Yesterday was the first day of Interim committee meetings Session.  What did they do?  What are they planning on doing?  Here are some of the highlights:

Economic Development and Workforce Services

This is the first year these two committees have been have been combined.  Key topics of discussion:

• Economic Development Task Force-  The House sponsor of the bill establishing the task force. Rep. Brad Wilson gave the committee a rundown of the task force charge.  It will meet over the next two years to explore ways the legislature can more effectively and intentionally work with various stakeholders who are focused on maximizing Utah’s economic development.  As a part of that work the task force will incorporate a discussion on how air quality challenges impact Utah’s economic development.  The committee membership was being finalized as of interim day.
• Review of Capitol Facilities Grants Process for Community and Culture Grants –  This grants process, established in 2009, has run into some challenges in that organizations and legislators are circumventing it to the detriment of agencies and organizations that are following the process and rules.  The appropriations subcommittee that reviews the grants along with the Department of Community and Culture, is reviewing these challenges along with other related issues and will provide input and recommendations for perhaps changing the process or finding ways to hold grantees (and legislators) responsible for compliance.
• Department of Workforce Services/General Assistance Discussion –  Rep. Brian King initiated a discussion related to increasing the cash benefits that are offered through GA.  The Department has recently authorized such an increase, but there are other changes in benefit offerings that may be counterintuitive to the benefit provided by the increase.  In addition, Sen. Karen Mayne presented a list of concerns which have been brought to her by stakeholders who work with the Department. These connect to additional conversations related to the Department’s modernization program and rumored negative ramifications of implementation of that program on employee morale and client satisfaction.

Education

• State Supt. of Public Education Larry Shumway explained how a calculating error resulted in a $25 million error in underfunding the Minimum School Program. He and Jonathan Ball, director of the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst are working together to put in place procedures to prevent similar errors in the future.  The committee chairs and co-chairs have sent a letter to the governor requesting a special legislative session in June to make sure the school districts are funded by the beginning of the school year.
• Committee staff did a presentation on the development and adoption of the Common Core Standards in language arts and math.  It was a comprehensive explanation and an attempt to dispel the untruths circulated by the Eagle Forum.  The most important point to note is the Standards are different from Curriculum.  Utah core standards may be accessed at www.schools.utah.gov/core

Government Operations

Agencies who regularly report to the committee shared reports on assigned issues and projects.

In particular, the Department of Administrative Services talked about implementation of HB80, which was passed this year and requests study of ways that administrative services could be consolidated or be made more efficient among the various departments and agencies.  The Department is assessing needs and concerns of the various agencies and will provide a set of recommendations later on this year.

The lion’s share of the meeting focused on the various recommendations that the Elections Office requested be studied over the interim.  These include (among many others):

• Review of complaints processes related to candidates violating election code and what could be done to make these less political (i.e., implementing a statute of limitations on complaints).
• Deciding whether or not to sunset a current law that allows unaffiliated voters to change their affiliation at the polling place for primary elections.
• Increasing filing fees to be more reflective of impact of elections on county clerk budgets.
• Allowing certain candidates who may be temporarily living overseas to file for election electronically.  (We were told of a situation where a judge, who was overseas in the Ukraine, had to fly back to the United States to file his candidacy before the deadline, and then flew back to finish his work.)
• Requiring candidates for local office to comply with reporting requirements set forth for legislative candidates.
• Establishing a mechanism to deal with anonymous contributions.

Health Reform Task Force

The task force has a very ambitious agenda and has established four working groups to provide recommendations on the following issues related to preparing to work with the Federal Government as we move toward implementation of ACA exchange requirements (the task force has pretty much decided that they will work towards defining how Utah will implement requirements in an effort to make this a state-driven agenda and process, as well as how to continue our momentum in providing health access and coverage for as many Utahns as possible, regardless of the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling on ACA later year):

• Insurance Market Issues
• Reinsurance Program for High-risk Enrollees–Integration with Exchange Market & Risk Adjustment Methodology
• Medicaid Behavioral and Mental Health Delivery and Payment Reform
• Utah Health Care Compact

The task force also reviewed recent rules changes related to implementation of the exchange requirements and discussed what we should take into consideration in selecting a “benchmark plan” as the “floor” for an essential benefits package (required under ACA).

