Becky Edwards

The Davis School District will have a $250 million bond proposition on the ballot Nov. 3. The bond will assist the district in building new schools and improving existing schools. Just like bond measures passed in 1997, 2002 and 2006 (the 2006 and 2002 bonds passed by a margin of 79% and 89%), a vote for the 2009 bond would not increase the current debt tax rate.

Davis School District is one of the fastest growing in the state. We are growing at a rate of 1000 students per year. Two new elementary schools, 1 junior high, or 2/3 of a high school are necessary for every 1000 new students entering the Davis School District. Without the new buildings, Davis School District would need to utilize more than the 300 portable classrooms currently in use to cope with this growth.

Some voters may be given cause to pause when they enter the ballot booth and read the language explaining the bond. The ballot reads that the tax on a $252,000 residence would increase by $156.93 per year with the passage of the bond. Because the bond tax rates won’t slowly drop over time as existing bonds are paid off and will instead remain the same, recent legislation requires the district to advertise that the bonds are a tax increase. Without the bond, taxes would decrease gradually. By 2018, the cumulative decrease would be $156.93 on a $252,000 home stated on the ballot.

The bond would be used for:
• Construction of a new junior high school in western Kaysville.
• Construction of new elementary schools in western Layton, West Point and a location to be determined.
• A rebuild of Wasatch Elementary with a total of 30 classrooms.
• Construction of a special-education school for medically fragile students and 18- to 22-year-old students.
• Addition of classrooms to Millcreek Junior High, Woods Cross High School, South Weber Elementary and Layton High School.
• Purchase of property for future school sites..

For more information about the bond and why the district is asking voters to approve it, go to www.davis.k12.ut.us/district/2009_bond.

Today is the municipal primary election for Bountiful and North Salt Lake cities, as well as the Salt Lake City Council District 1 primary.   Polls are open from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Please make time to vote and exercise your great privilege and responsibility as an American.  In all races in our District we have committed, caring and capable individuals who would serve us well.  I’d personally like to thank all the candidates for their efforts and wish them the best of luck.

New to this election is the requirement that all voters must show identification at the polling location.  Acceptable identification includes a Utah driver’s license, Utah identification card, Utah concealed weapons permit, a current US passport or federally issued identification card or a current tribal identification card.  Other forms of acceptable identification can be found at http://www.elections.utah.gov/Voter%20ID.pdf.

Voting locations for Bountiful are:

Precinct 18:  Mueller Park LDS State Center, 1800 East Mueller Park Road, Bountiful

Precinct 19:  Mueller Park Junior High, 955 East 1800 South, Bountiful

Precinct 20:  Valley View Elementary, 1395 South 600 East, Bountiful

Precinct 24, 25, 26, 29:  Val Verda LDS Stake Center, 2651 South 500 West, Bountiful

Precinct 27:  St. Olaf’s Catholic School, 1793 S. Orchard Drive, Bountiful

Precinct 28, 30: Mueller Park LDS Stake Center, 1800 East Mueller Park Road, Bountiful

For more information please view the Bountiful City website below: http://www.bountifulutah.gov/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=3804

Voting location for North Salt Lake:

The ONLY location for voting for North Salt Lake residents is the North Salt Lake City Hall, 20 South Highway 89, North Salt Lake.

More information about the North Salt Lake candidates can be found at: http://www.nslcity.org/

Voting locations for Salt Lake City Council District 1:

Precincts 2001 and 2007:  Northstar Elementary, 1545 North Morton Drive (1965 West), Salt Lake City

Precincts 2002 and 2006:  Escalante Elementary, 1810 West 900 North, Salt Lake City

Maps showing the precinct boundaries can be found at:

http://www.clerk.slco.org/elections/maps.html

For more information on the candidates running for Salt Lake City Council District 1: http://www.slcgov.com/recorder/pdfs/CandidateBios.pdf

Thanks for voting!

