PROVO — Utah State Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, is making it very clear that he has one priority for the 2007 legislative session, which begins in 10 days — passing a bill to give university status to Utah Valley State College.

Valentine, the bill's sponsor, told the Provo City Council Thursday morning that Utah Valley residents and city leaders should know up front that, at least for him, other projects take a back seat.

"I need the community to support and to recognize that this is going to be the priority of the Senate president in this session," Valentine said.

"That's more than just lip service," said Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo. "Typically, the Senate president and the speaker of the House run very few bills. That bill file was opened by Sen. Valentine, and when the Senate president opens a bill file, that sends a very clear message about how serious he is."

Valentine raised the issue during a breakfast meeting with Provo Mayor Lewis Billings and the City Council after Billings told Valentine, Bramble and Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, that the Utah County Commission likely will seek state money to help build a new convention center in Provo.

Valentine and Bramble said that might be a problem because the Legislature passed a bill last year that allows Utah County to use a hotel room tax for a convention center. Asking for additional funding for a Utah County project might look like the county is trying to grab too much pork while Senate leadership is dominated by the county.

Billings said the county would seek $2 million for the conference center. The legislators responded by underscoring the size of Valentine's UVSC bill and the difficulty of getting it passed because it will cost the state $10 million a year.

"This is a big deal, to ask for this much funding on an ongoing basis," Valentine said. "It's my top priority, and I think that opinion is shared by the entire Utah County delegation, but we'll find out in a meeting on Saturday."

Valentine's bill proposes university status for UVSC in July 2008. Why pass the bill a year earlier? Valentine wants to give UVSC time to add undergraduate and graduate degrees and increase the number of full-time professors so it is prepared for university status.

UVSC likely would get a name change and would be a teaching university.

Billings outlined Provo's legislative priorities for Valentine, Bramble, Lockhart and new Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, who attended the meeting before Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. appointed him to his seat later in the day. Those priorities included university status for UVSC.

Provo also wants the Legislature to fund widening of I-15 in Utah County from the Point of the Mountain through Provo in the next phase of construction, not just to mid-Orem, as is currently proposed.

"If we just solve the problem piecemeal through Orem, we're going to suffer a lot of pain," Billings said. "We've already suffered a lot of pain, and if we don't address this by 2011, we're going to be in a world of trouble."

Provo leaders also told the legislators they support the creation of a Utah Lake Commission, reinstatement of some eminent domain provisions and the right of cities to offer recreation services like recreation centers and golf courses.

The city opposes legislation that would strip or limit authority of elected local officials to make land-use decisions in their jurisdictions.

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