Judiciary

The committee discussed:

• amendments to the asset protection trust statute
• changes to Utah’s product liability statute
• what items to study during the interim

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

• One of the major topics discussed was the use of License Plate Readers to track vehicles involved in criminal activities such as drug trafficking and kidnapping. The US Drug Enforcement Agency wants to install two LPRs on I-15, and collect data for law enforcement purposes.  Committee members had a number of questions about LPR use and privacy concerns.  We anticipate this topic will be discussed again at the June interim committee meeting.

Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

• Heard report on Sage Grouse
• Reviewed Interim schedule
• Sunset review of Environmental Scientist approved for 5  more years

Political Subdivisions

The committee heard:

• an overview from Joseph Wade about political subdivisions within the state
• a presentation on what definitions for “rural” exist within the Utah Code
• a presentation on potential amendments to jurisdictional issues relating to constables

Public Utilities and Technology

• The committee is trying to determine the real impact of the hacking of the Health Dept data base – hard times for DTS department.   Met new director and new ombudsman.
• Rural telephones looking to have someone help pay for high speed digital service.

Transportation

• Roads and highway construction are all on or ahead of schedule except for the highway between Lehi and Highland. That is way behind and the contractors are being fined over $3 Mil.

Interim committees are structured into two blocks, a morning group and an afternoon group. Here are the committees and links to their respective agendas for May 16, 2012:

9:00 am Block

Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=933

Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=942

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=934

Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=946

Transportation Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=936

Judiciary Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=941

2:00 pm Block

Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=938

Education Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=945

Business and Labor Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=940

Government Operations Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=944

Political Subdivisions Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=943

Health and Human Services Interim Committee http://utahlegislature.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=931

We will be monitoring the actions of the Interim committees throughout the summer, so check back with us. Here is the 2012 Interim schedule:

Wednesday, May 16

Wednesday, June 20

NO MEETINGS IN JULY

Wednesday, August 15

Wednesday, September 19

Wednesday, October 17

Wednesday, November 14 (second Wednesday to accommodate Thanksgiving week)

Representative Joel Briscoe (D)

“This is horrible,” said Representative Joel Briscoe (D, HD25). “This is exactly the type of ‘unintended consequences’ Democrats warned about. Not only will HB 363 strip parents of the right to choose for themselves how they want their kids taught sex ed, but now we’re seeing that high school students nay be denied the opportunity to take college courses.”

Over 850 high school students in Utah take college-level Child and Family Studies courses from Weber State University currently. If other universities, such as Utah State University and Utah Valley University, offer similar concurrent enrollment classes, they may be forced to drop these courses for high school students as well if Governor Herbert refuses to veto H 363.

Capitol Window

 The Final Week of the 2012 Legislative Session

When the 2012 Legislative Session started, House Democrats pledged to hold fast and true to an idea and theme which is sorely lacking on Capitol Hill these days: common-sense solutions.

The 2012 Session may have been labeled as quiet and boring, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t ideas and bills which we felt were detrimental to the citizens and future of Utah. Here are a few examples of bad ideas coming from our Republican colleagues which House Democrats pushed back against:

Anti-Sex Ed. The now infamous HB 363 from Republican Rep Bill Wright strips away the rights of parents to choose how and what their children are taught about Sex Education in schools. Utah already has an “opt-in” system, meaning that no student in Utah attends a sex ed class without their parents expressly saying that they want them to attend. Yet both House and Senate Republicans decided that parents are not the best judge for their children, and passed the bill to let school districts stop teaching the courses altogether, and those that continue to teach them are forbidden from ever discussing premarital sex, contraception or homosexuality. As a wise BYU professor testified (to no avail), “You can’t just tell a child what to do and expect them to listen, you have to give them all the information so they understand why they should choose [to be abstinent].”

