February 11, 2020 News

Utah Bills to Watch Feb. 11, 2020


HB 5 

Sponsor: Stewart Barlow

Summary: Among other appropriations, this appropriations bill appropriates $1,084,000 to Utah’s Constitutional Defense Restricted Account.

 

HB 85 

Sponsor: Carl Albrecht

Summary: Bill requires any federal entity that wants to designate a national monument in Utah to first “notify the chairs” of “the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee, if constituted, and the Federalism Commission” or “if the notice is given during a General Session, the House and Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Standing Committees” before introducing federal legislation. 

 

SB 63 

Sponsor: Scott Sandall

Summary: This bill states that “an individual who does not own the adjacent property may not engage in  recreational activity on Weber River navigable waters if the recreational activity: destroys, materially damages, removes, or alters real or personal property; is undertaken on horseback, a motor vehicle, an off-highway vehicle, or a non-motorized wheeled vehicle; or constitutes hunting.” The bill also allows ” The owner of a private land adjacent to Weber River navigable waters may place a fence or obstruction across a public water if the fence or obstruction is placed for a reason other than blocking access for recreational activity.”

 

SCR 1 

Sponsor: Scott Sandall, Keven Stratton

Summary: This bill creates a new state monument, the Danger Cave State Monument. 

 

HCR 2 

Sponsor: Susan Duckworth, Evan Vickers

Summary: This bill creates a new state monument, the Old Iron Town State Monument.

 

HB 133 

Sponsor: Mike Winder

Summary: This bill “would allow local governments to, once again, use eminent domain to help carve out trails in Utah. Eminent domain, the right of the government to take over a piece of land as long as the property owner is compensated, had been used for this reason in the past. However, that option was removed through a bill passed in 2008. The current law states that eminent domain can’t be used for trails.”

 

 

HB 39 

Sponsor: Casey Snider

Summary: Bill expands the membership of the Agricultural Water Optimization Task Force “to include three individuals whose primary source of income comes from the production of agricultural commodities.”

 

HB 125 

Sponsor: Carl Albrecht; Ralph Okerlund

Summary: Bill allows the Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to “take immediate action to reduce the number of predators within each management unit where the big game population is under the established herd size objective for that management unit.” Predators are defined as cougars, bears, coyotes or bobcats and big game as mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goats and bison.

 

HJR 3 

Sponsor: Keven Stratton

Summary: This joint resolution proposes to change a safeguard in the Utah Constitution “that stops cities and towns from ever selling their water rights.” 

 

SB 26 

Sponsor: Jani Iwamoto; Timothy Hawkes; Ralph Okerlund; David Hinkins

Summary: This bill “would create the Water Banking Act outlining the objectives of a water right banking system.”