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COUNTY
Utah Association of Counties
This Issue Calendar
2
New UBHC Staff
2
Management Conference 3 Enrolled/Failed Bills
4/5
Public Lands Legislation
6/7
Coming Soon
April 18 UAC Board of Directors Meeting Ogden April 18-20 UAC Management Conference Ogden May 16-17 Property Tax Admin. in Utah Ogden
UAC Contacts 5397 S. Vine Street Murray, UT 84107 Ph. (801) 265-1331 Fax (801) 265-9485 www.UACnet.org
Brent Gardner, Executive Dir. Jill Brown, Accountant Chelsie Dalton, UBHC Adm. Asst. Debbie Goodwin, Office Manager Alice Hancock, Adm. Assistant Doug Perry, Communications Dir. Adam Trupp, General Counsel Arie Van De Graaff, Leg. Analyst Mark Ward, Senior Planning Coordinator & Policy Analyst
VOICE SPRING2012
Compromise—Name of the Game at 2012 Legislature C ompromise was the name of the game during the 2012 Legislative Session. UAC worked with a number of interested parties on a number of different issues to help shepherd several pieces of legislation into law. Simplifying the process of reporting and auditing business personal property tax was the stated goal of HB 41; however, county assessors found several problems with the bill that merely raised the exemption for personal property tax. In response, Utah’s assessors introduced HB 387. HB 387 greatly simplifies the process of reporting and auditing business personal property tax while not causing a tax shift away from business onto homeowners.
Seemingly pitting county auditors with the county legislative body, SB 124 places the authority to appoint a county with the county legislative body. SB 124 was ultimately compromised to include a delayed effective date for second through sixth class counties to allow for additional work on the issue. The Legislature was even willing to compromise when it came to jail payment (sort of ). While UAC’s bill that would have secured a dedicated source of revenue for a large chunk of the state’s portion of the cost of condition of probation prisoners failed to pass, the state did appropriate an additional $1.4 million towards contract prisoners.
Other important issues to county government When it was introduced, HB 502 would have that passed out of the Legislature include a fix to the indigent defense fund, a process for greatly lowered the threshold to incorporate counties to obtain federal land use designation, a city or town. With the effects of HB 466 which passed in 2007 (and later repealed) fresh several necessary boundary changes, a 90day look back for erroneously credited E-991 on county officials’ minds, UAC vigorously fought the original version of HB 502. UAC’s charges, and a creation of an energy zone in the Uintah Basin. lobbying paid off when the original version of HB 502 failed to pass out of committee. As always, UAC staff appreciates the hard work The bill was then extensively reworked into a of county officials throughout the state who version that makes some positive changes to worked diligently to ensure another successful the incorporation process. year at the Legislature. SB 124 was a difficult bill for UAC.
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County VOICE 2012 CALENDAR
Please mark your calendars for the following key UAC events in 2012. Should there be a change, we will notify you as soon as possible. April 18 UAC Board of Directors Meeting Ogden April 18-20 UAC Management Conference Ogden May 16-17 Property Tax Administration in Utah Ogden May 16-18 Western Interstate Region (WIR) Santa Fe, New Mexico June 12 - 14 Assessors Summer Conference Wasatch County June 20-22 Treasurers Summer Conference Kanab June 29 Summer USACCC Conference Bryce Canyon July 13-17 NACo Annual Conference Pittsburgh September 12 UAC Board Meeting Midway September 12-14 Fall USACCC Conference Midway September 22-26 Utah Sheriffs Association Annual Meeting St. George
Spring 2012 Page 2
UAC Welcomes New UBHC Administrative Assistant Chelsie Dalton was recently hired as UAC’s Utah Behavioral Healthcare Committee Administrative Assistant. She will handle much of the administrative work associated with UBHC meetings and other initiatives. Chelsie is a recent graduate, with a Bachelor in Political Science as well as a Master in Public Administration from Southern Utah University. Chelsie enjoys learning new languages, reading, traveling, and attending ballet and theatre. She has ambitions of someday getting a Ph.D. or law degree, and traveling the world.
