Governor Herbert gave his annual State of the State address tonite. Read the text of his message here:
http://www.utah.gov/governor/news_media/2012-state-of-state.html
While that was happening (better planning next year, I promise), Rep. Jim Nielson, Senate Todd Weiler and I held our “State of Davis County” Legislative Town Hall meeting at the Bountiful City Library. We had a great crowd there who came well informed and prepared with questions about issues facing the families of our area. The questions covered everything from education funding, online learning, insurance coverage for autism, eminent domain for trails, concurrent enrollment for high school students, and tax policy. In addition, each of us had a chance to briefly discuss bills we are working on this year. It was a great opportunity to meet together and I know all three of us would welcome continued conversations.
Earlier in the day I had the opportunity to visit with a group of students representing the North Salt Lake City Youth Council. They were at the Capitol as part of the League of Cities and Towns annual event. They are great young people and it was a great reminder that the “State of the Future” in our area is doing great.
I also had a chance to meet with some folks representing Utah Works, a “State Use Program”program that puts people with disabilities to work through public-private partnerships. It is a self funding collaboration that saves taxpayer dollars by reducing public assistance costs and currently employs over 200 people. I am very impressed with the good work done by several businesses employing people to do janitorial work, shredding, scanning, laundry, assembly work. The “State of Employment” is healthy in the disability community and those helping them creatively find employment.
These are some of the folks involved in Utah Works projects: Chad Miller and Bob Daniels from PARC in Clearfield, Charlee Norman of the Columbus Community Center in SLC, and Jan Parke and Phil Shumway with TURN Secure Shredding.
In addition, we had committee meetings for Political Subdivisions and Education today as well. In Education we heard two bills. One that addressed the division of a school district and required that all people involved in the split would be allowed to vote in decision to divide. That bill is an outgrowth of the Canyons/Jordan split from a few years ago. The bill failed with only one yes vote. The other bill allows for a public school teacher to send home with their students a list of school supplies that their parents could voluntarily purchase, otherwise the school would furnish the supplies. This is not an option under current state code and many teachers spend hundreds of dollars every Fall getting their classroom stocked with the necessities for the school year. That bill passed out with only one no vote.
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