Tonight is my Legislative Wrap-up Town Meeting.  For those of you who will not be able to attend, below is the handout for this evening that includes a brief summary of selected bills as well as several links where you can find additional and more indepth information.

2009 Legislative Summary

Representative Becky Edwards

Email: beckyedwards@utah.gov

blog: www.utahbecky.com

phone: 801-554-1968 cell

801-295-2950 home

Search My Votes: http://www.utahbecky.com/search-my-votes/

Utah State Legislature: http://www.le.utah.gov/

Selected Highlights of the 2009 Session:http://le.utah.gov/session/2009/pdfdoc/2009SelectedHighlights.pdf

All Bills Passed 2009 General Session: http://www.le.utah.gov/asp/passedbills/passedbills.asp

Digest of 2009 Legislation: http://www.le.utah.gov/session/2009/pdfdoc/2009DigestOfLegislation.pdf

Key Ethics and Campaign Finance changes: http://le.utah.gov/session/2009/pdfdoc/2009EthicsChanges.pdf

FY2010 Budget and Restoration List: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2009/pdf/00000432.pdf

Ethics reform:

Ethics reform in the legislature has been a priority this session and several ethics reform bills became law this year.

H.B. 345, Elected Officials-Restrictions of Lobbying, sponsored by Rep. Brad Dee (R-Washington Terrace) places a one-year cooling off period before any legislator leaving office could register as a lobbyist.

H.B. 346, Campaign And Financial Reporting Requirements Amendments, also sponsored by Rep. Dee requires that campaign contributions be reported within 5 days.

S.B. 156, Gifts and Meal Provisions for Public Officials, sponsored by Sen. Greg Bell, places new, lower limits on the disclosure of gifts and meals to public officials. Gifts greater than $10 and meals greater than $25 must be disclosed in quarterly reports. An exception provides for meals or events where an entire committee, task force, caucus, or other official body is invited.

S.B. 162, Use of Campaign Fund Amendments, sponsored by Sen. John Valentine prevents any former public official from transferring any money remaining in their campaign account to an account for personal use.

H.J.R. 14 Joint Rules Resolution – Ethics Training Course Provisions, sponsored by Representative Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, enacts a provision for the development and completion of an ethics training course for legislators and lobbyists .

Illegal Immigration:

H.B. 64 (substitute) authorizes the Office of the Attorney General to administer and coordinate the operation of a multi-agency strike force to combat violent and other major felony crimes within the state associated with illegal immigration and human trafficking, has passed both the House and the Senate.

SCR 1, Concurrent Resolution Requesting a Federal Waiver to Establish an Employer-sponsored Work Program, sponsored by Representative Brad Dee, R-Ogden, and Senator Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, urges the United States Congress to grant the state of Utah waivers to establish an employer-sponsored work program and other strategies to address illegal immigration in the state.

Budget: Despite having a budget deficit of $1 Billion this year, the legislature was able to back-fill much of that deficit, using federal stimulus monies, an increase in vehicle registration fees, some bonding, and significant cutbacks in every area of state government. Some revenue enhancements such as fuel or tobacco taxes, reinstating the tax on food, were considered, but were not passed. The rainy day funds remained intact as well. Stimulus money has been specifically set aside for the rest of this fiscal year, specifically for areas such as Medicaid, food stamps programs, unemployment, law enforcement, and special education, among others.

Public Education: Lawmakers approved a $2.4 billion school budget for 2010 that will result in a net cut of about 5.2 percent to education down from the original 17 percent. Public education is the first priority when it comes to state funding and every effort was made to backfill with stimulus money. The budget cuts shouldn’t result in the loss of teachers in the classroom for next year. The state’s rainy day fund is being held in reserve primarily to fund education needs in 2011.

Energy Development: H.J.R. 12 (substitute), Joint Resolution Supporting Hydrogen Power from Advanced Coal and Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology passed both the House and Senate.

This joint resolution of the Legislature supports producing hydrogen from coal with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.

