Legislature raises treasurer's pay

Some action Monday by the Utah Legislature:

• State Treasurer Ed Alter will get a 22 percent pay hike, from $81,000 a year to $98,895, if the state Senate goes along with the House, which passes HB304 Monday.

House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said that Alter is underpaid. A quarter of his small staff already makes more money than he does. And treasurers in Salt Lake, Davis and other large counties make more than does Alter, who has held his post for a record 26 years.

The treasurer's pay would be tied to 95 percent of the governor's, which now sits at $104,100.

Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, tried to amend the bill include the state auditor, so that Austin Johnson's pay would also be tied to 95 percent of the governor's. But fellow House members voted down that amendment. Johnson's pay will stay at $83,500 a year.

In recent years, legislators have tied the pay of the attorney general and lieutenant governor to 95 percent of the governor's pay.7

HB304 passed 72-1 and now goes to the Senate.

• The House on Monday unanimously voted to increase the penalties involved in drive-by shootings, most often associated with gang warfare.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, a police officer, proposes that the driver of a car in a drive-by shooting can immediately have his driver's license taken away.

Also, the penalty for shooting from a vehicle where no one is harmed becomes a third-degree felony; a drive-by shooting where someone is hit, but not seriously injured, becomes a second-degree felony; and if a person is hit and seriously injured, it is a first-degree felony, similar to an attempted murder charge.

Wimmer first amended his bill to say that if someone is lawfully firing a weapon on a firing range, then he is not violating the improper discharge of a firearm.