3rd Week of Session 2024 | Marsha Judkins for Utah Legislative District 61

Scroll down to see the results of the poll, or you can take some time to read about a few bills on the way. (There are links to all the bills passed by the House in the third week at the bottom of this email.)

HB 128 Tobacco Cessation Amendments: This is not my bill, but I voted for it. This bill allows for minors to access and participate in certain tobacco and nicotine cessation services through state and local health departments without a parent’s consent. Currently, these services–assessment, phone counseling, and web-based resources–are offered only with parental consent. Our youth are saying that many kids are not using these resources because they don’t want to admit to their parents that they are vaping/smoking, and our data shows that a lot of kids call to sign up for resources, but hang up as soon as they find out that their parents have to consent.

My support for this bill stems from my involvement with a Utah County youth-led advocacy and prevention group called Outrage. (Brief plug for this group–they are amazing kids! Their mission is to empower youth to fight back against tobacco, nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drug misuse. They sponsor an awareness night each year for policy makers and come up to the Capitol to meet legislators and champion their cause.) These youth brought my attention to the policy in this bill and I was going to run with it, but Rep. Thom Peterson beat me to it. The goal is for kids to stop using nicotine and tobacco, and I hope that this bill will help.

My Bills

HB0149 Earned Income Tax Credit Amendments: This bill makes the earned income tax credit (EITC) refundable. There are decades of data to support that a refundable EITC has both short and long term economic and social benefits, and that it helps families to rise out of intergenerational poverty. I presented this bill to the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, and it did not pass. It was disappointing but not unexpected.

HB0259 Juvenile Interrogation Modifications: I presented this bill in Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, and it passed out unanimously. It is an update to a bill I sponsored two years ago that requires a parent, guardian, or friendly adult to be present in a juvenile interrogation. This bill allows for the parent or friendly adult to be present online and requires an interpreter if the child or parent needs one. It requires a law enforcement agency to make an audio or visual recording of a juvenile interrogation, which is already required for adult interrogations and is standard practice. It also gives guidance to the courts for when the audio/visual equipment fails or when the statute isn’t followed.

Survey Results:

Two weeks ago, I asked my constituents to fill out a survey asking how budget surplus money should be appropriated this session. Thank you to those that filled it out. Seventy one people responded, but every person did not rank every issue. I know this is not a statistically significant sample, but I found the responses very interesting. The items that ranked the highest were property tax relief, public education, supporting vulnerable families, and water conservation.

Here are the results.

On a scale from 1 to 5, please rate the following appropriations in importance, with 1 being your highest, or 1st priority, and 5 being your lowest.

Forms response chart. Question title: General income tax cut
. Number of responses: 56 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Social Security tax cuts
. Number of responses: 54 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Property tax relief
. Number of responses: 58 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Supporting vulnerable families, e.g., address the Disabilities waiting list, mental health, food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.. Number of responses: 61 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Public Education
. Number of responses: 55 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: School security
. Number of responses: 46 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Special Education
. Number of responses: 50 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Housing affordability. Number of responses: 58 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Water conservation, including preserving the Great Salt Lake. Number of responses: 55 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Transportation. Number of responses: 50 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Public and active transportation. Number of responses: 48 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Increase pay for state employees and contracted employees whose current salaries are below sustainable levels (turnover is high and positions cannot be filled, e.g. correction officers at the State Prison). Number of responses: 53 responses.

A fun part of my week:

One of the things I love to do is meet with students. These kids are from Freedom Prep Academy. We talked about what goes on in the Capitol during sessions and the roles representatives play in the session. They asked great questions and were so fun to talk with.