noted that these bills form the fiscal starting points for later adjustments during the session.