FYI: SL County Transitioning to New Area Code of 385 Salt Lake County continues to slowly transition from 801 to the new area code of 385. The move began last year and was projected to take about 18 months, however that timeline has been extended into the third quarter of 2013. According to a Deseret News article last year, the change was necessary as the county had run out of potential numbers and needed a new area code to accomodate additional numbers. The Granite School District in Salt Lake moved to the 385 area code in 2009. So, if someone other than who you expect picks up the phone at Salt Lake County, you can go online to www.slco.org, find the department you are trying to reach and verify the number.
UDOT Stresses Compliance Up until July 2011, Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) officials allowed contractors to self-certify their compliance with the Buy America law passed in 1983. However, in a federal review of the program, it was determined that Buy America was not followed on several federal-aid projects in Utah. This resulted in a decision by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to disallow funding of a project sponsored by a local governmental entity in Utah. UDOT is working to prevent this from re-occuring and is now requiring contractors to submit proper certification prior to incorporating iron and steel materials into federal-aid projects. FHWA has further interpreted the law to apply to public and private utility owners seeking reimbursement of federal funds when they relocate or protect their facilities to accomodate federal highway projects. For more information, contact Rob Wight, State Construction Engineer at 801-965-4869.
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County VOICE
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Conference to Share Top Secrets of Governing County officials wouldn’t make good spies, as keeping secrets from the public wouldn’t go over so well. But that’s a good thing, especially at the UAC 2012 Management Conference, April 18-20 at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center. This year’s theme is a great reminder of why county leaders gather each Spring. Collectively, we have much more to offer when we work together and share the “secrets” of what makes us successful. To this end, we have lined up some fantastic speakers and topics, and little bit of fun, too. Keynote Speaker Michael Ramsdell, former spy living in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, knows all about International Intrigue and has some fun and amazing stories to share about his adventures. His message is action-packed and very patriotic, sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Entertainment It’s no secret, Voice Male is a bona fide hit! This is an encore performance from about a decade ago of performing at a UAC
Top
of Good Governing 2012 Management Conference Utah Association of Counties
of the
conference. Sure, this collection of a capella pros is a little older, but can still keep your foot tapping and leave you humming out several of their melodious harmonies into the next day. For more information about the Conference, we invite you visit our website where you can review agendas, register, and get other important details at: http://www.uacnet.org/event/2012uac-management-conference/
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2012 Enrolled Legislative Bills of County Interest The Utah Association of Counties tracked nearly 100 bills during the 2012 General Session. Below is a list of some of the enrolled bills that impact county government with UAC’s position included. • HB 176 (Noel) – Sets up a process for counties to recommend to the Utah State Legislature proposed congressional land use legislation concerning federal land use designation. At which point, the Legislature can adopt the proposal and then propose the counties’ land use designations to the US Congress. SUPPORT • HB 387 (Dougall) – Simplifies the accounting for business personal property by creating two classes of property: 1) capitalized equipment (anything with a cost of over $1,000) and 2) non capitalized equipment (equipment with a cost of $1,000 or less). The non capitalized equipment can be reported in a lump sum total, and is depreciated to zero in three years. SUPPORT • HB 442 (Noel) – increases the rate at which the state reimburses counties for housing state inmates and providing treatment programs to 79 percent of the final state daily incarceration rate. For facilities that do not provide treatment programs, HB 442 increases the rate for contract prisoners to 73 percent of the final state daily incarceration rate. The result of HB 442 is an additional $1.4 million towards the state contract prisoner program. SUPPORT • HB 502 (M. Brown) – Changes the requirements necessary to place the vote to incorporate a city or town on the ballot. The bill requires petitioners desiring to incorporate to collect the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters within 90 percent of the voting precincts within a proposed incorporation. It keeps a