Public Lands. Unfortunately, a whole slew of anti-public land bills were passed this year. As we’ve said before, there is legitimate debate about what Utah’s Enabling Act actually means and whether or not the United States Government ever obligated themselves to dispose of land they own in the state. But charging recklessly forward with message bills that have been deemed as most “likely unconstitutional” by even the General Counsel for the Legislature is not the way to go. The last thing we need is another time consuming, multimillion dollar lawsuit that taxpayers have to pay for, but even the Republicans have admitted that is where these bills will lead. And unfortunately, there is a 99.99% chance that Utah will lose the lawsuit, leaving us out years and millions of dollars that could have been put to better pursuits like restoring Medicaid programs or improving neighborhood schools.

But the 2012 session was not just negative after negative, House Democrats saw many successes and efforts that will lead to a better and brighter future, with a higher quality of life for all of us.

Representative Patrice Arent is to thank for the Legislature finally moving forward towards improving our air quality, having wisely attached her Air Quality Task Force to the Economic Development Task Force. She has also taken a big bite out of tax fraud, successfully passing HB96 which bans zapping (aka “phantomware”) software which is used by some retail businesses to hide cash sales. Zapping, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, is responsible for an estimated $147 million in fraud every year in Utah!

Representative Joel Briscoe is protecting Utah’s precious and limited water supply. HB 462 authorizes the Constitutional Defense Council to defend Utah water supplies against attempts by other states to seize them.

Representative Chavez-Houck tackled the enormous task of finally pushing our state towards allowing legislative petitions and initiatives to be signed online. It’s too difficult to gather enough signatures solely by standing in a grocery-store parking lot, and the move towards online signing is long overdue.

Representative Tim Cosgrove’s HB 125 will help rural and low-income kids on Medicaid gain access to dental coverage, a service sorely needed among many in Utah. He also passed HB 162, which creates a task force to assist soldiers returning from military service reintegrate into communities.

Representative Brian Doughty fought the good fight against the State Legislature’s constant intrusion into the work of local city and county councils with HB 181. He also pushed hard for state employees to have the right to share their health insurance with another dependent adult in their home (like an aged parent) if the employee isn’t married.

Representative Sue Duckworth co-sponsored SB 61, which follows up on a task force created last year to rehabilitate land in Utah which has been damaged by invasive species (like cheap grass or quagga mussels).

Representative Janice Fisher made a valiant effort for the rights of Mobile Home Owners, who currently can watch their rent increase as often as Park Owners want.

Representative Lynn Hemingway honored the families of soldiers by extending the spouses of military personnel unemployment benefits if they have to quit their jobs in order to follow the soldiers out of state because of a transfer. Until now, Utah was one of only 10 states in the country that wasn’t providing this service for those who serve us.

Representative Neil Hendrickson passed a new rule through the House. Currently, if someone places a hold on your bill after it has been passed, you may not even notice. But with HR 1, both the Speaker and the Representative is immediately notified.

Representative Brian King is assisting both businesses as well as Utah’s homeless population, running HB 101 which provides a tax credit to businesses who hire a homeless person.

House Democratic Leader David Litvack successfully passed a bill through the House creating a blue ribbon commission to study ways to make the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control more efficient, following revelations that they’ve lost millions of taxpayer dollars to fraud and waste. He also passed HB100, which provides English Language Learners and members of a federally recognized Native American tribe additional time to complete the social worker licensing exam.

Representative Carol Spackman Moss’s HB 115 was one of the primary components of the Best Schools Initiative, and will create a peer review and assistance program to help new or struggling teachers. Utah currently loses a high percentage of teachers in the first 5 years, and Representative Moss’s bill will go a long way toward stopping that loss and improving teacher quality.

Representative Marie Poulson had some big successes, passing HB 21 which will create a database of emergency contact information with the DMV which can be accessed by emergency responders, as well as her contribution to the Best Schools Initiative: a Joint Resolution on providing Utah students a world class curriculum!

Representative Jennifer Seelig kept herself extremely busy this session. HJR 4 encourages businesses to respect mothers in the workplace by providing unpaid breaks and spaces for employees who need to breastfeed or express milk for infant children. She also passed HB 230, which paves the way for greater effectiveness and accountability in the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Representative Watkins’ HB 241 focuses on an effort to keep families whole and intact. It requires that the state must have clear evidence before it can remove a child from foster care provided by relatives (like grandparents or aunts and uncles) based on health or age.

