SALT LAKE CITY — A committee has approved a bill expanding Medicaid in Utah, a bill requiring anesthesia for abortions was advanced and Jazz owner Gail Miller says Utahns have "an urgent, moral responsibility" to address homelessness.

Committee approves bill extending Medicaid to Utahns in the 'greatest need'

A bill backed by Republican House leaders extending Medicaid coverage to Utahns in the "greatest need" because of homelessness, run-ins with the law, substance abuse or mental health issues won committee approval Monday.

"We have the opportunity to improve the lives of 16,000 of our fellow Utahns," House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, the sponsor of HB437, told members of the House Business and Labor Committee. "They need our help."

Dunnigan said his proposal to offer assistance to the poorest Utahns currently without coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law is "a measured plan. It has cost controls in it, and I think it's the appropriate step at this time."

The plan is the latest attempt by lawmakers to deal with the more than 60,000 Utahns in the coverage gap, earning below the federal poverty level but without federal health care subsidies because Utah has not accepted Medicaid expansion.

Charter school funding equity plan gets approval from House committee

Lawmakers advanced a proposal Monday they say will improve equity between charter schools and district schools.

The move would provide charters an additional $14 million this year, which would increase to $21 million next year, to put them on more equal footing with district schools for per-pupil funding.

"It's a bill about basic equity between charters and districts, because they're both public schools," said Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy. "It brings greater transparency to where the money is actually going."

Since charter schools do not have taxing authority, 25 percent of the property tax revenue earned by school districts goes to charters. But SB38, which passed in a unanimous vote by the House Education Committee, would create a new tax levy specifically for charter schools so districts no longer have to divert funding for charters.

That new tax levy would produce the same amount of revenue for charter schools as before, and it would leave school districts with the same amount they've historically been able to spend. And it wouldn't mean a property tax increase for taxpayers.

The bill now awaits final approval on the House floor, as well as approval from the Senate on recent amendments.

Last week's Legislative roundup:

Herbert won't back 'unconstitutional' abortion bill; Shopping bag bill advances

Gov. Herbert says a bill that intends to ban certain abortion procedures could be deemed "unconstitutional", a bill to make Utahns pay 10 cents per plastic bag advances to the Senate and the Utah legislature has tabled discussion on a Death with Dignity bill.

Bill to require anesthesia for abortions clears hurdle

A bill that would require women to receive anesthesia for abortions after 20 weeks of gestation cleared a Senate committee Monday and is on its way to the Senate floor.

Under current law, women can choose to have anesthesia administered to the fetus to reduce potential pain during the abortion.

SB234, sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, would require doctors to administer it.

At the bill's first public hearing Monday, debate centered around whether the science behind the bill was sound and whether the measure would create an undue burden on women seeking abortions.

Bramble said he intended to propose a bill banning abortions entirely after 20 weeks based on the assumption that fetuses can feel pain at that point.

But he abandoned his efforts after legal analysts advised him there would be "serious legal challenges" with that measure, he said.

SB234 doesn't infringe on a woman's right to abortion, but "if a woman is going to exercise that right, let's at least have the dignity to protect that child from the imposition of pain," Bramble said.

Opponents of the bill say the measure is based in unsound science.

Dr. Leah Torres, an OB-GYN and reproductive rights advocate, said fetal pain research is still inconclusive.

Secret shoppers could frequent Utah's state-run liquor stores

Secret shoppers could be frequenting Utah's state-owned liquor stores under proposed legislation that cleared a House committee Monday.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, wants to create a customer satisfaction program in the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which runs 44 liquor and wine stores statewide.

"If the state is going to be in the liquor business, which we are for now, we need to be on par with world-class retailers and do it right," he told the House Political Subdivisions Committee.

DABC being a monopoly that makes millions of dollars for the state, he said, gives lawmakers another reason for the program.

HB350 calls for the state Department of Administrative Services to hire secret shoppers to report on stores' cleanliness, quality of service, customer satisfaction and product availability. Eliason called it a "mini audit" each month.

