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 Friday, Feb. 17 to speak over the telephone.

House Bill 344 – Local Policies for Course Content Transparency which is a way to micromanage teachers in the state, more than what the state already does. This is a bill that Representative Teuscher introduced and it didn’t fare well among the others.  “What he got up and said was, well I’m not going to tell the teachers what they need to do but we’re going to tell the districts that they have to have a program that dictates to teachers how they get the information about what they’re teaching to parents. It was like a syllabus on steroids,” explained Representative Watkins. Right now, parents can easily contact the teacher to find out what they are teaching their student. When it came time to vote on the bill it didn’t do well at all so it’s off the drawing board.

The next bill for discussion is about sand and gravel. This is a controversial bill depending on where you stand with sand and gravel. Most sand and gravel cities get the sales tax from where the elements are being delivered from. “So we have a lot of smaller areas that say, hey, we’ve got a little pit over here that the big ones are delivering to, and they’re using our roads, they’re beating up our roads, and they’re destroying them. We want to say, that its not a point of sale, but point of delivery, and the money is totally dedicated to that city or that county for roads,” said Representative Watkins. Its not a huge amount of money that will be saved but it will help with the roads that are getting used. Representative Watkins was in favor of this bill and felt that it was important for the cities that were being impacted to have something help them with their roads.

Finally, S.B. 86 – Drug Testing and Paraphernalia Amendments. This is in regards to test strips that are currently illegal and considered drug paraphernalia. The floor wants test strips to be a considered a helpful tool and not labeled as paraphernalia. “When we passed this bill in the house yesterday, its on its way to the Governor. I think it’s a great bill, it will hopefully save lives. We all know the fentanyl crisis that we’re in and it seems silly to have it be considered a drug paraphernalia,” explained Representative Watkins. She feels good about the amendment and feels the Governor will sign off on it, but she will keep us posted as it moves along.

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