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House clears wide slate of consent and concurrence items including school trust fund and retirement amendments
Summary
On Feb. 20 the Utah House adopted numerous committee reports and passed multiple consent and concurrence items by voice or unanimous recorded votes, including HB232 (state active duty benefits), HB48 (school trust fund modifications), HB224 (Heritage and Arts cleanup), HB268 (tax and fee cleanup), HB30 (Utah Retirement Systems amendments) and others; most passed on unanimous or near-unanimous votes and were sent to the Senate.
The Utah House on Feb. 20 moved through a substantial consent and concurrence calendar, adopting standing committee reports and passing a string of bills that the sponsors described as technical fixes, program updates or bipartisan reforms.
On the consent calendar the House passed First Substitute HB232 (State active duty amendments), which equalizes benefits for Utah National Guard members on state status with federal status; the vote was recorded as 72 to 0. The body also approved Second Substitute HB48 (school trust fund modifications) by a recorded vote of 73 to 0; sponsors said the bill implements a distribution policy to diversify the trust and increase distributions to classrooms.
Other consent items included HB224 (Department of Heritage and Arts amendments) to ease quorum rules for commissions (72 to 0), HB268 (tax and fee cleanup provisions) removing expired code sections (71 to 0), and multiple committee-recommended bills on topics including retirement-system clarifications, hospital-provider assessment reauthorization and independent-entity compliance. Several of these items were described on the floor as technical cleanups or routine committee recommendations and were adopted with little debate.
On the concurrence calendar the House concurred with Senate amendments on measures such as Second Substitute HB11 (property tax amendments) and approved final passage (70 to 0) after the sponsor said the Senate's language clarified legislative intent. One concurrence matter (HB23, gambling machines amendments) was the exception: the House refused to concur and returned the bill to the Senate with a request to recede on an amendment increasing a monetary threshold.
Most measures will be sent back to the Senate for the president's signature; those referred to committee will proceed to those standing committees for further work.