The bill estimates it would cost administrative services $122,000 to start the program, including money for employee incentives. DABC would pay $54,000 a year to run it.

Sal Petilos, DABC executive director, spoke against the proposal, saying the agency already has regional managers who routinely check on the stores, though it has caused come "chafing" among workers who see it as micromanaging. A secret shopper program, he said, would further appear to employees as spying.

Juneteenth bill passes House unanimously

A bill that would establish a Juneteenth Freedom Day observance in Utah passed the House unanimously Monday.

HB338, sponsored by Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, would establish the holiday on the third Saturday in June "in honor of Union Gen. Gordon Granger proclaiming the freedom of all slaves on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas," according to the bill.

Hollins said Juneteenth has been celebrated for 150 years and is one of the oldest observance days in the United States. It is currently observed by 42 other states, she said.

Utah's Juneteenth Committee has been organizing celebrations in the state for the past 26 years, Hollins said.

Debate over SAGE testing continues in Utah Legislature

SAGE this year is once again the subject of scrutiny, debate and tweaking in the Utah Legislature.

The year-end exam, which was established by the Utah Legislature and developed by state education leaders, raised the proficiency standard for students in grades three through 11. Most schools will begin administering SAGE at the end of March.

But legislators continue to grapple with concerns over student effort on SAGE, whether annual test scores should be used in teacher evaluations, and even whether to do away with the exam altogether.

It's a debate that won't be totally resolved this year.

"Whether you like SAGE testing or whether you don't, this is a Utah test that in my opinion has a lot of possibility," Rep. Brad Last, R-Hurricane, said last week. "I think that we need to continue to work on it and refine it."

Lawmakers advanced a bill Monday that would give school districts and charter schools the option of not administering the test to 11th-graders.

Cottonwood Heights Democrat Rep. Marie Poulson, who is sponsoring HB200, said high school juniors would continue taking the ACT, a college preparation exam administered statewide.

While some schools may choose to continue administering SAGE to 11th-graders, the change could impact some students entering their junior year of high school this fall.

Jazz owner: Utahns have 'urgent moral responsibility' to address homelessness

As a person who lives and owns businesses downtown, Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller urged state lawmakers Monday to support the Housing and Homeless Reform Initiative, a plan to spread shelters and services across the Wasatch Front and solve problems at the Road Home.

"We have an urgent, moral responsibility to address this problem," said Miller, co-chairwoman of Salt Lake City's Homeless Services Site Evaluation Commission, which spent a year studying the location of current service providers.

Although Salt Lake County's and Salt Lake City's $27 million request to the Utah Legislature has been more than a year in the making, the issue took on new urgency Monday after an altercation near the city's largest shelter Saturday night that was followed by an officer-involved shooting of a 17-year-old boy and a large-scale disturbance on Rio Grande Street.

Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said the Road Home's community shelter, built for 300 people, houses more than 1,000 people any given night.

"That creates a lot of challenges in our city, some that you have been witnessing, probably, and maybe you don't know about. This legislation would be hugely helpful to us. We are in need of some funding to break up this population and create smaller resource centers to provide services," Biskupski said, addressing the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Standing Committee.

Breaking up the large concentration of homeless people in the state's largest emergency shelter would also curb criminal activity, she said.

"We know that drug dealers are coming in and infiltrating this very large population and preying upon them to sell drugs and preying upon them to buy drugs, and it's creating a whole other level of sub-issues in the city. If we could get your support and some funding to break ground or to look at our current facilities in a different way than we do today, I am confident that it would have a significant impact on the criminal activity that is happening in that neighborhood where the Road Home is," Biskupski said.

While HB436, sponsored by Rep. Francis Gibson, R-Mapleton, envisions funding for shelters and services, the legislation calls for a "statewide perspective" in addressing homelessness.

"It cannot be just about placing people in shelters. There has to be services and helping them with job skills, living skills, so on and so forth to help them become more self-sufficient to transition them from shelters to housing," he said.

Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche, Morgan Jacobsen, Daphne Chen, Dennis Romboy, Emily Larson,

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