The Utah Legislature is set to begin on January 16 and Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Representative Christine Watkins to see what items may be on the agenda this year.
Representative Watkins wanted to let citizens know that they have a new speaker this year, “This year we got a new House Speaker, he’s been part of us for as long as I been there and he’s a great guy, it’s Mike Schultz, it’s will be Speaker Mike Schultz. He’s a little bit rural, so that won’t hurt us at all. We’ve had some changes in our rural chairs which is really critical and so we’re excited to see what happens that way.” There are also a few new representatives coming in this year as well.
One of the hot items up for discussion on the hill this year will be a possible state lottery, as Representative Watkins explains, “We have a Representative Birkland, who had filed this bill to legalize lottery and she wants all the money that they make from it to go to education, just like other states do. There’s a part of me that says, you know, everybody in the state steps outside of our borders and they buy their lottery tickets. They can buy them all the way around us because we’re just surrounded by states that have legalized lotteries and selling of all the little tickets that you scratch off and stuff, so it will be interesting.” It has been quite some time since someone has brought up the possibility of a state lottery on the hill.
Another bill that is sure to get some time on the floor is the possibility of putting a Resource Officer in all schools. “This stems from the incident last year, where schools started getting calls about an active shooting incident, shooter in the school and of course no one knew that other schools were getting the same calls. So everyone took it very seriously but it was from up north to down south. Representative Wilcox put this bill together that would require someone in the school carrying a gun, a Resource Officer, he wants them in every school,” said Representative Watkins. More details about this bill will come to light once the legislation starts in January.
The 2024 General Session of the 65th Legislature will begin on Jan. 16 running through till Mar. 1. During this time, Castle Country Radio will have weekly updates with Representative Christine Watkins so that citizens can stay up to date on what is taking place at the State Capital.