Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Expanding Medicaid, raising the state gas tax and moving the state prison are some of the top issues Utah lawmakers said Wednesday they will tackle in the upcoming legislative session.
Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes said at a morning breakfast that lawmakers will approve some expansion of Medicaid this year, but House Republicans worry that the estimated cost of helping thousands of the poor get health coverage keeps changing.
Hughes and other top lawmakers debated various ways the state could expand that health coverage, including Republican Gov. Gary Herbert's plan to enroll the poor in private health care plans. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox promoted that plan on Wednesday; lawmakers would need to approve it in the session that starts Jan. 26.
Here's a look at some of the topics lawmakers dove into Wednesday:
MEDICAID
Salt Lake City Rep. Brian King, the House minority leader, said his fellow Democrats see Herbert's plan as a compromise and would prefer a full expansion of the government health care program as designed under the federal health care law.
King referred to former Utah House speaker Becky Lockhart, who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive disease. Lockhart representatives have said she is critically ill but have offered few details.
"She's got access to health care, thank heavens," King said. "What if she didn't? Wouldn't that be a heartbreaking circumstance that someone as critically ill as she is at this point didn't have access to the kind of health care that most of the people in this room take for granted?"
Hughes, a Draper Republican, said he's concerned about what the state's costs will be down the road, but he thinks lawmakers will adopt some kind of plan that expands coverage for those most needy.
"We have resolved to do something," Hughes said.
EDUCATION
Utah's income tax, which funds education, was cut to 5 percent before the Great Recession. Now Democrats and some Republicans say it may be time to raise it.
Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, said education is the greatest public infrastructure the state can provide, and Utah needs to put more money into it.
"We need to reinvest and I would say that it's time to raise taxes," Davis said.
Republican Ralph Okerlund, the Senate majority leader, said the Senate GOP has been been talking about raising starting salaries for Utah teachers to attract higher-qualified candidates. Okerlund didn't say how Utah might pay for that but acknowledged the budget is tight and the state has other pressing needs.
PRISON RELOCATION
During the session, a state commission is expected to recommend to lawmakers a place where Utah should rebuild its main prison. Legislators decided last year that the current 700-acre facility in Draper is aging and occupies valuable real estate. The commission is eying three sites, but residents and local officials near each location oppose the facility, arguing it will hurt economic development and home values. They say the prison should stay where it is.
"At the end of the day, I believe we will see that prison move, and when it does, it will have been a very collaborative effort," said Hughes, who sits on the prison commission.
Davis said lawmakers should look at using government-owned land instead of the private parcels they're considering buying. If Utah buys private land to build a new prison, Davis said that land will no longer be taxed, sending less money to local governments and school districts.
___
Follow Michelle L. Price at https://twitter.com/michellelprice.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