feasibility study in place that nixes any incorporation that would produce over 105 percent revenue to cost in a proposed city and 110 percent revenue to cost in a proposed town. NEUTRAL • HB 510 (Hughes) – addresses the issue of defense resources associated with a defendant who declares indigency after hiring private counsel. HB 510 clarifies that in such a case the defendant may not spend freely on defense resources (such as expert witnesses) and expect the county to cover all the costs. SUPPORT • HJR 13 (Hughes) – authorizes the Legislature to present an opinion question to the registered voters of the state to impose a state sales and use tax to support and enhance heritage, arts, culture, and museums throughout the state. If the public votes in support of a statewide arts tax, the Legislature will have the option to impose such a sales tax. The Statewide arts tax would be set at the difference between 0.15 percent and the rate imposed in counties or municipalities that Contact currently impose an arts tax. NEUTRAL
• SB 124 (Bramble) – Places the authority to appoint a budget officer in a county with the county legislative body. It clarifies the responsibility of the county auditor within the county. SB 124 has an immediate effective date for counties of the first class and effective date of January 1, 2014 for second through sixth class counties. SUPPORT • SB 174 (Niederhauser) – Removes requirements to subdivide agricultural land. The bill requires the new owner of record of subdivided agricultural land to file a notice with the county recorder that the lot or parcel is created for agricultural land only and will remain so until a further zoning change permits other use. NEUTRAL
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County VOICE
2012 Failed Legislative Bills of County Interest
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Several bills of county interest didn’t get the votes needed to become law. Below is a list of some of them with UAC’s position. • HB 41 (Painter) – Would have expanded the exemption to business personal property tax to $15,000 from the roughly $4,000 exemption today. OPPOSE • HB 94 (Anderson) – Would have required a public entity to conduct a study and contact private enterprise prior to engaging in new activity that could be constructed as competing with private enterprise. It also would have required the Privatization Policy Board to hold a public meeting and issue an advisory opinion about a government entity’s proposed commercial activity. Finally, HB 94 would have granted a private enterprise a private right of action to compel compliance with requirements of the bill and would have required the public entity to cover attorney fees and court costs in such an action. OPPOSE • HB 132 (Pitcher) – Would have offered an incentive for couples to complete premarital counseling by offering a $10 discount towards a marriage certificate if documentation of that counseling is presented to the county clerk’s office. The bill would have magnanimously offered that discount off of the portion of the marriage certificate the county collects and not the portion the state collects. OPPOSE • HB 464 (Wright) – Would have forced county general plans to become much more specific and
required the county plan to account for moderate income housing for both the unincorporated county as well as municipalities within the county. The bill also allowed for agricultural land to forego certain requirements in order to subdivide. NEUTRAL • SB 70 (Bramble) – Would have addressed issues relating to the online travel companies’ practice of remitting taxes on hotel rooms purchased on their websites for the wholesale price of the room while collecting the taxes on those rooms for the customer’s retail price. SB 70 would have given online travel companies the option of either remitting taxes (including TRT) based on the retail rate of a hotel room or remitting only the wholesale rate of the room provided they disclose the various fees and taxes associated with the room rate to their buyer. OPPOSE • SB 171 (Valentine) – Would have dedicated some $8 million annually of revenue generated from the beer tax be used for the state to pay county government for housing state prisoners in county jails as a condition of probation. Before the Legislative Session, SB 171 was identified as UAC’s top legislative priority. While the bill would not have covered all the costs the state as agreed in statute to pay for condition of probation, it certainly would have moved the discussion in a positive direction. SUPPORT
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County VOICE
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Two Public Lands Bills from Legislative Session With Statewide Ramifications House Bill 148: Transfer of Public Lands Act and Related Study This Legislation demands that the United States by December 31, 2014, shall extinguish and transfer title to the State of Utah for all public lands in the State, meaning all Forest Service and BLM managed lands including the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, existing Wilderness Study Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, and the Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Areas.
