Latest news with #HB533
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah lawmakers passed 582 bills this year. Here's what they didn't do
Utah lawmakers came close to matching last year's record of 591 bills passed during the recent legislative session, but nearly just as many proposals didn't make it across the finish line before time expired Friday night. Some high-profile bills to eliminate daylight saving time, allow 18-year-olds to openly carry loaded weapons in public and increase the number of businesses required to use the E-Verify system were voted down during the 45-day session. Many others simply ran out of time to pass both the Senate and House, even if they received votes of support from lawmakers. Here are some of the issues that were hung out to dry as the Legislature adjourned last week — which could serve as a way-too-early preview of the 2026 legislative session: Rep. Jordan Teuscher, a Republican from South Jordan, floated a proposal late in the session to make it easier for several municipalities to break off from Salt Lake County and form a new county. The bill would let cities with about a third of the total population of the state's largest county band together and propose a split. The question would then go to voters across the county. Teuscher said his bill, HB533, was proposed to start a conversation around splitting the state's largest county but was never meant to move forward this year. 'We'll probably have several committees over the interim before this comes back next session,' he told Counties have been split before, but the most recent change occurred over 100 years ago. Teuscher argued Salt Lake County is growing too big, and said splitting it could potentially bring constituents closer to their local government. HB533 would impact any county with more than 1 million residents, meaning it could also pave the way for a split of Utah County when its population reaches that threshold. Even if the bill passes next year, cities would be hard-pressed to put a proposal to split the county on the 2026 ballot, which would be the earliest possible option. Top House and Senate leaders rarely sponsor bills of their own, but when they do, they are generally seen as priorities that are all but guaranteed to pass. Not so for HB563, one of two bills introduced by House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and the only bill with Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, as the floor sponsor. The bill was meant to reverse a change made last year, when lawmakers empowered the speaker and president to write the ballot question language for proposed constitutional amendments instead of legislative attorneys. That policy quickly blew up in lawmakers' faces, when the state Supreme Court invalidated Amendment D in part because it said the question written by Schultz and Adams 'does not accurately reflect the substance of the amendment.' Speaking to reporters after winning reelection last fall, Schultz said he 'probably (has) a regret' in using the word 'strengthen' in the ballot question, and said 'we could have been a little more clear' on what it meant. He said last month lawmakers 'made a mistake' in changing who writes ballot questions last year and said HB563 would return the power to legislative attorneys. Adams appeared to agree, telling reporters the bill 'may be a better way to go.' HB563 passed the House with near-unanimous support and was introduced in the Senate at the start of the last week in session, where it never came up for a vote. Because lawmakers can only put proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot in even years, the proposal could resurface next year ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Here are other proposals that failed to get a final vote before the session ended: HB292 aimed to crack down on the vandalizing of political signs by making it a class B misdemeanor to attach an object to a political sign that changes the message or obscures it from view. Teuscher, the bill's sponsor, had 'vote out' signs attached to his campaign signs during his reelection campaign last year. HB292 passed the House unanimously and got full support from a Senate committee but was never put up for discussion on the Senate floor. SB155 would have reduced the amount of time — from 20 years to 12 — a person must wait after being released from prison to ask to be removed from the state's Sex, Kidnap and Child Abuse Offender Registry. The proposal quickly turned controversial for sponsor Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, who told a Senate committee of the 'texts and the emails and the screaming phone calls that I've received' in response to the bill. While the senator was clear that many people on the registry committed 'reprehensible' crimes and deserve to remain registered, he said he heard from wives and mothers of constituents who remain on the list despite being rehabilitated after making 'a mistake' decades ago. Marlesse Jones, the head of the Victims Services Commission, opposed the bill in committee, saying: 'The commission cannot support a bill that lessens the time on the registry for someone who's been convicted of a sex offender offense.' SB155 passed the committee 5-3 in January but was never voted on by the full Senate. Finally, SJR8 would have made previous allegations of sex crimes admissible in sexual assault cases, whether those allegations resulted in charges and a conviction or not. Although defense attorneys argued the resolution would make it much easier for prosecutors to submit evidence that wasn't fully vetted by a court, the proposal passed the Senate and was recommended by a House committee with little opposition. The measure was added to the House's calendar after 10:30 p.m. on the last night of the session and was only a few bills away from consideration when time ran out.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supporters hope third time's a charm for Georgia lawmakers to OK wrongful conviction compensation
