2014 Interim: Transportation Update

With only 2 more interim meetings to go (October and November) before the start of the 2015 General Session, discussions on some of the more complex issues are underway this fall. One such issue is transportation. This is an issue that has impacts statewide, though some of the needs vary depending on where you call home.  The Wasatch Front’s transportation needs have more to do with congestion and capacity, while rural Utah’s concerns lie more with impacts to secondary roads that now carry more cars and heavy trucks that they were originally intended to serve. The entire state has aging infrastructure, specifically bridges, that are reaching the end of their designed life span.

To a certain extent, some of the transportation deficits are the result of things that show we have a growing population and economy. A dynamic population and economy are, of course, very good things to have and for the most part this natural growth gives us enhanced funds for many needs. Since our unemployment is low, we naturally see an increase in funds from income tax without raising the existing tax rates at all. In fact, the State’s fiscal year just ended with a $166 million surplus, mostly in the area of income tax, which after moving some to our Rainy Day Fund, will leave $112 million that will flow into public and higher education because income tax is dedicated to those two areas.

The one area of tax collection over that has been on a downward trend for many years is the gas tax, our traditional dedicated source of transportation funding. This tax is a fixed amount per gallon of gasoline and the rate has remained unchanged since 1997. However, the way we travel and the cars we use have changed dramatically since the last rate adjustment. Our traditional gas cars now have significantly improved engines and emissions that have resulted in much better gas mileage. It is now quite common to own or know someone that with a hybrid, electric or natural gas vehicle.  All of this means, we are buying less gasoline resulting is less of the tax being collected. This shouldn’t be interpreted to mean we are actually driving less. The opposite is actually true. Between 1990 and 2010 Utah experienced a 78% increase in vehicles miles traveled. The problem is pretty clear; we drive more and collect less.

We have a funding problem that is pretty widely accepted, but the fixes vary greatly. My natural inclination is not to raise taxes, but to find a better funding fit for the need. We have a history of pairing needs with a related funding source.  For instance we paired education with income tax. If the gas tax is no longer a good pairing, what would a better fit be? The Transportation Interim Committee is looking at a lot of possible pairings from sales tax to vehicle registration fees to a hybrid that still includes the gas tax.  Each of these have pros and cons. I’m interested in solutions that keep any taxes transparent, uniform across the state and simple to administer.  Please chime in on this debate, the Transportation Interim Committee will be discussing this issue again on October 15^th and you can listen online or send your comments or thoughts to your legislators.

2014 Interim: Forest Fires

Earlier this month, I listened to the national news about the large number of wild fires burning in California due to the extreme drought conditions. My heart went out to those impacted by the fires and I hope for the health and safety of the firefighters. Though it is still spring in Utah, we are on the verge of our own wild fire season. As a desert state with large swaths of open land, it is very important that we protect ourselves against costly and damaging wild fires. 

There are numerous fires each year that are attributed to human actions and so we must be mindful as the weather warms, schools are out for the summer and families start vacations to be very careful with campfires, target shooting and fireworks. Fires are expensive to fight and the aftermath can be extremely costly as well so it is important to keep in mind that fire related expenses are funded out of your tax dollars. If we can reduce the fires we as human cause, those funds can be reallocated to other uses.

Of course lightning starts many wild fires too. There isn’t much we can do to stop lightning, so instead we must focus on programs that prevent wild fires from become catastrophes. Studies have shown that for every $1 we invest in prevention, we save $17 in fire fighting cost. Last December the Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Steering Committee identified regional projects that could be undertaken to help reduce our fire risk. In addition, the Legislature passed SCR 7 Concurrent Resolution on Comprehensive Statewide Wildland Fire Prevention, Preparedness and Suppression Policy to urge coordination by all level of government on the best use of time and resources to prevent wild fires 

Some of the projects recommended are taking place near us in the Dixie National Forest. Prescribed burns are being employed in some parts of the forest to reduced downed debris and rejuvenate timber stands. This type of project is employed when personnel, resources and weather conditions are all at optimum levels to accomplish the goals without risk of the fire getting out of control. Other parts of the forest may see strategic logging or other project that are intended to keep the forest health or improve firebreaks or access roads.

Our local fire fighters are our first line of defense for wild fires. It takes time to deploy hotshot crews or other specialty resources. Fires, of course, don’t wait for special crews to arrive. Locals have to be ready to start the fight and assess the situation. This past session the Legislature appropriated $75,000 in new on-going annual funding to wild fire land training for local fire departments. While I hope our local crews don’t have to deploy, having the knowledge and skills to manage the wild fire response from the beginning will hopefully pay dividends in fires stopped quickly.

