Latest news with #HB120
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Where Abbott's emergency priorities stand as session end nears
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As the House bill deadline passed, thousands of bills died without ever making it to the floor for consideration. However, none of Gov. Greg Abbott's seven emergency items died. While one — education savings accounts — has already passed, here's where the other six stand. One of Abbott's biggest goals this session is to make it harder for accused criminals to get out on bail. Abbott publicly spoke on the issue multiple times this month, looking to put pressure on Democratic Texas House members to help him get the legislation across the finish line. READ MORE: Texas lawmakers debate bills to curb illegal immigration On Monday, the Texas House is set to vote on Senate Joint Resolution 1, Senate Joint Resolution 5, Senate Bill 9, Senate Bill 40 and Senate Bill 664. These five bills are the Texas Senate's bail reform package which — among other things — prevents undocumented defendants who are accused of a felony from receiving bail, allows judges to deny bail for certain violent accusations and allows the prosecution to challenge a bail decision for certain criminal accusations. The Texas Senate is currently working on House Bill 2, the public education funding bill, in committee. The bill covers all aspects of public school funding, including provisions to make sure new funding goes towards teachers. Originally, the Texas Senate passed the standalone Senate Bill 26 for teacher pay raises. However, the bill has not made it out of committee. In early April, the Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 7 to holistically address water infrastructure. State lawmakers aim to fund water projects for years to come On May 7, SB 7 made it out of the House Natural Resources committee unanimously, and is expected to be debated on the House floor next week. The Texas House passed House Bill 120 in March, with only State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, voting against the bill. The bill takes a large swing at expanding career and technical education (CTE) in Texas's public schools through grants and expansion of the rural pathway excellence partnership program. HB 120 also includes more funding for schools who implement a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program. HB 120 was heard in the Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 last week and remains pending. Last week, State Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, announced the House and Senate had struck a deal on tax relief. Meyer's House Bill 9 initially proposed to increase the Business Personal Property (BBP) exemption to $250,000 from $2,500. An updated version was sent to the Senate floor with a 9-0 vote last Monday. The BPP exemption allows homeowners to write off parts of their property if used for their business. The Senate unanimously voted to pass HB 9, however their amendments need to be agreed upon by the House — or hashed out in a conferencing committee — before being sent to Abbott's desk. In exchange, Meyer's committee voted out Senate Bill 4 and Senate Joint Resolution 2 to increase the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. They also passed out Senate Bill 23 to increase the homestead exemption for seniors from $10,000 to $60,000. Both bills are scheduled to be heard on the House floor on Tuesday. In March, the Texas House Delivery of Government Efficiency (DOGE) committee sent House Bill 150 to the Texas House floor, where it was later approved. The bill establishes a cyber command within the University of Texas school system. The bill has a hearing scheduled for the Texas Senate Committee on Business & Commerce on Tuesday. For the three bills still needing consideration in the House, the clock is ticking. All Senate bills have to be heard in the House by May 27. The 89th Legislative Session ends on June 2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska legislator revives push to sell state-owned Alaska Railroad
An Alaska Railroad train is in motion through the Chugach National Forest near Portage. (Photo by A&) A Big Lake Republican has reintroduced a bill that would require the state of Alaska to sell the Alaska Railroad. Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, introduced House Bill 120 on Feb. 26. If enacted, the bill requires Gov. Mike Dunleavy to issue 'a request for proposals to purchase the Alaska Railroad and all other assets of the Alaska Railroad Corporation' necessary to operate the railroad. The purchaser would have to continue operating the railroad for a minimum of 50 years, and the final sale agreement would be subject to legislative approval. Originally built and operated by the federal government, the Alaska Railroad was transferred to the state of Alaska in 1985, and it remains a state-owned corporation today. Under HB 120, before the sale, the governor shall commission an appraisal of the railroad, and the sale cannot be less than the appraised value. As a condition of the sale, the state would have to set aside a portion of its sale proceeds for 'the construction of new railroad spurs and rail lines to access resource-rich areas of the state.' McCabe has been a regular supporter of plans to extend the Alaska Railroad to Port MacKenzie, an alternative to the Port of Anchorage that is located on Mat-Su land at the northern end of Cook Inlet. HB 120 follows the introduction of House Bill 332 by former Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, in 2024. That bill, heard by the House Transportation Committee, drew support from Alaskans who felt that the railroad isn't doing enough to support resource development in the state. The railroad itself opposed the bill. Because the bill failed to advance past the transportation committee, it died when the 33rd Legislature ended. No hearings have yet been set for HB 120. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate stopped bill to get rid of daylight saving time, even as most Utahns support the legislation
