The Senate: Legislators greeted with optimism, surplus
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Jeff DeMoss
Standard-Examiner staff
jdemoss@standard.net
S
ALT LAKE CITY -- With three cracks of the gavel, the 2007 Utah State Senate convened Monday for a 45-day legislative session that promises to be a busy one, with more than 100 Senate bills and resolutions already on the table, and many more House bills likely on the way.
The seven Top of Utah senators, all Republicans, have introduced bills addressing everything from unemployment benefits to highway speed limits, though none of their bills were addressed on the floor Monday.
"Let us work as a team in determining the laws and policies that will be best for our state this year," Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said during the session's opening address. "Future generations will look back to this time and pass judgment on the choices made by this legislature."
The first day of the session did not bring the heated debates that will hit the floor as the session progresses, but senators are bracing for some long discussions in the days and weeks ahead.
"There will be a lot of weighty issues," said Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, while imploring individual senators to remain respectful and understanding of each other in times of conflicting ideas.
With a $1.6 billion surplus on the line, "there's a lot of speculation that this session will be contentious," Bramble said. "We all have different shades of opinion."
After an opening prayer, Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem, the 29 senators spent the early part of the day handling introductions, adopting rules, and dealing with the other formalities that precede the actual process of legislating.
Some brought children and other family members, lending an informal air to the proceedings, a common theme for the first day of the session.
In the afternoon, they addressed a few bills, which advanced with little or no opposition. SB 4, sponsored by Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, seeks to clarify and tighten Utah's drunk driving laws. It passed unanimously, with some minor concerns raised.
The Senate adjourned an hour early after addressing two bills and one joint resolution.
In honor of the civil rights holiday Monday, they also saw a presentation from the Utah Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission featuring a speech from Forrest Crawford, a Weber State University professor and diversity assistant to university President Ann Millner.
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