Representative Christine Watkins (left) and her 2021 intern, Brooke.
By Representative Christine Watkins, District 69
After a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, I would have never predicted such a successful legislative session. When the session started, we didn’t know if a COVID-19 outbreak would shut us down. We were careful, we were tested daily and had a productive session. I appreciate your support so much and thank you for the opportunity to represent you.
The legislature did some heavy lifting and prepared Utah to come out of this pandemic with tax relief for some with social security income, the elimination of individual income tax for military retirement pay and restoration of part of the dependent tax exemption, which was eliminated in the 2017 federal tax reform.
The 2021 legislature also crafted policies to allow the private market to flourish while ensuring protections for consumers, communities and the environment. HB217 Regulatory Sandbox Program Amendments establishes a regulatory sandbox to allow innovative companies to operate in a controlled environment without having to comply with the regulations that never imagined the innovations in play.
HB433 Amendments, related to Infrastructure Funding, is the largest infrastructure funding package in Utah history, authorizing about $1.1 billion in transportation infrastructure investment, including over $300 million in transit. This bill will allow transit expansion, a rail bridge in Brigham City, expansion of trails, and road improvements in every corner and region of the state.
An investment of $146 million in Utah’s recreation will add more than 500 campsites to our overall inventory and expand day-use by 10%, which is about 1,000 visitor parking spaces. The two new state parks, Utahraptor State Park and Lost Creek State Park, were funded with $25 million.
HB297 Colorado River Amendments establishes a framework to better engage in a dialogue with our neighboring states about the Colorado Water century-old Colorado Compact. HB243 Privacy Amendments protects our personal data. This bill will allow for audits on certain state agencies to ensure practices are in place to protect our personal identifiable information.
HB262 Children’s Health Insurance Amendments will help connect families of uninsured children with existing coverage options that best suit their needs. Utah has one of the highest rates of uninsured children and this could possibly impact 82,000 children.
HB381 Grow Your Own Teacher and School Counselor Pipeline Program creates a grant program that provides funding for paraprofessionals, school counselor assistants and interns within the state to incentivize them to continue their training to become licensed teachers or school counselors. We restored the 6% increase in per-pupil-funding and set aside $127 million for public school bonuses.
HB 98 Local Government Building Regulation Amendments prohibits municipalities from restricting accessory dwelling units. These units are in-law apartments, over-garage apartments or other similar spaces. These can be low-rent options for younger populations or vulnerable populations.
We also rewrote the Emergency Powers Code, redefining the Governor’s authority and the authority of the Legislature. The original plan was written in the 1950s and, of course, did not make rules defining what should be done during a pandemic. We also defined what a local health department has authority to do and involved more local elected officials.
There are 75 members in the House and 1,216 bills were filed, but over half were not written or made it out of rules. The House introduced 497 bills in committee meetings and 363 bills passed out of committee and were sent to the floor. Then, 345 bills were passed by the House and sent to Senate committees and 326 were sent to the Senate floor. In total, 307 House bills made it through the process and were sent to the Governor. I am proud to say five of them were mine.