Representative Mark Wheatley had HJR 1, which pushes for schools to maintain a level of sustainability in order to improve the health of our children and the quality of the buildings themselves.

Representative Larry Wiley focused efforts on public health, passing HB 189 which helps contractors limit the amount of asbestos the public is exposed to.

The State Budget is always one of the primary focuses of any legislative session, and this year was no exception. From the beginning of the session, some of our primary goals was to make sure that neighborhood schools received not only funding for this year’s growth, but also an increase in the level of per pupil funding (it’s inexcusable for Utah to be dead last in the nation!). We also placed a high priority on providing state employees a bump in pay which has been missing for quite a while. Months of work and negotiations, but we are proud to announce that both of those priorities made it into the final budget! There are several other Democratic victories in the budget’s pages, including funding for both the Tracy Aviary and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

At the end of the day, we feel like we can be proud of the work we accomplished on the Hill this year. It’s tough to be in the minority, but House Democrats are joining the growing movement of Democrats across Utah who are stepping up, being louder, and showing our neighbors exactly why it is our party which reflects the true values of Utah. Our caucus did 167 press interviews between the first and last days of the 2012 Session, and we hope that each one reflected the common-sense values we all hold so dear: responsible government, a strong economy supported by a foundation of public education and neighborhood schools, fair pay for workers, and equality for all.

Thank you to all who participated with us on the Hill, whether attending our semi weekly open caucus meetings, speaking with us in the hall, or by email and phone. It is always critical for a representative to hear from their constituents, your voice does make a difference! Please stay in touch with us between now and next year, as most of the work we do as legislators happens during the interim.

On a personal note, I announced earlier this week that I will not seek reelection this year. It has been my honor and privilege to serve the people of District 26 for the past 12 years, but the time has come to move on and spend more time with my family. I cannot express enough my gratitude and heartfelt thanks for the many many expressions of love and support that I have received, and I’m confident that the next Democratic Leader of the House will continue moving our Caucus forward.

Until Next Year!
Sincerely;
David Litvack, House Democratic Leader & the Utah House Democratic Caucus

Representative Brian Doughty (D)

Salt Lake City – Representative Brian Doughty (D) joined Comcast last week to discuss his efforts to make it more difficult for the Utah Legislature to alter or repeal laws and ordinances passed by city or county councils. Watch it below!

Utah Democrats delivered a message Tuesday about the many “message bills” that Republican legislators are running this election year to attack the federal government and the Obama administration.

“Enough is enough,” House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, said in a news conference.

House Democratic Assistant Whip Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, complained that message bills take “time and the energy and the resources of the state Legislature … and divert them away from productive activity and into an attack on the federal government and an attack on the Obama administration.”

While Democrats don’t like the many message bills that attack public lands policies, they especially targeted the Senate-passed SB208, which would have Utah join a compact of states seeking to opt out of federal health care reform and, if allowed by Congress, control such programs as Medicare and Medicaid locally with federal block grants.

“This is not just a benign message bill,” said Senate Assistant Whip Pat Jones, D-Holladay. “Utah would be in charge of our own Medicaid and Medicare.”

She said Republicans are willing to take that big leap to send a message, without studying the costs and ramifications. She said she’s sure it will either raise taxes or lead to cuts in health care for seniors.

Litvack said the GOP effort is just “being driven by this desire to tell the current administration” that Republicans don’t like health reform, and “what is this, the seventh, eighth or ninth time that we’ve done that, so haven’t we sent that message?”

“If we’re serious as a legislative body and are not driven by posturing and politics and we want to talk about what’s the best way to provide health care to our citizens, then let’s do it the right way,” which he said would be to carefully look at costs and effects instead of leaving those as unanswered questions.

Read the full article HERE

Outgoing- House Democratic Leader, Representative David Litvack (District 26)

Salt Lake City – Representative David Litvack, House Democratic Leader, announced today that he will not seek reelection this fall.

“I’ve spent a long time on Capitol Hill,” said Representative Litvack, “and it has been an honor. I’ve loved every single issue that I had a chance to get involved in and advocate for, but after 12 years in the Legislature it’s time to let someone else take the reigns so I can spend further time with my family.”

