SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would increase penalties for child exploitation to a first-degree felony if the offender is in a special relationship of trust with the victim advanced, while a sweeping transportation bill was scaled back on Utah's Capitol Hill Monday.

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Bill would increase penalty for sexually exploiting a minor

A House committee Monday advanced a bill to increase the penalty for sexual exploitation of a minor in certain situations.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, the sponsor of HB476, presented the measure to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee alongside Shelley Coudreaut, assistant attorney general with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

"This bill is targeted toward the worst of the worst of child exploitation offenders," Coudreaut said.

Sweeping transportation bill scaled back, still hikes fees on electric, hybrid vehicles

The sweeping bill from the Legislature's Transportation Governance and Funding Task Force has been scaled back significantly, but it still includes vehicle registration fee hikes for electric and hybrid cars.

After action by the House Transportation Committee on Monday, there are no other tax or fee increases in SB136, and the extra $120 charge for registering electric vehicles, $50 for plug-in hybrids and $20 for other hybrids will be phased in over three years.

Unchanged in the bill, however, is big shift in how the Utah Transit Authority is managed. The 16-member board of trustees would be replaced by three trustees appointed by the governor who'd run the agency day to day.

Utah House committee approves bill to raise bar for early elementary school reading

At least 60 percent of Utah third-graders would have to read at or above grade level under new legislation approved Monday by the House Education Committee.

SB194, sponsored by Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, would raise the current benchmark and ensure that struggling schools receive technical assistance to improve reading mastery.

Reading proficiency by the end of the third grade is a key factor in later educational success, Millner said.

Utah Senate committee defers action on controversial water reforms

While many lawmakers agree something needs to be done to address the thorny issue of extraterritorial jurisdiction and water resource management, few can agree on a path to get there.

Instead, a bill excluding first-class cities such as Salt Lake City and Sandy to exercise wide watershed management beyond their boundaries — such as the Wasatch Canyons — received no votes and instead was deferred for further study.

The move to pass on HB135 by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, came even as he put in a 2 ½-year delay for its implementation for those at the table to take an even bigger dive into the issue.

Salt Lake students converge on Capitol to call for better air

Students from various Salt Lake schools gathered at the Capitol on Monday to demand that the Legislature act on air quality legislation before the 2018 general session ends at midnight Thursday.

The students came from the Madeleine Choir School, Rowland Hall, Salt Lake City Open Classroom, the McGillis School and Judge Memorial Catholic High School.

Their fellow students shared short talks about quality of Utah's air.

Bill to fine Utah cities lacking affordable housing advances

The bill that would fine Utah cities and counties lacking affordable housing to help pay for homeless shelters in other cities advanced Monday despite opposition.

But changes to the bill may be coming.

HB462, which would require cities and counties with less than the state's average of affordable and low-income housing to pay sales tax dollars to help fund the operating costs of homeless shelters, passed favorably out of the Senate Revenue and Taxation committee Monday. It now goes to the Senate floor.

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