The switch to daylight saving time is coming this weekend, and a bill to keep Utah on standard time all year long was stopped Tuesday by the Senate. The latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll shows Utahns support the bill to keep the state from changing its clocked twice a year. The poll was conducted by HarrisX started before the bill was stopped. HB120, sponsored by Joseph Elison, R-Toquerville, passed through the House but then was halted in its Senate committee hearing. According to the bill's sponsor said that the bill was the most tracked bill of the session and most Utahns want to an end to having to change their clocks twice a year. The poll informed those answering about the bill and the changes lawmakers wanted to make and asked if they would support the action to get rid of daylight saving time. The poll was conducted among 805 registered Utah voters from Feb. 18-25. The margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points. The bill's progress was stopped on Feb. 19. Eighty-one percent of registered voters said that they support the action from the Legislature, with 53% strongly supporting it and 29% somewhat supporting it. The numbers were similar among both Republicans and Democrats with 54% of Republicans in support of the legislation and 50% of Democrats. Currently, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 gives states the option to stop observing daylight saving time and stick to standard time year-round. But, the law does not allow states to observe only daylight saving time year round, as previously reported by the Deseret News. In 2020, Utah passed a law to put the state on Mountain Daylight Time year round, when the federal government allows it or if multiple neighboring states also adopt the policy. Adopting permanent standard time through HB120 would have been the only way to immediately eliminate changing clocks, per Daylight saving time starts on March 9 and the switch back to standard time will be on Nov. 2.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill to stop clocks from changing isn't ready for prime time, Senate committee decides
The clock approaches midnight at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on the last night of the legislative session, Friday, March 1, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) After some tight votes in the House, the time has come for a bill that would have stopped clocks in Utah from changing twice a year. As members of the public gathered in a Senate committee room to speak on the perks of sunlight during the summer, or the burden of the schedule change for their kids with disabilities, senators already knew the legislation would be coming off the clock this year. Rep. Joseph Elison, R-Toquerville sponsored HB120, the bill that would stop the switch from standard time to daylight saving. He reiterated Wednesday that his proposal wouldn't be the final answer to the debate over which time is best to keep. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX But, for most members of the Senate Business and Labor Committee, without a decision from the federal government on a single accepted time zone, the bill wasn't ready for prime time. The committee voted 7-1 to hold the bill, making it highly unlikely to return to lawmakers' calendars this year. 'I think the problem with bringing this bill back every year is we give some people hope only to steal it from them, snatch it away from them (…) when nothing changes,' Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, who made the motion to table the legislation, told his colleagues. Stopping Utah clocks from changing isn't a partisan issue, House vote reveals Many of Elison's constituents contacted him with the same concern, he said — they are 'sick and tired of moving their clocks back and forth.' And, without congressional approval, the only option to change that is for the state to adopt standard time year round. If HB120 had passed, the Legislature would have also honored a 2020 bill sponsored by Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, which authorized Utah to observe daylight saving time all year if Congress approved federal legislation allowing it, or if other states surrounding Utah had similar laws. 'I'm OK with the will of the body,' Elison told the committee. 'And I'm grateful to represent citizens in the state of Utah. And I simply brought this bill because I want to represent those 80% that have been asking year after year. I don't think this is going away, Sen. Weiler. I think it's going to be coming back over and over until we finally do something.' Elison, however, was pressed on the statistics he quoted during his presentation, including that not changing clocks has 80% support, which, he later explained, he got from adding data from different polls across the country. Representatives of the Utah Farm Bureau, along with different industries, including golf and construction, opposed the legislation as well, arguing that shorter summer days would affect their work. 'I am a part-time farmer. I don't necessarily want to be a lobbyist, but we don't have a big enough farm for us all to farm. So if I'm going to get my farm work done, much of it is done later in the evening. I appreciate that extra light to get that done. And we have a vast majority of Utahns that are unfortunately in my situation,' said Wade Garrett, from the Utah Farm Bureau. But, this is an issue that has split lawmakers and other Utahns, regardless of their political beliefs, since many families experience substantial hassles when the clocks change. Stacy Muhlestein, a Monticello resident who was invited by Elison to speak on the bill, said that for families with young children, neurodiverse family members or unique medical needs, the act of changing the time affects a lot more than just one hour of sleep. 'It causes weeks of upheaval, with many nights of repetitive sleep loss. For those of us with autistic children, we deal with more severe meltdowns and behaviors in the weeks following the time change due to the unnecessary disruptions in their sleep schedule and routine,' Muhlestein said. 'These unseen negative effects from the constantly changing of the time are quietly suffered in our most vulnerable households by our most heavily burdened caregivers.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senators pump the brakes on bill to eliminate daylight saving time in Utah
