We entered the 2024 legislative session without a proactive legislative agenda, but a role of making sure that nothing negative happened to our mission of providing good service for our clients and the general public. We ended the session with nearly a perfect score of not having anything negative happen while amending a number of other bills in a way that provided a net benefit for the construction sub-contractors.
HB 534, Boards and Commissions Modifications, was the bill that dampened a perfect score but also was amended to make a bad situation roughly acceptable. The Utah Legislature began the session in unison with Gov. Cox to shrink state government by eliminating many boards and commissions while also shrinking the size of the remaining ones.
To this end, at least three bills were introduced and passed, which did just that. These bills affected all state departments, divisions and offices. HB 534 originally combined the plumbers and electrician licensing boards, effectively eliminating one and reducing the size of the Construction Services Council by two, either the electrician or plumber not chairing the combined board and a public member.
Through several meetings, we convinced the bill sponsor, Rep. Cal Musselman, to allow both a plumber and an electrician to serve on Construction Services. While not the ultimate positive result we would have wanted, it was the best result possible.
Talent Ready Utah is continuing to move along making statutory changes in higher education in its goal of increasing the job and talent base of Utahns. Three bills were introduced and passed to assist in its mission. HB 346, Talent Ready Utah Program Amendments, provided for some minor and technical changes to the program. SB 122, Youth Apprenticeship Governance Structure, created a youth governance study while establishing the entities charged for the study. The bill also provides for the increased staffing needed for this next step of Talent Ready Utah (TRU). The bill calls out relevant participating employers as determined by the Governor’s Office, USBE, Workforce Services and TRU. All recommendations are to be reported to the United Economic Opportunity Commission by May 1, 2025. SB 192, Higher Education Amendments, a major higher education bill, allows TRU to create talent advisory councils for talent initiatives. In this massive bill, the talent advisory councils begins on line 2329. While construction is not specifically named, this bill does provide the framework for a council if TRU and the industry believe it is important.
Two bills were introduced that would have been harmful to the construction industry. HB 368, Apprenticeships on Public Works Requirements, and HB 458, Public Contracts Labor Amendments, were both introduced, but neither were ever heard in a committee hearing. As a matter of fact, HB 368 was substituted and became an entirely different bill when it was heard in a House committee. These bills were effectively kept at bay.
AGC worked with Blue Stakes and sponsor Sen. Dan McCay to introduce SB 145, Utility Easements Amendments. This bill was a product of more than one year of work, countless meetings, a lot of angst and, in the end, very little controversy. The bill that passed requires utility operators to create a statewide association to manage requests to utility operators to mark utility facilities before excavation and excavators to provide notice to the association before beginning excavation. The bill also describes the process for an excavator to notify others of contact or damage to a utility facility.
Three bills were introduced by others that we were initially unaware of, but were able to make amendments to either neuter the effect on our coalition or make amendments to benefit our members. SB 188, Professional Licensing Revisions, was a DOPL bill sponsored by Sen. Bramble to clean up some technical issues. We were successful in making two amendments to this section, as we had two necessary clarifications. Since The Builders Bid Service has terminated its operations, we amended the bill to eliminate them from the organizations providing training and inserting the American Subcontractors Association Utah Chapter. We were also able to clarify that UPHCA can provide training for HVAC as well. HB 483, Construction Trade Amendments, was introduced by a rural Utah contractor, allowing an increase in the amount of work a handyman can do without a license. The original bill increased the cost from $3,000 to $35,000, but we reduced that to $7,000 and changed language to provide more protection to our licensed plumbers and electricians. HB 518, State Construction Code Modifications, made modifications to the state construction code. Inside the bill were two provisions that we were successful in changing. First, we were able to redefine the language that E 100’s can lay electrical conduit. Also, the initial bill provided for a financial incentive for the use of mass timber in construction to the detriment of our concrete members. In the substitute, this provision was eliminated.
HB 58, Licensing Amendments, broadened DOPL’s licensing discretion to accept similar education or experience from outside the state and to issue a limited supervised training permit. This bill has little to no impact on our members.
There were two gravel pit bills introduced that were quite controversial. HB 502, Critical Infrastructure and Mining, was sponsored by Rep. Casey Snider, and the final bill changed dramatically from its first draft. It now requires the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining to study critical infrastructure materials operations that includes the location, size, production levels and the extent the current levels meet the standards of UDOT. The study will also include an inventory of potential new operations, while taking into consideration zoning, supply and future demand. SB 172, Protection Area Revisions, sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, would have granted vested rights for gravel pits — in addition to a host of other things, switched sponsors, was removed from multiple agendas, and was never actually heard. Hopefully, the proposed content of this bill will be assessed during the study in HB 502.
Finally, the legislature passed SB 69, Income Tax Amendments, reducing the state income tax from 4.65% to 4.55%.