Mario Stinchcomb was exonerated for a 2002 murder conviction. Ross WIlliams/Georgia Recorder How much money is a year of your life worth? That's the math lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol are grappling with this week as they seek to pass legislation that would change how the state compensates those it has wrongly incarcerated. House Bill 533 is now making its third trip through the Georgia Legislature, with sponsors on both sides of the aisle hoping for its smooth passage. Under current Georgia law, those who have been wrongfully convicted must find a state representative who is willing to sponsor an individual compensation resolution for them and file a claim with Georgia's Claims Advisory Board. Those resolutions then go through the full legislative process and must pass committees and floor votes in both the House and Senate before they can take effect. As of December 2024, Georgia is one of only 11 states that does not have a law in place to compensate the wrongfully convicted. But this year's legislation, sponsored by Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey, aims to change that by establishing a standardized process under Georgia state law for people who have been exonerated. The bill would allow administrative law judges — rather than the Claims Advisory Board — to rule on wrongful conviction compensation cases and award a standardized rate of $75,000 for each year of incarceration to each exoneree, with an additional $25,000 added for each year spent on death row. By standardizing the process of seeking compensation, Georgia can avoid some of the inequities that come from having compensation awarded on a case-by-case basis through the Legislature. Advocates like Hayden Davis, a board member of the Georgia Innocence Project who helped draft the bill, are hopeful that HB 533 will make it through both chambers before lawmakers adjourn on April 4, arguing that Georgia's existing systems are not well-equipped to handle these types of cases. 'What we've seen in a lot of years is resolutions failing, not because of any weakness of the underlying claim, but because of political reasons,' Davis said, adding that the jam-packed 40-day legislative calendar can pose another obstacle. 'So the results of this existing ad hoc process is extremely inefficient, it's inconsistent and it's fundamentally unfair.' And for exonerees like Michael Woolfolk, who was wrongfully convicted of the 2002 murder of Jaketha Young in Atlanta alongside fellow exoneree Mario Stinchcomb, those inconsistencies can have dramatic consequences. Woolfolk, whose individual compensation resolution has been sponsored by Rep. Stacey Evans, an Atlanta Democrat, said he is seeking compensation for the third time after two previous compensation resolutions had stalled in the Senate. 'It's been frustrating,' he told reporters. 'I've been trying to figure out how to keep myself together, but it's kind of hard to start a career after 40. So I just try to take it step by step and just try to find jobs to keep me above average.' Though HB 533 is likely to clear the House, it may face an uphill battle in the Senate, where previous versions of the bill (as well as individual compensation resolutions) have been stalled by Republican opposition. Though the bill would only compensate wrongly incarcerated people who have established actual innocence, Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican and former law enforcement officer, has repeatedly voiced concerns over whether people who are receiving compensation are truly innocent or instead freed on a legal technicality. 'My concerns about the bill is how we define 'exonerated,'' he said. 'To me, exonerated is, you bring real evidence showing that an individual did not commit the crime. Exonerated does not mean a technical failure by the juror or a misstatement by a prosecutor while charging the juror, or some other technical failure within the court.' This year, he also introduced a competing version of the bill, SB 176, which restricts the eligibility requirements for exonerees even further, and offers only $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. The bill has not yet cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, according to HB 533 cosponsor Rep. Scott Holcomb, an Atlanta Democrat, the bill has also been updated since its initial introduction in 2022 to incorporate feedback he's received on the bill over past legislative sessions. A former prosecutor, Holcomb said he is optimistic about the bill's prospects this year, despite the competing Senate counterpart. 'I am encouraged that [the Senate] had a bill that was filed,' he said. 'That shows that they're looking at the issue, and it's something that we've certainly studied very hard. I think the proposal that we've put forth this year has incorporated a number of good ideas that people brought forward and, I think, improve upon prior versions of the bill.' And while advocates acknowledge that there is no way to fully undo a wrongful conviction, they hope that future exonerees in Georgia will have a smoother path to justice. 'No amount of money can return those years lost,' Davis said. 'But what we can do is provide some resources to help folks rebuild the lives that they've been unjustly deprived of for so long, and that's what this bill would do. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is Salt Lake County getting too big? One lawmaker wants to streamline the process to split it
One Utah lawmaker has introduced a bill that could pave the way for splitting Utah's largest county, but only if enough cities band together to set out on their own. Utah already has a process by which counties can break off from one another, but it requires the collection of signatures from at least a quarter of all registered voters in the county and has only been used twice since Utah became a state in 1896. The most recent county, Daggett County, was formed in 1918 because residents of the northern part of Uintah County were forced to travel up to 800 miles by rail around the Uintah Mountains to reach the county seat in Vernal. Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, admits the same dynamics aren't a factor in modern Salt Lake County, but said the sheer size of the county's population makes the conversation worth having. He's sponsoring HB533, which would allow neighboring cities with a combined population of at least 330,000 to vote to form their own county — but only if a majority of all voters in the county agree. After the cities pass resolutions to form a new county, the county council would be required to conduct a "feasibility study" to inform residents of the impacts of a split. Those provisions apply only to counties with at least 1 million residents. Salt Lake County is currently the only entity impacted, but the bill could apply to Utah County and others as they grow. "I've heard from constituents throughout the five years that I've been up around the Hill that had concerns about the size of the county. I've also heard from constituents that think it's just fine," Teuscher said. "So, ultimately this will give the voters the deciding factor of whether or not they think it's the right decision or not." Asked if he supports cities moving ahead with efforts to break from the county, Teuscher said it will be difficult to pull back on county services such as policing that are duplicated by counties