Representative David Litvack was first elected to the State Legislature in 2000, and has served as House Democratic Leader for the last 4 years.

“Working with Representative Litvack has been a joy,” said House Democratic Whip, Representative Jennifer Seelig.” His abilities as a legislator and a leader have created more successes for Democrats in Utah than most people will ever realize.”

“It has been a singular honor to serve next to this incredible man,” said Representative Brian King, House Democratic Assistant Whip, “he has been an honorable leader, a hard worker, and an impassioned advocate for Salt Lake City.”

“Representative Litvack will be sorely missed,” added House Democratic Caucus Manager, Representative Christine Watkins. “His leadership has been an inspiration.”

Representative Brian King (D)

Representative Brian King had an Op-Ed published in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning. He outlines the heavy problems in the Republicans’ Land-Grab bills, calling them a “get rich quick scheme.” Read it below!

As in past years, this general session of the Legislature has produced several bills aimed at taking control of land owned by the United States and transferring it to Utah state ownership. The bill sponsors assert that if Utah were to take over this federal land with the authority to drill it, mine it, and sell it off to corporations, enormous amounts of money to fund public and higher education would appear.

Unfortunately, this quixotic endeavor has many problems. The United States is not likely to go along with Utah’s efforts to wrest control of the nationally owned real estate within Utah’s borders. Success in this venture likely will come only at the hands of sympathetic federal court judges and will undoubtedly require U.S. Supreme Court approval.

Supporters of Utah’s quest assert that public lands litigation carries the distinct possibility, even the likelihood, of victory. And with that victory they believe our ability to fund — at much higher levels — state programs, including public and higher education, will be guaranteed.

So how likely is it that the federal courts will allow us to take over national forests, BLM lands and even national parks? Not very. Our Utah Constitution states that the “people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof . …” Article III, Sec. 2.

The founding fathers of Utah gave up any claim to…

Read the full Op-Ed HERE

 Week: Feb 27 – Mar 2, 2012

 Welcome to Issue #6 of the Capitol Window from the Utah State House Democratic Caucus! With each weekly newsletter, we’ll bring you up to date information on the House Democrats’ efforts on Capitol Hill during the 2012 Legislative Session.

Common-sense Solutions

You may have noticed this year that we’re talking a lot about “common-sense solutions,” and there’s a reason for that. As we near the end of the 2012 session, a number of bills and issues inevitably arise which don’t meet that sensible mantra.

From the beginning of the 2012 session, the Legislature has made a point of refusing to hear any bills that would substantially revise Utah’s immigration policies. But earlier this week, Representative Chris Herrod (R) created quite a stir on the House floor when he attempted to change that.

When the Speaker of the House (currently Representative Becky Lockhart) leaves the floor, a Speaker Pro Tempore is appointed to act as Speaker temporarily. That had just occurred on Monday when Representative Herrod unexpectedly made a motion for his bill, HB 300, to be lifted from the The House Rules Committee where it had been held. HB 300 would repeal 2011′s HB116, commonly known as “Utah’s Guest Worker Law.”

The floor erupted, and the ensuing debate saw Representative Herrod quickly blame Utah’s murder, rape and suicide rates all on “illegal aliens.” But his motion never saw a vote, as a substitute motion was made to take a 15 minute recess (which passed easily).

House Democrats maintain our stance that immigration reform is not a matter for the State, but constitutionally belongs with Congress. But for those laws which have and will come out of Utah, we counsel and argue for every legislator to remember that this sensitive issue deals with families. Immigration is not an abstract discussion, it has real impacts and permanent ramifications on fathers, mothers, and children in Utah. It would behoove all involved to keep open hearts and minds when dealing with such sensitive topics.
Budget

Each year, House Democrats spend months working to create our own full and working budget for the State of Utah, independent of our Republican colleagues. While our budget priorities will eventually get folded into the Republican Budget this year, with some priorities surviving and some falling behind, we view this as a critical responsibility to show both the Legislature as well as our fellow citizens precisely what a “Common-Sense Budget” looks like.

When creating our Democratic Budget, we take measures to ensure that the programs desperately needed by Utahns are taken care of, while also ensuring that the budget is structurally sound and eliminates structural deficit.

