During the 2019 Utah Legislature, the Summit County Council got regular updates from Council Member Kim Carson, and Deputy County Manager Janna Young.
The Council got a final briefing this week.
Looking back at the session, Kim Carson told KPCW they have a good relationship with their representatives on Capitol Hill.
“I know Park City is actively involved with contacting them,” Carson said. “I know our Council is. Even the Health Department regularly held a pre-legislative session with legislators to help inform them of what’s going on. Y’know we’ve worked with them very cooperatively. This year we were very pleased to have two priority bills passed that we’ve been working on for quite a while. And we had a lot of support,”
But the session didn’t lack for controversy. House Member Tim Quinn, who represents Wasatch County and Park City, proposed a tax reform bill that made headlines, and was ultimately put off to an interim session.
Carson said she wasn’t happy with how the bill was formulated.
“It was done behind closed doors,” Carson continued. “They brought it out later in the session. That was intentional and I think they saw the result of doing it that way. So although the legislative session is over, we’re gonna be working very closely with UAC and with our legislators to stay involved in the tax reform process because they plan on bringing that back in a special session probably in August. So, there will be a lot of interim meetings between now and then. So, we really need to pay close attention and make sure we’re communicating back to our constituents on what some of the ideas are, so we can in turn give feedback to our legislators on how this is how it will really work, and the types of effects it could have.”
She said the first version of the bill had some unintended consequences
Finally, a bill regulating amusement park operations was opposed by Summit County but was approved by lawmakers. Carson said they’re certainly in favor of safety, but they hope that smaller operators, like those at the Summit County Fair, can have some input.
“The bill was really written for large amusement projects like Lagoon or the larger State Fair,” Carson explained. “In the bulk of these rural communities throughout the state you just don’t have the time or the resources to go through some of the steps they requested now. I’m not really familiar with the ins and outs of the bill. And even on the committee they formed, they didn’t have a representative from these smaller communities. So that’s what we really want to push for. Just so that is looking possibly at future amendments to the bill, or how it will actually work, that they’re aware of the impacts it will have on small communities.”