and cities. He was behind the move to eliminate the county's Unified Police Department several years ago, which he said became less important and more costly as various cities expanded their own law enforcement agencies. Teuscher represents one of the more conservative areas in Salt Lake County, and GOP lawmakers have often feuded with the county's Democratic mayor and county attorney. But the lawmaker said his proposal isn't based on partisan differences in governance, noting that six of the nine members of the County Council are Republicans. "Honestly, I don't think a lot of the issues that the county deals with is based on a partisan nature," he said. "This really isn't being motivated on a partisan basis. It is more based off of just the sheer size of the county and the growth of that county budget." The county's budget for the next fiscal year is over $2 billion, which Teuscher argues makes it more difficult for residents to scrutinize how the county is spending tax revenue. If the county did split, he said, the relatively smaller counties would be more transparent and accessible to everyday voters. But Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson disagrees. A spokeswoman told that Wilson believes splitting the county would increase the tax burden on residents, and said the mayor opposes the bill. The Salt Lake County Council has not yet taken a position. Leaders of South Jordan, which Teuscher represents, have also not taken a position on his bill, saying the city "was not consulted on this bill and had no input in its creation." "Since the bill is early in its process, we are still learning about it and its scope," the city added. "We will continue to monitor this bill along with many others that are going through the Legislature right now." If his bill does pass, Teuscher said the earliest the question could be put to county voters would be in 2026, depending on the buy-in from different cities. HB533 was made public only last week, and Teuscher said it's unlikely the proposal makes it through both chambers of the Legislature before the session ends on March 7. 'My intent is not to try to come out with the late bill and rush it through the process,' he said. 'I think this needs some time and scrutiny to talk through and work through. So, my intent has always been to ... get the idea out there. I've got a proposal now that everyone can react to, rather than just an idea. ... We'll probably have several committees over the interim before this comes back next session.'
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Idaho Now Requiring Nonresident Shed Hunters to Buy a License. Montana, Other Western States Eyeing Similar Changes
Big game animals are dropping their antlers across the West. Moose and whitetails have been shedding since January, followed by mule deer in February and elk through March. Shed hunters in the region are already eager to start collecting this spring, but with the growing popularity of shed hunting, wildlife managers in many western states are implementing new rules around it. Starting this year in Idaho, for example, out-of-staters must have a nonresident big-game hunting license to legally collect antlers, even on private land. The new Idaho requirement became law in July, and its intent is to reduce overcrowding on public lands and protect wintering wildlife. It was spurred, in part, by the huge influx of shed hunters to the Gem State in Spring 2023, when many surrounding states had enacted shed-hunting closures due to severe winterkill. 'We are trying to cover the cost of impacts to wildlife,' Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor Dan Garren tells Outdoor Life. 'Producing antlers is not our goal. Healthy wild herds are our goal, but that's where antlers come from. Requiring a nonresident hunting license for shed collection helps us fund management of wild herds and that benefits everybody.' The license required for nonresidents under the new IDFG rule is a base hunting license that costs $185. The only exception to this requirement is nonresidents under 12 who are accompanied by either a resident or a licensed nonresident. There isn't currently a shed license program in Montana, but legislation introduced Monday seeks to establish such a program. HB533 would require $10 shed hunting licenses for residents, and $50 licenses for nonresidents. Landowners collecting on their own property would not have to buy a license. Read Next: Shed Hunter Finds $10,000 Mule Deer Antler, One of Five Hidden Across the West Idaho isn't alone in trying to regulate the growing demand for shed antlers, which can add to the stresses facing big-game herds during a vulnerable time of year. Here's a brief overview of five states in the West that are considering (or have already enacted) new or unique rules for shed hunters. Shed hunting is allowed on private land and on federal public lands, but it is prohibited on state lands managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Otherwise, there are no special rules or seasons for shed hunting. Colorado does not currently have a fee-based program for shed hunting. It does, however, maintain a seasonal closure in the western half of the state. All shed and horn collecting on public lands west of 1-25 is prohibited from Jan. 1 through April 30 each year. Nevada established a shed-hunting program in 2021. All shed hunters (both residents and nonresidents) are required to carry a collection certificate for specific counties in eastern Nevada between May 1 and June 30. The certificates can be obtained through a free, 30-minute online course. Utah updated its regulations around shed hunting in 2024. Under the new law passed in May, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources now has the authority to set shed-hunting seasons and establish additional rules around the activity. Shed hunters going out between Jan. 1 and May 31 must complete the mandatory Antler Gathering Ethics Course online. Those going out after May 31 do not have to complete the course. Under new laws passed in 2023, the Cowboy State requires nonresident shed hunters over the age of 15 to purchase a conservation stamp costing $21.50. Residents don't need a stamp. They also have a week to collect sheds without competition from nonresidents. Read Next: Conservation Groups, Hunters Fight Off Bill That Would Have Let Wyoming Landowners Sell Their Big-Game Tags for a Profit The Wyoming Department of Fish and Game also has a special antler regulation area in the western part of the state, which includes all land west of the Continental Divide, excluding the Great Divide Basin, and some land west of Laramie. All shed hunting is prohibited in this area from Jan. 1 through May 1.