does not apply to federal buildings and facilities properly obtained by the Federal Government pursuant to Article 1 Section 8 Clause 17 of the United States Constitution. This Legislation directs the Utah Constitutional Defense Council to establish a public lands commission to study a number of issues related to the transfer of these public lands from the United States to the State of Utah, and
Lands in Utah currently comprising national parks, national monuments (except the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument), the National Wilderness Preservation System, and Department of Defense installations and test ranges are exempted from this legislative demand. This demand also
“to establish actions that shall be taken to secure, preserve, and protect the state’s rights and benefits related to the United States’ duty to have extinguished title to public lands, in the event that the United States does not meet the requirements of Title 63L, Chapter 6, Transfer of Public Lands Act.”
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This could be interpreted to mean identify actions on the public lands that are a high priority for the State and counties to carry out. Counties will likely be asked to identify top priority projects and management actions at the local level which counties desire to take place on the public lands, such as forest thinning projects, range improvement projects, energy development projects, conservation projects and the like. UAC and the County Commissioners who serve on the Constitutional Defense Council will work closely with this public lands commission to ensure that county concerns are addressed and that current stakeholders on the public lands are protected.
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• an explanation of any economic, recreational and cultural impacts resulting from the bill; • an explanation of any existing or potential impacts to resource extraction activities and motorized access resulting from the bill;
House Bill 176: County Land Use Plans Under HB 176, if a county pursuing a Congressional bill with a new wilderness designation wants the Utah Legislature to approve the bill, then the county must give a copy of the bill to the Legislature along with a detailed report about the bill. The report must provide information on many different aspects of the proposed Congressional bill, including: • a description of the acres proposed for wilderness designation, and the past use of and agency positions regarding those acres; • a description of any water courses to be designated a wild and scenic river segment; • information pertaining to any proposed SITLA land exchanges;
The Legislature will act on this report and vote to either adopt or not adopt a resolution to support the proposed county sponsored Congressional lands bill. If the Legislature rejects the proposed bill, the Legislature will give direction to the county on the reasons for the rejection and what the county may do to revise the Congressional bill to obtain State Legislative support.
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UTAH COUNTIES INDEMNITY POOL
THE US SUPREME COURT CLARIFIES QUALIFIED IMMUNITY In a six‐three decision that favors law enforcement officers, the High Court clarified its analysis of qualified immunity for law enforcement in a case decided in February 2012. In this case, the court reiterated a very high standard to overcome in order to defeat qualified immunity. Essentially, qualified immunity should only be defeated if no reasonably competent officer could conclude that the search warrant was reasonable. For a summary of the Court’s reasoning—facts, analysis, practice points—visit the UCIP website: ucip.utah.gov.
MEMBER OWNED PROPERTIES APPRAISED STARTING JUNE The Utah Counties Indemnity Pool has issued a Request for Proposals for Building Appraisal Services of Member owned properties to start June 2012. UCIP conducted a similar appraisal project in 2008 with all owned properties appraised by 2010. The values of appraised buildings have increased each year to guard against inflation of construction costs. It is anticipated that few additional buildings will be identified during the project as owned by members but not scheduled with UCIP. Older appraisals will be completed first and the project is anticipated to be completed over a three year period. Members have access to their most recent certified appraisal online at: ucip.utah.gov.
SUPPORTING MEMBERS by SUPPORTING the ASSOCIATION As a major sponsor of all Utah Association of Counties events, the UCIP staff will be available to its members at the UCIP Lounge Area, April 18‐20, during the UAC Management Conference at the Eccles Conference Center. Take a break, get all your coverage questions answered, schedule training, have a snack and take home a gift of thanks for your efforts in making your Pool a continued success. PO Box 95730, South Jordan, UT
84095-0730
801-565-8500
ucip.utah.gov
5397 S. Vine Street Murray, UT 84107