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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Legislation to collect data on women- and minority-owned businesses is being sought by the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs.
"We need this data to make good public policy and better decisions," Director Luz Robles said.
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and Rep. Mark Wheatley, D-Murray, are working separately on drafting legislation for collecting the data.
Robles said most states already track the information.
Wheatley believes the state Department of Commerce would be the best agency to collect the information. The ethnic office's strategic plan calls for the state Tax Commission to do the work. Bramble said he's looking for the "most painless and efficient" way of collecting the data.
Wheatley sponsored a similar bill in 2005 that died in the House Rules Committee.
"It's a needed bill because the women-owned businesses are growing at such a tremendous pace, and so have minority-owned firms," Wheatley said. "Even though it's a challenge and a risk, minority-owned and women-owned businesses can be successful here in Utah."
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said the bill is neutral of any political agenda.
Gov. Jon Huntsman supports the proposal, said Mike Mower, the governor's deputy chief of staff and spokesman.
Huntsman also supports codifying and funding the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System, another bill the ethnic office has labeled a priority, Mower said.
The ethnic office also will be monitoring bills to repeal driving privilege cards and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. Huntsman supports the existing system in both cases, Mower said.
Absent from Robles' priority list, announced last week, was a hate crimes bill. Previous bills have repeatedly failed, in large part over including gays among the protected categories, such as race and religion.
Robles said she knows that stepping up penalties for crimes based on bias or prejudice is an issue that the ethnic community feels very strongly about.
"If it comes up we will be tracking it," she said.
Longtime sponsor Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, is looking to present a new version of the bill this year, without the protected categories.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
