Week Two Wrap Up

The second week of the 2016 session has quietly and quickly come to a close.  With the session now a quarter of the way gone, what have I been up to?

The Budget Process

The budgeting process in Utah is unique among states.  All 104 legislators sit on one of nine committees that prioritize and allocate funding.  I am on the Public Education Subcommittee.  The first step is to establish a base budget, which is more or less the same as what we spent last year.  Those base budgets have been drafted and are now on the House and Senate boards for consideration.  They will be debated and voted on in both chambers in the next couple of days.  The budget committees are now in the process of reviewing requests for additional funding or changes in funding to modify the base budgets.  As you can imagine, this is a difficult process, listening to literally hundreds of ideas with no possibility of funding even a small fraction of them since we have very limited funds.  At this point, I plan to prioritize additional funding in the per-pupil formula (also known as the Weighted Pupil Unit, WPU) over all other proposals.  I hope we can get at least a 3.5% increase by defending against earmarks and special interests.  Stay tuned.

I have made only one budget request – a one-time allocation of $20,000 for an external study of the Hemp Oil Registry program, related to HB 58, that I have co-sponsored.  If we are going to have this program, it is important that the public, the families, and the doctors gather and review information about what works and doesn’t work so we can monitor it.

Block Grants for Local Education

When I was first elected, I met with the Provo City School Board and district administrators to discuss how I could be of most help.  Their main request was to create a way to get flexibility from all of the “strings attached” to state education funding.  I was surprised at how much of the money allocated to school districts comes with very narrow guidelines and burdensome reporting requirements.  I have a bill (HB94) to create a pilot program for the State School Board to approve block grants for local school districts.  After meeting with stakeholders and addressing concerns, the bill now has the support of State School Board leadership, the Utah School Board Association, and the Utah School Superintendents Association.  It has been assigned to the House Education Committee for a hearing, which I hope will happen in the coming week.

Moving the State Office of Rehabilitation

The Utah State Office of Rehabilitation (USOR) is currently housed under the State School Board, which is not a particularly good fit.  After significant discussion, both the Public Education and Social Services Appropriations Subcommittees recommended that it be moved to the Department of Workforce Services.  I am sponsoring the bill to make that move happen.  One of the positives of taking on this challenge is that I don’t have strong feelings about this.  I just want to make a good decision and see that it happens correctly.  Having met with everyone involved, we have an agreement to move the office “lock, stock, and barrel” and not make any programmatic changes as part of the move.  So now, it is just a technical question of how to make that happen.  The bill should be numbered early next week.

What Else?

I have received a lot of requests and ideas from bills, and I am doing my best to work on those, but to quote The Lion King – there’s “more to do than can ever be done.”  The legislative web site allows you to see a list of my bill requests. They are in various states of progress from being nearly finished to still being just a general concept.  Some are moving along and others are essentially on hold for the year and will likely have to wait until next year.  If you have questions about any of these proposals, please feel free to contact me.

Quick Update on Cannabis

This week, the Senate held hearings on two bills to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  As I mentioned last week, I support the concept of allowing people to participate in medical research to find out what works, but this is really complicated due to federal inaction on this issue.  The LDS Church announced late this week that they oppose the broader of the two bills and have no opinion at this time on the narrower bill. We shall see what happens next.

Please Come Visit the Capitol

I love it when people visit. This week I had two floor guests – Emmylou Manwill and Shelisa Baldwin.

I have one of the best seats in the House – front row, center seat on the aisle – and I would love to host you as my floor guest. Guests can sit with me on the House Floor during debate and see first hand how things work.  We can also arrange special tours and show you some of the inner working of your legislature.  Just let me know a day or two in advance, so we can make arrangements and help you have a great experience as an involved citizen.

If you missed it, make sure you read my special “mid-week” post on staying in contact: http://www.normthurston.com/notes-from-the-first-week/