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Show Statehouse Report ... Southern Solons Seek to Retain Setup For Most of State, But Add One Judge By C. iSHARP Senators from southern and southeastern Utah fought Friday to prevent losing one district judge from their area in a proposed propos-ed reshuffling of judicial districts of the state. The reshuffling is proposed propos-ed by SB 62 which is aimed at equalizing the work load of judges and preventing delays de-lays in handling cases in the congested metropolitan area. Sen. Omar B. Bunnell, D-Price, D-Price, proposed an amendment amend-ment which would provide for an additional judge for the Third District with headquarters head-quarters in Salt Lake City. He also would transfer Daggett and! Summit counties coun-ties from the Third District and add them to the less congested Second District with headquarters in Ogden. Retain Efficient Setup All other counties would retain their present setup. Senator Samuel J. Talyor, R-Moab, agreed! that more judges are needed in Salt Lake City. But that is no reason to disturb the present efficient system in the rest of the state, he declared. He argued that some of the $2 per hour University of Utah students who had cqmpiled data from which SB 62 was drawn "were not accurate." The two Seventh District judges, Fred W. Keller and Henry Ruggeri of Price, were reelected only last November for six-year terms and might just as well be kept busy during the remainder re-mainder of their terms, he said. . ; Wants Carbon With Sanpete .Grouping Sanpete and Carbon counties together under these judges "is the only thing that keeps the counties together, he argued further. Sen. Bunnell said that although al-though Seventh District judges have fewer cases to try, they have great distances distanc-es to cover. Cases involving Navajos with interpreters normally require a full day per case, he said. Sens. Dixie Leavitt, R-Ce-dar City; Kendrick, Har-ward, Har-ward, RfRichfield, and G. Stanford Reese, R-Gunnison, supported Sen. Bunnell's amendment. The amended bill was passed pas-sed by a 23-1 vote, with four senators taking a "walk" for the vote. The amended hill thus was advanced ad-vanced to the third reading. Sifting Committee Named Senate President Haven J. Barlow, R-Layton, announced an-nounced Friday afternoon the appointment of a six-meimlber six-meimlber sifting committee which will have the power of life or death over the Kg accumulation of bills awaiting action. Sen. Robert F. Clyde, R-Heber R-Heber City, majority " whip, is chairman of the sifting committee. The other members are Sens. Leavitt, Charles Welch R-Salt Lake, Reed Bullen, R-Logan, majority leader, and Merrill Jenkins, D-Plana City, minority whip. The House sifting committee commit-tee appointed the previous week consists of Reps. Glen H. Thurston, R-Morgan, chairman; J. Dean Hill, R-Bountiful, R-Bountiful, Vance W. Aagard R-Fountain Green; Royal T. Harward, R-Loa; Delia L. Loveridge, D-Salt Lake, Lor-;in Lor-;in N. Pace, R-Salt Lake, and Stanford P. Darger, R-Salt Lake. Nine Tax Changes HB 93, which would make mining company officers liable li-able personally for payment ,of net proceeds tax on their mines, now has been passed by both houses of the Legislature Legis-lature and appears to be assured as-sured of final enactment. The bill had been resisted strenuously by Atlas Corp. which claimed that the present pres-ent law requiring filing of a bond to insure tax payment, is sufficient. However, Kennecott Copper Cop-per Corp. reportedly has shifted1 its position and now is supporting HB 93 with the understanding that SB 241 also will be enacted. SB 241 will give all metal mining companies the same advantage now enjoyed only by uranium and vanadium mining companies. Uranium and vanadium mining companies now are subject to net proceeds tax for only one year after they cease operations. Other metal me-tal mining companies are liable for taxes for two years after closing down. This is on the formula fixing fix-ing most of their valuation at twice their average net proceeds for the past three years. Wants Travel Promotion Gov. Calvin L. RamptOn' Feb. 14 blasted as short sighted a recommendation by a subcommittee of the Joint Appropriations Committee Com-mittee to cut the appropriation appropri-ation for travel promotion down to $500,000. "This would be a lower advertising budget than that of several of the larger stores in Salt Lake City," he said. He recommended! appropriating appro-priating $2 million for travel tra-vel promotion for the next two years. This compares with $1.5 million appropriated appropriat-ed two years ago, with only $1,343,000 being available. The governor quoted figures fig-ures supplied by the University Uni-versity of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research Re-search showing beneficial effects of the stepped up travel promotion program. Utah's travel-tourist income in-come is growing at about twice the national average and road tax revenue has gone up 69 per cent, he said. |