Those whom we trust to tend to Utah’s future, Higher Education, Public Education and State Employees, deserve to know their own futures are secure. We’re pleased to announce that the Democratic Budget will cover not only their retirement costs, but also a one-time 1% compensation bump in the coming year.

Government is not a meaningless “it” to use as boogie-men, but the tool of the people to benefit our society as a whole. There are critical services that we use the government to provide, and the Democratic Budget is a reflection of such. Education, both public and higher ed, are critical to Utah’s economic development and as such, will receive greater funding, both for today and tomorrow’s jobs.

Public Services are always a big priority for Democrats and the people of Utah, and our budget includes critical services such as Medicaid and Community Health Centers for the elderly and disabled. Many disabled Utahns who are disabled have the desire and ability to work, and we want to make sure they are able to do so. Included this year is continued funds for job training, job coaching and even interpreters.

Overall, it is vital that we promote strong economic development and quality of life in Utah. As House Democrats, we are pushing strongly for support of proven programs that grow our economy, and promote the arts and sciences which will spark the imagination of the next generation. We are proud to live in Utah, we are proud of those community gems across the state, such as the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Tracy Aviary, that bring bring joy and happiness to so many. We will continue to fight to make our beautiful State the best that it can be.

Would you like to see the entire budget? Click HERE to see it.

This Coming Week:

We’re getting ready to start the final week of the 2012 Session! If history has taught us anything, it’s that we cannot predict what is going to happen in the final week of the Utah State Legislature. There are still plenty of bills that do not have public language yet, but might be worded – lifted from the Rules Committee – and passed within a matter of a single day (remember HB 477 last year?). We will be vigilant and vocal, so make sure that you join us on the Hill, watch live at http://le.utah.gov or follow along on our twitter and facebook accounts!

Follow Us Online

Every day of the session, our website, Facebook page and Twitter stream flow non-stop with up-to-date information, pics and stories from the Hill. During hotly-contested moments, we’ll live-tweet it so you can watch the drama unfold as it happens! Join the conversation.

• Facebook: Utah House Democratic Caucus
• Twitter:@utahhousedems
• Website:www.utahhousedemocrats.org

Sincerely;

The Utah State House Democratic Caucus

David Litvack, House Democratic Leader

House Democratic Leadership: (from left to right) Assistant Whip Brian King, Caucus Manager Christine Watkins, Democratic Leader David Litvack, Whip Jennifer Seelig

Each year, House Democrats spend months working to create our own full and working budget for the State of Utah, independent of our Republican colleagues. While our budget priorities may eventually get folded into the GO Budget this year, with some priorities surviving and some falling behind, we view this as a critical responsibility to show both the Legislature as well as our fellow citizens precisely what a “Common-Sense Budget” looks like.

When creating our Democratic Budget, we take measures to ensure that the programs desperately needed by Utahns are taken care of, while also ensuring that the budget is structurally sound and eliminates structural deficit.

Those whom we trust to tend to Utah’s future, Higher Education, Public Education and State Employees, deserve to know their own futures are secure. We’re pleased to announce that the Democratic Budget will cover not only their retirement costs, but also a one-time 1% compensation bump in the coming year.

Government is not a meaningless “it” to use as boogie-men, but the tool of the people to benefit our society as a whole. There are critical services that we use the government to provide, and the Democratic Budget is a reflection of such. Education, both public and higher ed, are critical to Utah’s economic development and as such, will receive greater funding, both for today and tomorrow’s jobs.

Public Services are always a big priority for Democrats and the people of Utah, and our budget includes critical services such as Medicaid and Community Health Centers for the elderly and disabled. Many disabled Utahns who are disabled have the desire and ability to work, and we want to make sure they are able to do so. Included this year is continued funds for job training, job coaching and even interpreters.

Overall, it is vital that we promote strong economic development and quality of life in Utah. As House Democrats, we are pushing strongly for support of proven programs that grow our economy, and promote the arts and sciences which will spark the imagination of the next generation. We are proud to live in Utah, we are proud of those community gems across the state, such as the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Tracy Aviary, that bring bring joy and happiness to so many. We will continue to fight to make our beautiful State the best that it can be.

2012 House Democrat Budget