SALT LAKE CITY—The legislative session ends on Friday so between now and then lawmakers will be looking at a flurry of bills. Some have become controversial while others have moved quietly through and now sit on the governor’s desk. 

HB267 prohibiting unions to use collective bargaining passed early in the session and SB296 that would give the governor and Senate the authority to select the Supreme Court Chief Justice, passed in the Senate and now moves to the House. 

“There are several bills regarding the judiciary,” said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful. Some have already been changed and some are in the process of being changed. There’s a lot of discussion about them up here.”

Another bill, HB300 that would impact vote-by-mail, passed out of the House, he said. “I wasn’t all in support of the first bill. Voters would have had to go request to vote by mail. Now if a voter misses five elections in a row they would have to go in person and show their ID.”

Anyone who votes by mail now has to sign it and put the last four digits of their drivers license number (on the ballot), said Ward. “Matching just the signature on file is accurate about 95% of the time but there is some rate of error. This will make it clear cut.”

Ward said most people who emailed him just want to vote by mail. “It might be that voters register when they renew their drivers license. Every eight years you have to go in and get a new picture, etc. to renew so updating your voter registration, etc. could be part of the process or by going once to the county building to make a request.”

A few of Ward’s bills have already passed. HB129 Adoption Records Access Amendments, “allows an individual who is adopted as a minor child to access records associated with the individual's adoption if the individual is 18 years old or older.”
“I’m happy about that,” he said. 

HB340 Solar Power Amendments also passed on Friday. This bill “modifies provisions related to residential solar energy generation by creating a new category for small portable solar generation devices.” “This has to do with plug in solar power,” said Ward. “It’s pretty widespread. They have it in Europe, but it’s still not allowed in Utah code. It’s not contracted with Rocky Mountain Power. It’s no different than a toaster and we’re not asking for a discount on power. Utah will have to try and work with other groups.”

Two of Ward’s bills HB88 and HB90 that did not pass are both related to housing affordability. However, he didn’t get a lot of support from cities. “Most of the time we (cities) get along well but on those bills we disagree,” he said. “Housing is expensive. Utah is the worst in the nation. Young adults can’t afford to buy a home in Utah. There are a lot of rules that cities put in place to protect the status quo. Making a change is hard.”

Supply and demand still helps, Ward said. “If a homeowner has a lot and they want to build a small accessory building (ADU) and rent it out someone else could live in it and enjoy lower market value but most cities stop them.”

HB90 provides for areas zoned as residential to allow 6,000 square foot lots. “In West Bountiful you can’t build a home unless it’s on an acre lot,” he said. “That’s the difference between 50 homes and 30 homes. People are looking for homes that are close to their jobs, transit and all of those things.”

It’s not right to restrict the property owner when more homes could be there, said Ward. “They would still be fairly expensive but you’d have more. Cities don't want it.” 

It didn’t pass out of committee so it won’t be this session, he said. “But the problem is not going to get better – only worse.”