I’m hoping that our investments in better coordination, prevention and training will mean a quiet and safe fire year for Utah. Please remember to practice fight safety this summer and consult utahfireinfo.gov if you have questions about how you can   help reduce our fire danger this summer.

2014 Session: Budget Update

The Legislature has two primary duties each year. The first is to create and balance a state budget and the second is to consider matters of public policy. We begin each year with a focus on the “base budget.” This is actually a series of budgets for each of the various departments that contains the basic funding for each area. Later in the session we appropriate any surplus revenues to new programs or growth in programs.  This session, we decided it was time to give the base budgets a deeper review. All standing committees (the committees that review policy bills rather than budget bills) were postponed until Week 2 and double appropriations hearings were booked for each appropriations committee.

This gave each appropriations committee more time to dig into budgets and ask important questions about funding levels, whether programs are properly a-lined and producing the goals intended, and to ensure the funding choices are still relevant. After some very long meetings and pouring over spreadsheets, this exercise proved profitable as we discovered some pockets of funds that hadn’t been used or programs that were obsolete or duplicated in another department. The appropriations committees were then able to re-appropriate these funds to other needs inside the budget.

It can be a risky thing to spend so much time on just one part of our legislative responsibilities. Our State has one of the shortest annual sessions at just 45-calendar days. We have learned how to work within this timeline by keeping a rigid schedule of committee meetings and budget hearings. To change that schedule and spend more time on budget hearings means less time for policy bills and debate.  Both budget and policy are equally important so balancing the time component can be difficult. Toward that end, I’m particularly pleased with a bill, HJR10 Joint Resolution on a Long-Term Planning Conference, that would enable the Legislature to hold a long-term planning study session every 2 years outside of our normal 45-day general session. The purpose will be to focus on fiscal trends and the longer term economic and demographic needs of the State. Our 45-day session often doesn’t allow for this type of discussion or review. Instead, we are working to pass a budget and consider all the bills before the clocks strikes midnight on the final day.

Information is delivered and digested quickly in-session. While we hope we are making the best decisions for the good of the state, there often isn’t time to bring in experts, have lengthy discussions or model projections. This planning conference would focus on long-range planning so we can discuss and set goals. Then we can enter the next session looking at specific programs or policies for education, transportation, or tax reform that appropriately frame the issue in terms of how it helps us reach our goals and impacts long-term planning.

I hope this bill and the deeper review of the base budget this year will provide the public with greater budget transparency and confidence while at the same time helping legislators do both their policy and budgeting jobs better by having the right tools and information available.

2014 Session: Transportation Funding

2014 General Session
Transportation Funding

An effective and efficient transportation system is critical for any successful economy. We have to be able to get goods to market and people to jobs. In a state like ours, it is critically important that we connect our rural communities so oil from the Uintah Basin, Green River melons and Zions National Park tourists can all crisscross the state with a positive economic impact.   Unfortunately the key component of our transportation funding strategy is not keeping pace with costs. The gas tax is a constitutionally protected revenue source for roads and transportation funding. We use a cents per gallon model, which is currently at 24.5 cents and has been at that rate since 1997.

In the seventeen years since the last gas tax increase, our vehicles have changed dramatically. Hybrids, electrics, CNG and LNG vehicles have joined the mix while traditional gas fueled vehicles have also become more fuel-efficient. We travel more road miles than ever before, but we use less gas to do so which means we collect less in the tax that pays for road construction and maintenance. It has become an inverse relationship that has shifted more and more of the funding burden to other parts of the budget at all levels of government.

This session, the Legislature is assessing what we can change to more appropriately pair transportation with a funding mechanism or mechanisms that meets the need. While taxing gas, or any other fuel source, will likely always be a part of any transportation funding pool, we need to figure out how to capture revenue from vehicles that use less of the fuel source, but have equal impact on the roads.  There are a few clear guidelines as the options are assessed.  Any changes need to be something that is uniformly adopted across the state so as not to increase the regulatory or tax collection burden on retailers. We need options to provide an adequate amount of transportation that will let us keep pace with repairs but also optimize movement of goods and people with new construction. The constitutional protection that ensures the gas tax is preserved for transportation (just like the protection of income tax for education) is something to explore further as well. We don’t want to work on a new funding scheme only to see the funds diverted to other areas of the budget. Finally, this discussion and debate about transportation needs and funding mechanisms is an important public policy function that the legislature should revisit at appropriate intervals. Who knows, some future Legislature may find that a tax on dilithium crystals is a more appropriate source of funding.