A bill that would have allowed Utah to ditch daylight saving time appears to have reached the end of the road. The Senate Business and Labor Committee voted Wednesday 7-1 to table HB120, which effectively halts its progress during the remaining weeks of the legislative session. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Elison, R-Toquerville, had previously passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 52-23. "We like to brag in the House that we're closest to the people, and I think that was reflected in the vote," Elison told KSL following Wednesday's committee hearing. "To not let it go onto the floor of the Senate, I think, is unfortunate." The bill is the most tracked proposal of the session, according to Elison, who said the majority of Utahns want to put an end to the semiannual changing of the clocks — a practice that is only slightly more rooted in tradition than efforts by Utah lawmakers to abolish it. Utah already has a law on the books that would move the state to permanent daylight saving time, if and when the federal government OKs it or if several neighboring states adopt the same policy, but Elison said adopting permanent standard time is the only way to immediately eliminate the clock changes each spring and fall. "There's never going to be an argument finalized and determined as far as which is better," Elison told the committee. "That's not the whole point of this bill at all. The point of this bill is simply saying if people want the clocks to stop (changing), this is the only thing that we have the authority to do as a legislative body." Although Utahns are overwhelmingly opposed to springing forward and falling back, they are split on whether to adopt daylight saving time — which is currently in effect during the summer months — or standard time — which leads to an earlier sunrise during the winter. A 2022 Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found that 41% of registered voters in the state prefer daylight saving time, 30% would like to see permanent standard time, while about a quarter support the current system of going back and forth. One of the biggest concerns expressed by those who are opposed to changing the clocks is that it can disrupt sleep routines — especially for people who are neurodivergent or have other special needs. That is the case for Stacy Muhlestein, a Monticello resident who spoke in favor of the bill during Elison's committee presentation. "This is an important issue for families like mine — families that have young children, those with neurodiverse family members and those who have unique medical needs," she said. "For our families, the changing of the clocks does not affect just one hour of sleep. It causes weeks of upheaval with many nights of repetitive sleep loss." She said those "unseen negative effects from the constant changing of the time are quietly suffered in our most vulnerable households" and urged lawmakers to advance HB120. Dustin James Harper, another constituent, shared similar sentiments. "I can say without irony that this bill will affect my family's well-being more than any other legislation being debated this year," he said. "If the bill passes, my family will be better off. The same is true for the hundreds of thousands of families with young children in Utah." Jay Pea, a Phoenix resident and longtime advocate for permanent standard time, said standard time is more attuned to the natural rising and setting of the sun and comes with myriad health benefits. "It's the honest clock and it balances the morning and evening light fairly which benefits our sleep, our mood, our health, our safety, our education, our economy," he said. However, the bill faced stiff opposition from groups like the Utah Farm Bureau and the Utah Recreation and Parks Association which argued that the extra daylight in the summertime is valuable for their industries. "It will have a severe negative impact on the construction industry," said Taz Biesinger with the Utah Home Builders Association, noting that many cities have noise ordinances that prevent workers from starting until 7 a.m. Eliminating daylight saving time, Biesinger said, would force construction workers to toil in the "heat of the day." Ryan Peterson with the Utah Golf Alliance said the game is a big economic driver for the state, and losing an hour of daylight in the summertime would be problematic. "It will be a very negative impact on the game of golf," Peterson said. Vicki Lyman, a Delta resident, also voiced opposition to HB120. "We very much appreciate daylight saving time," Lyman told lawmakers. "As I raised my children, it was great to have that extra hour in the evening to go do activities with them." Elison acknowledged the arguments on both sides, but he said a majority of Utahns want the practice of switching their clocks to change. "It's a big issue for a lot of families," Elison told KSL, "and the fact that somebody can't adjust their golf game by an hour, I think, is kind of crazy." Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, expressed sympathy for families with young children and special needs, but he said the better move is to go to daylight saving time year round. Weiler moved to table the bill. "I just don't want to have to go through this again," Weiler said. Elison told him that isn't likely. 'I don't think this is going away,' he said.
