12 legislators will make trip to China
Also, Utah panel will meet over privatizing state-run operations
Last year, government officials from Liaoning province visited Utah, and state legislative leaders signed mutual pacts that now requires a return visit by state legislators, the Legislative Management Committee was told Tuesday.
House Speaker Greg Curtis and Senate President John Valentine said they personally were not going Curtis visited China last year with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Valentine said he's been twice to China.
Instead, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, will head the 12-person Utah delegation, with six senators and six representatives going on the weeklong trip at the end of July.
It will cost around $1,600 per person, with the state picking up the airfare and hotel costs, the province paying for all food and ground transportation, said Mike Christensen, head of Legislative Research and General Council. That will be a total bill of around $20,000 for the state.
Legislators' spouses can go, but the state won't pick up any of their costs, leaders decided.
In other action, leaders will allow a special subcommittee to meet up to six times this year to study privatizing various state operations and looking at areas where the state is now unfairly competing with private industry.
Prisons, the state mental hospital and other state operations have been discussed as potential privatization efforts for years, said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper.
Senate Majority Whip Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, said he's sat on the state's privatization committee for several years. While a number of issues have been discussed, no real-world attempts to get the state out of areas usually run by private businesses have happened.
Finally, the Legislature will now start archiving recordings of House and Senate floor action. Since the Legislature moved into its temporary quarters in a new office building behind the Capitol while the 90-year-old structure is remodeled, legislative staff has video-taped the sessions.
But staff was rerecording over old floor sessions with new ones to save costs. Now the original tapes will be saved. It will cost $7 plus staff time to make a tape copy of a floor debate, $10 to make a DVD of floor action.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com
Comments
- Luxury home market stalls 12:02 p.m.
- Kirk Douglas classic on DVD 11:38 a.m.
- Zion fire moving southeast 11:36 a.m.
- More school-money than expected 11:24 a.m.
- Virginia 'Freedman's' project done 11:12 a.m.
- Teen relive Mormon trek 11:12 a.m.
- Oldest American to scale Mount Everest 11:07 a.m.
- Knicks sign first-round pick 10:59 a.m.
- Armstrong third, Leipheimer fourthe 10:58 a.m.
- 6.0 quake in China 10:43 a.m.
- Jazz brass debate Millsap match
- LDS seminary principal arrested
- 2 men cited on LDS plaza
- Jazz finances not quite so bleak
- HBO defends U. logo use in 'Love'
- Reactions on Boozer speculation
- Cash for Clunkers to get rolling soon
- Utahns among Texans' investors
- Man spots his stolen car
- Jazz rookies quiet Thunder youngsters
- LDS seminary principal arrested
261 - Jazz brass debate Millsap match
168 - Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
141 - Jazz talking Boozer trade?
140 - 2 men cited on LDS plaza
127 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
124 - Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
99 - Fairness of BCS debated
81 - Chaffetz eyes challenging Bennett
76 - Letters: Single-payer system best
75
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
Guess what?!! The rest of the world thinks MORMONS ARE NOT MORAL!!!
@If I were Obama | 7:25 a.m. So funny. LMAO with this comment. Just...
"Fight the Power" is trying to make a civil rights analogy here that...
To imply that seniority is any substitute for effort under Jerry Sloan is...
Both for us fans and Jazz management. Millie was a great 2nd round pick,...
Like so many laws suits, Utah will loose. This use isn't any violation of...
"The Sutherland institute study shows that 96% of the immigrants lead crime...
continued: But most important, her gaffes reveal one who is woefully lacking...
suffers from a terrible case of 'god complex' wherein he thinks he is god the...
Biden or Sarah Palin? Looking at a catalogue of Biden’s gaffes, one is...


You can be the first to comment on this story.