Economic Development: One economic stimulus bill that passed the Legislature was S.B. 14, Financial Incentives for Motion Picture Productions. The bill enacts economic incentives to attract motion picture productions, which bring millions of dollars to Utah’s economy.

Health Care: Some large proactive steps toward comprehensive health system reform in Utah took place this session. Three bills were born out of last year’s Health System Reform Task Force: H.B. 188, Health System Reform-Insurance Market, H.B. 165, Health Reform- Administrative Simplification, and H.B. 331, Health Reform- Health Insurance Coverage in State Contracts. These bills have been signed into law by Governor Huntsman. Utah is on the forefront of health system reform in our nation and we will continue to be pioneers in this area in the coming years.

Alcohol Law Reform: H.B. 347, Alcoholic Beverage Control Act Modifications, sponsored by Representative Greg Hughes, R- Draper, and S.B. 187, Alcohol Amendments, sponsored by Senator John Valentine, R-Orem, passed the Legislature this year. The bills provides for electronic verification of proof of age by restaurants and clubs; addresses the bar structures in restaurants, including limiting access by minors; and creates a new social on-premise liquor license, which allows for an establishment to function without private club memberships.

Other bills also passed to toughen penalties on drunken drivers and underage drinkers and increase the liability for bars that serve intoxicated patrons.

This Saturday will be an opportunity for Davis County residents to become involved in the political scene on a local level.  Both Democratic and Republican Davis County parties will be holding their annual conventions on Saturday.  I encourage all residents to attend, participate in elections of county party officers, make your voice heard, and become involved.  Specifics can be found on the following websites:  

www.davisGOP.com

http://davis.utdemocrats.org

The Davis County Republican Convention will begin at 8:45 am, with credentialing beginning at 8:00 am, at Layton High School, 440 Wasatch Drive, Layton.

The Davis County Democratic Convention will begin at 11:00 am at Centerville Junior High School, 25 S. Main, Centerville.

I will be holding a Legislative  District 20 wrap-up town meeting on Thursday, April 30, 7:00 pm, at the Bountiful Library.  We will have a chance to discuss the highlights of the 2009 legislative session and where we should go from here.  I’ll be sending out an email informing those who are on my legislative email list as well as placing an announcement in the Davis County Clipper.  Please bring friends and neighbors and come with questions and suggestions.  I look forward to seeing you there.

The Senate voted today on the latest version of HB2, the bill detailing the funding for public education, including charter schools. The vote was 15-9. The full text can be found here, along with the four amendments, http://le.utah.gov/~2009/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0002S01.htm. I talked to our Sen. Dan Liljenquist about this version of the bill and he felt it achieved a good compromise that provides for charter schools without untenable financial consequences for the school districts.

Before this version of the bill was agreed upon there was another version, less palatable to all parties, which shifted the burden to local school districts by increasing the percent of funding they contribute to charter schools. Even though this version was not passed this provides a good chance to share my understanding of the funding sources for charter schools. 25% of the funding currently originates with the local school district. Under an earlier substitute of HB2 the percent that local school districts would have been responsible for was raised to 50%. The remainder of the funding (75% current and 50% under the proposal) comes from the state education fund. This is different than the funding of the WPU, which remains with each student.

I know this type of budget shift would have a significant affect on the Davis School District, who is dealing with 6% cuts along with the rest of public education. Davis School District’s budget cut for the 2009-10 year represents approximately $15 million in operating funds and $1 million in capital funds. In a year of these significant budget cuts and with uncertain economic times ahead, it would be difficult to incur additional cuts from the Davis School District local revenues to help fund charter schools at a new rate of 50%. In this version, districts experiencing significant growth and having low assessed value would be most negatively impacted. Davis District currently sends $300,000 per year of local revenues to fund charter schools. Under this version, this amount would increase in 2010-11 to $600,000, in 2011-12 to $900,000, and in 2012-13 to over $1.2 million. Tax revenues that districts are required to send to charter schools have already been committed in our district for specific purposes which could violate the ballot proposition with voters and districts like ours are likely to increase taxes as a result of the “shift” in revenues.

