Castle Country Radio is conducting weekly Legislative updates with Representative Christine F. Watkins while the general session is taking place this year. She will give a brief report on the dealings taking place on the hill twice a week, so she took time on Tuesday, Feb. 28 to speak over the telephone.

First up for discussion is House Bill 365, Voter Affiliation Amendments. “So House Bill 365 says that if you’re going to shift or change parties, you have to do it the day after the candidate filing deadline. So you have a day to kind of see who’s filed for the races that you think are important, and then the following day if you think you want to switch parties you’ve got to do that, that day,” said Representative Watkins. This does not apply to anyone who is unaffiliated and those that just moved into the state. This has passed the house, and it’s over in the Senate right now and officials will wait to see what the Senate does with it.

Another topic hot on the hill is the Food Tax and its been up for deep discussion across the board. The state is trying to determine which “pot” the food tax monies should be applied and how that funding should be used whether that’s education or something else. “The citizens of Utah get to vote on this, now we don’t vote on it this year, it’ll be in 2024 and we will vote as to whether we allow the Constitution Ear Mark, which puts sales tax in a particular pot of money, and we say, ok, we’ll release that because we have too much money going in to one pot and not enough in the other. Food tax, if we take that off, and we allow them to move that money around, then they can accommodate that loss of food tax coming in,” stated Watkins. The social security tax is a separate item, that part of it is the overall tax cut that governing officials are offering this year.

To stay informed on what is taking place at the Utah State legislature visit their website at https://le.utah.gov/