Pub. 6 2016-2017 Issue 2

9 Legislature as they do for the State Board!), we had a very difficult time getting HB 409 drafted. Once HB 409 was drafted and published on February 20, we knew there would be no opposition to the bill per se. Rather, our problemwas going to be the clock. The Legislature cannot pass any bill after midnight on day 45 of the General Session. February 20 was the 29th day of the session, and it still needed to get through two committee hearings and two floor votes. The House Education Committee passed the bill on February 27, and the full House approved it on March 2. The Senate Education Committee passed the bill on March 6. No one had spoken against the bill, nor had anyone voted against it. But by this time in the session, hundreds of bills are in a similar position. They’ve passed either the House or Senate, and await a final vote in the opposite body. By this point in the session, leadership in each body sends lists between the House and Senate prioritizing which bills the other body should consider first. At this point our goal was to get HB 409 on one of those lists. Because our bill sponsor, Representative Brad Last, is an appointed member of leader- ship, we got HB 409 on the last list. Nervous that time would expire before the Senate could vote on HB 409, we pulled out every trick we could muster to move the bill up the list but to no avail. Time ran out on HB 409. Rep. Last will sponsor HB 409 in the 2018 General Session, and it will pass, probably in the first week of the session. It is good policy and no one opposes it. On technical legislation that requires input from staff members putting a budget together, sometimes the most fearsome adversary is the clock. A Solution in Search of a Problem Many legislators think they have the “key” to solve some problem. That key inevitably takes the form of a bill. Every year some of these bills are just nutty. For the last several years one legislator has tried to get a tax break for the purchase of feminine hygiene products. Others are completely wrong headed. Representative Paul Ray sponsored HB 305, Utah Youth Sports Safety Policy. While the bill title sounds wonderful, its actual contents were much less desirable. Rep. Ray wanted to require that every high school, charter or district, with any school-sponsored extra-curricular athletic team hire a full time athletic trainer. Importantly, multiple schools couldn’t jointly hire an athletic trainer; each school needed to have its own full time trainer. In fact, one draft of the bill delayed the date by which schools would have to comply, but then required schools to replace a retiring teacher with an athletic trainer. So you would have had to replace your retiring English or physics teacher with a full time athletic trainer, even if you only have a golf team. Workingwith a coalition from the School Boards Association, the Canyons School District and Intermountain Healthcare, we reached out multiple times to Rep. Ray, and he was adamant that every high school with any kind of athletic program needs a full time athletic trainer. When he was unwilling to back down, the same coalition made sure his bill went to the House Education committee, which was almost certain to reject it. Then we spoke with every member of the Education committee to guarantee that they would reject the bill. When Rep. Ray presented his bill to the committee, he could tell that committee members would not approve his bill, so he did not ask for a committee vote, which effectively killed his bill. That being said, we expect Rep. Ray will bring some variation on the same bill back in the 2018 General Session. Hopefully it’s a more reasonable proposal that solves an actual problem, rather than offering a solution in search of a problem. Impor tantly, multiple schools couldn’t jointly hire an athletic trainer; each school needed to have its own full time trainer. In fact, one draft of the bill delayed the date by which schools would have to comply, but then required schools to replace a retiring teacher with an athletic trainer.