2023 Utah Issues

Almost every State Legislative session, someone or another has a bill 'modifying' Utah's Gov't Records Access Management Act (GRAMA).  It started in 1992 as a national model and over the last 30-years has been tweeked and twisted into a 21st Century Platypus (a joke of nature)! The lastest wants to raise the cost of requests to get PUBLIC INFORMATION!  Not only 'Hell NO!' but 'NOT EVEN on your birthday!' 2022HB96 (by Rep. Dan Johnson - Dist. 4; Cache Co) is another attempt to make GRAMA more difficult and less relevant - while making transparency of government more impossible and costly for citizens!. And wouldn't you know it,.it passed !...   

 Just another legislative-tweek toward GRAMA being more of a problem than a solution !! 

While some bills want to make Ranked Choice Voting permanent and praise RCV as a success (these didn't make it through, by the way), HB 313 wants to add surveillance at ballot drop boxes and require both more security and ID requirements for new voters who are first-time Utah voters. Securing Utah's votes is also the aim of a citizen's petition drive, which died, but that cost Utah as much as this bill would (it was introduced Feb. 4). The Fiscal note was worked out at $500,000. The bill was amended and altered and passed in the last days of the session.  It is now law and it is in drastic need of corrective amendments in the 2023 session.

A proposal to dredge Utah Lake and 'create' 20,000 acres of 'new land' in the lake to be developed and sold as waterfront property is causing quite a stir (no pun intended). Check out: dontpaveutahlake.org for more into on the Conservation side of the issue and look into the Utah Lake Authority on the political side, as well as Lake Restoration info and 2022's HB240 from the Legislature.  Is Utah Lake worth a $6.8 Billion project?? Who stands to make money on this venture? (Realtors & Politicians? THAT SMELLS!)     Do we want 'islands' and causeways in Utah Lake? Will the proposed changes help or hurt the lake, the recreation opportunities of the lake and what is the impact of such dramatic changes to the area??  

2022 UPDATE

Legislative Interim Committee hearing (Aug. 17 of Natural Resources, Ag & Environment Interim Committee) received a status report from Jamie Barnes, Director of Forestry, Fire and State Lands on a study of the Lake Restoration Services proposed project.  She told the committee the initial study of the proposed project  "lacks data required" by 2022HB240 and the Legislature (e.g. requires that  a Utah Lake restoration project must be determined to be "a fiscally sound and fair method of" restoration and "constitutionally sound and legal.").  She worked with the Attorney General's Office on the legal issue who said there were questions as to the constitutionality of disposal of 'sovereign lands' ... "material and substansive issues". While this is not the official 'death-nell' of the Utah Lake Project, it isn't over so a fight still lies ahead.  Keep up the support for the good things and keep opposing the 'bad things.' 

Like Utah Lake, the Great Salt Lake is under study (and funding by the State) for preservation methods and programs. Gov Cox wants to spend $200 million to meter Secondary Water and $600k to update the Lake Management Plan. While 2022's HB410 wants $40 million to help protect the Great Salt by providing more water to it, literally buying water rights to go toward the GSL, among other things.  Several groups have praised and decried the move as well as the cost (some saying it didn't go far enough, others calling it a good first move).  As we draw closer to the 2023 General Session - and any interim Special sessions which may come up - we will keep you appraised of any new developments or proposed legislation in the pipeline. 

-  Utah set aside $40 million for the Great Salt Lake watershed enhancement program.   

- The Utah delegation pushed through the Great Salt Lake Recovery Act, legislation to study historic drought conditions and protect the long-term health of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.   It authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out a program to monitor and assess the water availability and conditions of saline lakes in the Great Basin, including the Great Salt Lake, in order to help inform management and conservation activities for these ecosystems ($10,000) and  authorizing a feasibility study on addressing drought conditions in the Great Salt Lake, which may include an identification of any potential technologies—including pipelines, coastal desalination plants, and canal reinforcement—capable of redirecting water sources and necessary permitting to redirect water sources across state borders. (hence the idea of a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Salt Lake).