By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Rep. Christine Watkins called into the KOAL newsroom to provide her weekly update on what’s happening on Capitol Hill. Watkins discussed current legislation she has on the floor including bills relating to child abuse reporting and energy grids. The Representative also discussed more controversial bills such as daylight savings amendments and HB267 which is viewed by many as a union-busting bill.
Opening our conversation Watkins discussed HB212, describing the purpose as,” What we want to do is tell the electric utilities,’ Hey, some things are coming down the road. Some of them are almost here.’” She continued,” I’m talking about technology that can make our electric grid take more electricity. It’s just interesting that some of these things will allow what we have to carry more, up to about 20%. And as we all know, our grid in some places is aging, and we have a demand for more electricity.”
According to the text of the bill, it,” outlines cost-effectiveness analyses and approval procedures when a large-scale electric utility proposes advanced transmission technology deployment; and provides that a utility may recover approved costs.”
Watkins also covered HB33, or the Child Welfare Reporting Amendments, which,” allows DCFS if they have someone who continually, after two or three times, is making false reports about a family or a single dad or mom, and they know that they go check it out, and they’re false and they’re unsubstantiated, they can report to the police. And they can be charged with a Class B misdemeanor. And they can have a fine of up to $1,000. They could spend six months in jail.”
She explained the rationale behind the piece of legislation,” we need to make sure they (DCFS) have the time to assess all these cases properly. And so if we can get rid of all this false reporting, and what it is it’s an ex-wife, an ex-husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends of those people. And what they’re doing is weaponizing DCFS. And so if it’s a true report, there’s not going to be a problem. But if you become a frequent flyer and make false accusations, you can get in trouble. And it doesn’t take much. You’ll get a letter in the mail saying, ‘you’ve been charged, you’re guilty,’ because they have the proof.”
Moving onto bills not sponsored by her, Rep. Watkins discussed HB120, which would require Utah to be in Mountain Standard Time all year long until the federal government allows the state to utilize Mountain Daylight Time all year long. “I’m personally torn because I don’t like the changing back and forth. I agree with that. But I have a real soft spot in my heart for daylight saving time in the summer because I love those long summer nights.”
In her weekly newsletter, Watkins reiterated the sentiment,” I do not like switching time every six months, but I love the longer daylight in the summer. Send me a quick note as to how you feel about this legislation.”
Watkins also provided an update on HB267, the bill that would prohibit public employers from participating in collective bargaining with unions. Currently, the bill finds itself in limbo after the state Senate forced modifications to it.
“It’s on the Senate floor, and they’ve been talking about making some amendments like if 50% of the working people in an organization say that they’ll allow collective bargaining, whether they’re a member of the union or not, et cetera, et cetera. But they just have not come to any resolution. So to me, that’s a good sign, because that means the Senate is saying,’ You know what, we need to slow this down.’” Rep. Watkins continued,” We’re getting lots of pushback because I will tell you, this bill really and truly is mainly focused at the UEA (Utah Education Association) because of some lawsuits and things that they filed this last year. And so there’s a lot of people up here who do not have any love for UEA. Unfortunately, they’re dragging in all the other unions with them. But I will tell you, these people, they hang together. And so I’m interested to see what happens because if they make any changes on the Senate side, it has to come back to the House to be voted on again.”
In its first appearance in the house, the bill passed by a narrow 10-vote margin.
Our penultimate topic of discussion was a preview of what’s coming up on the hill for Watkins,” I’m presenting a bill today on adaptive driving equipment in cars. We’ll see how that goes. It has a little bit of a fiscal note. If you have a fiscal note, that means it’s going to cost the state money. Your chances of getting those through are pretty slim because we just don’t have a lot of money this year.” She added,” I will say to those who are interested in Social Security taxes, the talk up on the Hill is they may raise, and I hope they do, the limits as to how much money you make before you stop paying the taxes on Social Security. But there’s still a move that they want to drop the income tax rate. So that has not been settled yet. And as soon as things start making a move on that, I’ll be glad to report on that.”
In closing, Watkins stated,” Just stay tuned. Even when you hear about bills on the news, know that sometimes it’s just in committee. It hasn’t gone through the House floor or the Senate floor. So you have to pay attention. If it’s a Senate bill, it starts on the Senate side. HB means it’s a House bill. So you kind of have to follow it all the way through to see if it makes it. So we’re headed into the exciting and hot and heavy times up here. So hold on.”
*Photo Courtesy of the Utah State Legislature