UAC Sets 2012 Legislative Priorities

With the 2012 Legislative Session just around the corner, the Utah Association of Counties is preparing to represent the interest of Utah’s counties and those counties’ citizens at the Legislature. Below are UAC’s top four Legislative priorities for the 2012 Legislative Session:

1 Dedicated Beer Tax to Fund Condition of Probation Prisoners
For decades, the counties and the state have been unable to come to a fair process for paying for condition of probation prisoners. These are state inmates who have been tried on state charges, sentenced in state courts to time in the state prison. However, the judge suspends the prison sentence and grants probation on the condition that the prisoner spends time in a county jail for a period of up to one year. Current state code requires the state to pay 50 percent of the cost of housing an inmate in state prison to the counties for a condition of probation inmate; although, the Legislature has, to date, never appropriated the total amount.

UAC feels strongly that if the state is ever to meet its obligation, at the very least a portion of the costs associated with condition of probation inmates will have to come from a dedicated revenue source. For that reason, UAC is supporting legislation that would appropriate a portion of the Utah State beer tax towards paying the costs of housing condition of probation inmates in county jails.

2 Online Travel Companies and the Transient Room Tax
Currently, hotels calculate and charge taxes on the full price paid by their customers. They then remit that tax in its entirety to the appropriate jurisdiction. Online travel companies (such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline), in contrast, charge customers an amount for rooms but remit taxes based not on the full price paid by the customer, but rather on their wholesale rate—the amount they agree to pay hotels—and keep the balance. This practice is harmful to both local hotels and Utah’s travel and tourism industry as collected transient room tax is spent on promotion.

The Utah Association of Counties supports legislation that would require online travel companies to remit transient room tax based on the price the customer pays for rooms. UAC opposes any legislation that would codify the current remittance practice of online travel companies.

3 Protect the Tourism, Recreation, Cultural, and Convention Facilities Tax
Over the past several years, UAC has led out in a coalition of travel and tourism industry players, local governments, and a portion of the restaurant industry to protect the TRCC tax from serious erosion from private interest groups. The Utah Association of Counties reaffirms its position to protect the TRCC tax from groups who would alter or eliminate this important tax for Utah’s tourism and recreation industries.

4 Amendments to Indigent Defense
Counties are responsible for providing defense representation for criminal defendants who are indigent. Counties are also responsible for providing defense resources (e.g. expert witnesses) to defendants who are indigent. In recent years, counties have seen a number of instances in which a defendant hires private counsel to represent them in the case and then later approaches the court with a request that they be found indigent for the purpose of requesting the county pay for defense resources. These costs can be substantial.

UAC supports legislation to better define the Indigent Defense Act to avoid extra, unexpected, non-contractual costs for defense experts.

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