That being said, the version of HB2 passed out of the Senate today seems to have hit a good balance between continuing to fund charter schools adequately while not creating an undue burden on the school districts. It also provides for growth by allowing increase in charter school enrollment capacity equal to 1.4% of the total district enrollment beginning in 2009-10.

We absolutely need a conversation during interim about long range planning and funding for charter schools and public education in general. To the extent that this bill opens up this discussion it is a good thing.

Today we finished up the House bills. I know I said that yesterday, but we really did finish them today. One of those last House bills was mine, HB 446, “Medicaid Restricted Account Amendments.” It passed 62-0. It basically amends Utah’s Medicaid Restricted Account in order to meet the requirements for the money coming our way from the federal stimulus package by designating unspent general fund money appropriated to the department for the Medical program as non-lapsing funds for fiscal years 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11. As background, the stimulus package (Federal Funds – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) provides states with a temporary increase in the federal match of state dollars for the Medicaid program. In order to quality for this extra federal match states have to maintain eligibility standards, methodologies and procedures that were in place July 1, 2008. Another requirement is that no amount of money attributable to the increased federal match may be directly or indirectly attributable to an increase or deposit into a rainy day fund of the state.

The purpose of this legislation is to amend our Medicaid Restricted Account for 3 budget years to make sure that no federal matching money the state receives as a result of the stimulus package gets deposited into our Medicaid Restricted Account which might be viewed as a type of rainy day fund. The funds will be non-lapsing and will stay with the department for the use of the Medicaid program. Utah could receive over 35 million in the next 2 fiscal years. The link for this bill is:  http://le.utah.gov/~2009/bills/hbillint/hb0446.pdf

As we move to the Senate bills an interesting thing is starting to happen…we’re seeing bills hit the House floor that have never come through a House committee meeting and so we hear them on the floor for the first time. That can be kind of overwhelming, confusing, and frustrating because there is not enough time to ask all the critical questions and talk through the reasoning behind the bill and the goals it intends to achieve. One such bill today was HB2. While this was a House bill it also never was heard in the Education committee so it hit us brand new this morning. The title is, “Minimum School Program Budget Amendments,” and it contains much of the work completed by the Education Appropriations Committee, which we had already voted to support in our majority caucus.

However, there was some language in the bill that dealt with funding for charter schools that was concerning. It would prohibit the expansion of charter school capacity for the 2010-11 school year, for instance. While this bill addresses a one year freeze for 2010-11 only, it will be most onerous on the schools who are in the middle of the application process to expand, like Spectrum Academy or Legacy Prep in North Salt Lake, but are having their funding frozen even though the Minimum School Program funding remains in place for both charter and traditional public schools. This bill brings up many issues related to funding for charter schools within the umbrella of the public school system. It also speaks to the need for a bigger discussion that hopefully can take place during interim regarding levees, local replacement dollars etc.

I’m inclined to be biased towards charter schools because in our area I see the good they do, the needs they meet for students and parents, and the way they enhance in a variety of unique ways the student learning experience.

It is my suggestion to the Senate sponsor, Sen. Stephenson, that the bill be amended to either:

1.  Provide that schools who have their enrollment procedures in place, or maybe approved, by March 9, 2009 be allowed to receive their funding for capacity expansion for 2010-11, or

2.  Extend the date for the capacity expansion freeze to 2011-12.

Sen. Stephenson does have a Substitute version of HB2. It can be found at this link: http://le.utah.gov/~2009/bills/hbillint/hb0002s01.pdf

I’d love the feedback from any brave souls who can make it through lines 58-202 and analyze that information as to the affects it will have on charter schools!

