Bill delayed to ban animal gas chambers; Lockhart remembered on Rare Disease Day

Bill delayed to ban animal gas chambers; Lockhart remembered on Rare Disease Day

(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to ban gas chambers at animal shelters around Utah was delayed until next year. Becky Lockhart was remembered as World Rare Disease Day was commemorated at a gathering.

Social services advocates form around the state sent a letter to lawmakers, urging them to restore funds diverted to other causes. And an initiative pushing for better math literacy among high school students is gaining momentum in the Legislature.

Senate endorses bill for money to promote local Utah arts, culture

A Senate committee got a small taste of culture Friday during a hearing on a proposal to give more money to Utah arts organizations.

The Madeleine Choir School sang and Utah Symphony violinist David Porter played, letting their performances serve as their testimony for SB194.

Porter was headed out skiing when he received a call to attend the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee meeting.

"I realized I needed to sacrifice my ski day for this," he said.

Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, is proposing to create the Arts and Culture Business Alliance, which would administer up to $1 million a year to promote and encourage development of the arts throughout the state.

Committee OKs education funding bill for qualifying families

Qualifying Utah families experiencing intergenerational poverty could access up to $1,500 a year for educational expenses under a bill approved by a Senate committee Friday.

SB262, sponsored by Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, would allow working parents of modest means to apply for income tax reimbursements to be used for approved educational expenses in Utah's public education and higher education systems. Seventy five percent of the funds must be used for children's educational expenses.

The Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee voted to send the bill to the Senate for its consideration.

Bill to ban gas chambers at animal shelters delayed until next year

A bill to ban gas chambers for animal euthanasia in Utah will be delayed until next year’s legislative session.

A Senate committee unanimously voted Friday to place SB197 on a master study list in an interim committee for more in-depth consideration after listening to comments from Humane Society officials and animal control officers.

The bill would prohibit Utah animal shelters from using carbon monoxide gas chambers to euthanize animals and establish lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital as the only lawful method.

“None of us want to think about our (animals) being euthanized,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross. “But I think if we have to do it, we should do it in the most humane way possible.”

Gene Baierschmidt, Humane Society of Utah executive director, said SB197 will transfer to an interim committee due to the need for more exhaustive debate with animal control officials, but the society “stands firmly that we need to end this type of killing of animals in shelters.”

Bill seeks to remedy 'knotty' problem of math illiteracy

An initiative pushing for better math literacy among high school students is gaining momentum in the Legislature.

The Senate on Friday passed SB196, which would require students to fulfill additional math requirements in preparing for college and a career.

Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said her bill would help remedy a "knotty" problem of thousands of college students having to take remedial math courses, which don't count toward graduation but still hurt students' wallets.

Social services advocates urge lawmakers to restore earmarked revenues

Social services advocates called on Utah lawmakers Friday to restore earmarked revenues to the state's general fund to address urgent needs in social services and education.

"Robbing Peter to pay Paul has become an unfortunate pattern in Utah’s public finance decision-making,” Matthew Weinstein of the child advocacy organization Voices for Utah Children said at a news conference at the state Capitol.

Most of the earmarks are dedicated to transportation and water infrastructure projects, diverting resources from education, services for people with disabilities, and behavioral health treatment, the advocates said. The earmarks were established without identifying new revenue sources to fund them, an open letter to lawmakers said.

"Earmarking ties policymakers’ hands so they can’t adapt to the evolving needs of the state’s ever-growing and ever-changing economy and population,” Weinstein said.

The letter was signed by representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City's Peace and Justice Commission, Communidades Unidas, Community Action Partnership of Utah, Disability Law Center, Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities, National Alliance on Mental Illness - Utah, Salt Lake Community Action Program, Utah Housing Coalition, Utah League of Women Voters, Utahns Against Hunger, and Voices for Utah Children.

Becky Lockhart remembered on Rare Disease Day at Capitol

On Jan. 5, we got a potential diagnosis. On Jan. 6, they confirmed the disease. And on Jan. 17, Becky passed away.”

In a speech commemorating Utah’s second annual Rare Disease Day, Rep. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, again mourned the recent loss of House Speaker Becky Lockhart to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

The neurodegenerative disease is one of 6,800 diseases designated as “rare” by the National Institutes of Health. Though each disease affects fewer than 200,000 Americans, together they affect about 10 percent of the U.S. population.

“That someone as vibrant and as full of life as Becky Lockhart could be taken in two weeks, … that really focused our attention on what the devastating effects of these diseases can be,” Bramble said.

Bramble’s was just one of several emotional addresses delivered at Friday’s rotunda gathering, which recognized World Rare Disease Day.

According to organizing group Utah Rare, the goal of Rare Disease Day events "is to ignite the changes necessary within our state to bring that future vision to dawn. Crucial to its realization will be the partnerships forged between families, healthcare providers, industry and government.”

Contributing: Dennis Romboy, Marjorie Cortez, Katie McKellar, Morgan Jacobsen, Allison Oligschlaeger

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