Please stay tuned and chime in as the Legislature continues this discussion for the next several weeks. This is an important policy discussion as our fuel sources shifts and expands as we continue to evolve in the way goods and people get to market.

Week 6 Newsletter

Greetings,

Only a week remains in the 2013 General Session.  Committee meetings are complete and the remainder of our time here will be spent on floor debate and working to finalize a balanced State budget. 

This week all of the bills on the House 3rd Reading Calendar were “wiped,” meaning they were taken off and reordered. This ensures that the bills considered a priority are debated on the floor before the session ends on March 14.

Regardless of time constraints we will pass a balanced budget totaling nearly $13 billion and we will increase education funding as well as provide a safety net for Utah’s most needy.

Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions on bills during the session. I always enjoy feedback from constituents and find it very helpful when gauging how to vote on the important issues that come before us.  The easiest ay to reach me during the session is by email at dipson@le.utah.gov or at 435-817-5281

Representative Don L. Ipson

Dipson@le.utah.gov

Current Legislation

House Bill 408 – Criminal Suspect Photographs           

If approved, this measure would require people requesting a copy of a mug shot to sign a statement that the photo will not be placed in a publication or on a website that requires payment in order to remove the picture. Violators would face a class B misdemeanor for writing a false statement, up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.  The bill would strike a balance, allowing access to the booking photos by the press for legitimate news stories and by those doing background checks.  But it would also prevent those found innocent or whose charges were dropped from having their mug shots remain on the web.

House Bill 114 – Second Amendment Preservation Act

This bill passed out of the House Friday morning to the Senate with a vote of 49-17.  This Act affirms that the Utah State Legislature holds the exclusive authority to adopt and enact any and all laws, orders, rules, or regulations regarding the manufacture, transfer, possession, ownership, and use of firearms exclusively within this state. 

Senate Bill 226 – Sales and Use Tax Amendments

This bill requires online retailers to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of their customers.  It modifies the circumstances under which a person may be required to collect and remit sales and use taxes to the State Tax Commission and makes technical and conforming changes.

Week 5 Legislative Newsletter

Greetings,

This week at the Capitol we were given revised revenue projections that provided the final numbers on revenue growth and the last piece of budget info we need to finish balancing the budget. This is a highly anticipated number and one that is tracked throughout the year.

Unfortunately, with the shifting numbers and failed policy of Washington DC looming around us, it is incredibly difficult to build a budget.  The Federal government’s tax increase earlier this year caused a $100 million negative impact.  Despite these challenges, we in Utah will balance our state budget on time and to the penny. We will do the very best with the funds we have and match needs with the appropriate funding source, hoping Washington will follow our lead. 

Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions on bills during the session. I always enjoy feedback from constituents and find it very helpful when gauging how to vote on the important issues that come before us.  The easiest ay to reach me during the session is by email at dipson@le.utah.gov or at 435-817-5281

Representative Don L. Ipson

Dipson@le.utah.gov

Current Legislation

           

HB 209 Public Assistance Restrictions

This bill prohibits the recipient of any type of public financial assistance from using the benefits at a liquor store, gaming establishment or adult-oriented entertainment establishment. I think we can all agree that when the taxpayer is providing assistance to someone in need, we expect them to use the money to support themselves and their families in appropriate ways through the purchase of food or housing essentials. Using those public safety net funds in inappropriate ways or places is a violation of the public good will and trust for which those funds were set aside.

HB 129 Amendments to Powers, Functions, and Duties of Office of Legislative Fiscal Analyst

Would you like to see exactly where your dollars are going? The idea behind this bill is a taxpayer receipt that would be available on the state’s transparency website (transparent.utah.gov).  It would build a custom receipt based on your tax input for state income tax and sales tax, complete with graphs. Information is power. By making a receipt available, the taxpayer has a greater ability to assess the expenditures, weigh the pros and cons of policy areas, and then get involved in changing the funding formulas. 

H.B. 268 Substitute Disorderly Conduct Amendments

This session there are several “gun bills” that have been proposed. This is a very sensitive area given recent tragedies and closely held 2^nd amendment rights. This bill attempts to strike a balance between our state laws that allow for fire arms to be openly carried, but gives law enforcement personnel the ability to engage with persons that may be causing a disturbance in a public place when open carrying a fire arm. After much debate and some amendments, this bill seems to strike the right balance on the issue of the open carrying of firearms.