There were some records broken on the floor of the House today:

Most votes in a day: 50
Longest bill yet: 205 pages
Most amendments to a bill: 18 (3SHB 187)

There was a huge rush on the floor of the House today as this was the last day we are supposed to hear House bills. Beginning tomorrow we will only hear Senate bills, and the Senate will only hear House bills. However, I think a few last budget related bills will slip in first thing in the morning.

A few of the interesting bills from the day:

HB 187, Rep. Ferry, “Recreational Use of Public Waters on Private Property.” This bill has been debated twice on the floor and defeated each time (it received a vote to reconsider, hence the legislative do over). This is undoubtedly the bill I have received the most emails about. Probably 95% voicing opposition to the bill which would restrict access on some public waters on private property for fishing, tubing, recreating etc. It would overturn the Utah Supreme Court decision, Conatser v. Johnson, July 2008. It is a case of property rights vs. public right to utilize waters. In the end this was a bill whose inception and process was flawed because all parties didn’t feel involved in the discussion, the final product was convoluted and complex due to the three substitutions and 18 amendments, and while there were many compromises on the part of the bill sponsor I didn’t feel it adequately addressed the needs.
I am confident all interested parties will have a chance to come together to help craft a bill that truly balances private property rights with the public’s ability to utilize our waters. I voted against this bill and it failed 31-43.

HB 379, Rep. Noel, “Environmental Litigation Bond.” This bill requires a plaintiff to post a bond before receiving a preliminary injunction or administrative stay and requires an unsuccessful plaintiff to pay damages to defendants who are harmed by an injunction or stay. I voted against this bill and it passed 52-22. There was an amendment that would allow the court permission to consider a bond, but didn’t require it. That didn’t pass, but I supported the amendment. This bill puts justice up only for people who have resources available to post a bond. It calls into question access to courts as a constitutional right. I also feel our existing system is addressing this by obtaining security up front and awarding damages following a case. There are remedies in place right now to address the concerns this bill is attempting to correct; we do not need this bill. It will harm legitimate organizations and entities from receiving “their day in court.”

HB 347, Rep. Hughes, “Alcoholic Beverage Control Act Modifications.” This bill is a “frail but firm compromise” according to Rep. Hughes and is supported by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Hospitality and Restaurant Associations, the Governor, and the Chamber of Commerce. It is a true compromise bill and is one of many coming that will work in concert to address Utah’s liquor laws. The main provisions of the bill are, 1) electronic verification of proof of age by on-premise ID scanners, 2) addressing the bar structure. In a nutshell, each entity serving liquor will be required to scan the drivers license of anyone under age 35 to assess the veracity of their ID and their age. This record of those scanned will be held for up to 7 days. There are provisions in place to secure the identity of patrons, and only the drivers license number and the date of birth will be saved along with the name of the patron. The second issue changes the structure of the bar area of a club or restaurant. Minors will no longer be able to sit at the bar structure, and the so-called glass “Zion curtain” will come down. There are some additional provisions dealing with new classes of liquor licenses that can be looked up if you’re interested in more specifics. Suffice it to say this is the most innocuous bill we have been presented with on liquor law changes this session. It has as a main focus the prevention of underage drinking and an avoidance of overconsumption of alcohol leading to DUIs. I think this is a good bill and I voted for it; it passed with a vote of 66-8.

I enjoy idioms and thought I’d share a few of my favorites from the Capitol:
Don’t let perfect get in the way of good.
This is a solution in search of a problem.
Sure we need a seat at the table, but we don’t need to drink the Koolaid.

In the majority caucus on Friday the fiscal analyst presented us with the areas of the state budget receiving backfill in the way of one time money from the Federal Stimulus package. This proposed budget has the support of the House and Senate majority leadership teams and the Governor. We voted to take a caucus position of support of the budget as well. The link to the budget is: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2009/pdf/00000432.pdf

You can see many areas have received backfill, but it is important to remember it is with one time money and the amounts in Column G will be where we begin our budget discussions next legislative session.