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Show i; Utah's Fortieth ij I LEGISLATURE i1 Sen. Dixie Leavitt Rep. Dewain Washburn i' '! State Capitol Bldr. ! !' Salt Lake City, Utah 84114 !' Utah's fortieth lejislative session ses-sion is rolling through its third week; according to Senate Majority Ma-jority Leader Dixie Leavitt, "It's the smoothest running and most efficient legislative session I've witnessed in my 11 years as a legislator. Mr. Leavitt also stated that the legislature is using its time very effectively. A new inova-tion inova-tion in legislative efficiency is that every legislator is on an appropriations sub-committee. The sub-cemmittees listen to funding requests from various departments in government. This keeps all legislators busy during the first weeks whili bills are still in committee. After Af-ter these appropriation subcommittees sub-committees turn in their recommendations, recom-mendations, the Joint Executive appropriations committee, ci which Senator Leavitt is a member, makes the final de-cisin de-cisin as to what is included in the apropriations measure to be presented to the legislature. ' Senator Leavitt has introduced introduc-ed several bills already this session. One of these bills deals with the planning and zoning of cities and counties. This bill, which is in agreement with almost al-most all county commissioners and mayors in his district, enables en-ables the local officials to make more zoning decisions, instead of having it done on the state level. Another bill he has introduced introduc-ed is a measure that will add an office wing to the state Capitol Cap-itol building. Another bill would create regional state centers. cen-ters. These centers would be locatd in various aras of the state and would put state offices of-fices at one central location so that they could serve the public pub-lic with more efficiency. Senator Leavitt is preparing to introduce a bill that would remove the state property tax and replace th's tax with some of the Federal Revenue staring money that the state has obtained. ob-tained. Senator Leavitt said that he is "uncommitted" on the measure mea-sure in the legislature to restrict re-strict the number of out of state hunters. He said that he) is very interested in improving Utah's hunting, but he is cautious cau-tious about this bill because it could possibly cause the loss of some Federal aid. This bill would limit the number of out of state hunters to 20 thousand. Last year 30 thousand out ol Rep. Dewain C. Washburn's bill to limit the number of out-of-state deer licenses sold in Utah has been passed by the House 61-10. Rep. Washburn debated the bill in the Natural Resources Committee Monday and it was reported out of Committee Com-mittee favorably, though by request re-quest of some legislators, will be delayed a week from going to the floor, so that the Senators Sen-ators may have time to hear from their constituents. Arguments used to gain support sup-port in the house for this bill were: The deer herds are limited by the range available to them. We have no way to increase range and as a result the number num-ber of the deer herd is limited. The size of the herd is going down each yar. The number of resident hunters hunt-ers is increasing over 2,500 each year. The number of resident licenses has increased 36,000 since 1960. The bow and arrow hunters are also increasing. In 1970 the non-resident licenses li-censes sold totaled 19.500 and in 1972 the non-resident li-censes li-censes numbered 29,500 or an increase of 10,000 in two years, or a 50 increase. If we allow unlimited numbers num-bers to continue to over shoot the herds, we will find ourselves our-selves without any of the revenue rev-enue from the license fees because be-cause we will have- no deer to hunt and no one will purchase licenses, either resident or non lesident. The increase in the fee brings us into line with surrounding states, Nevada $80.00, Montana $70.00 Arizona $70.00, Idaho S75.00. The following states now limit the number of out of state licenses sold; Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona and Colorado. The revenue received under the bill would be approximately approximate-ly $100,000.00 above this year. The Bill is written so that the number could be reduced further by the Fish and Game Division if they determine a need to do so. We can't expect our state residents to ever support an increase in-crease in resident hunting hunting fees, if we- don't take some steps to assure them of some game to hunt. Rep. Washburn oays that Beaver County residents who Continued on Page Tour HERE'S MORE ABOUT LEGISLATURE WASHBURN, from page one wish to see this bill passed in the Senate should contact Sen. Dixie Leavitt, State Capitol Bldg., Salt Lake City. Rep. Washburn said that his district which includes Sevier and Piute as well as Beaver, is the hotbed for opposition to the Equal rights bill. A group nicknamed "HOTDOG" which got it origin in Sevier County is paving the way throughout the country. He said 400 citizens citi-zens crowded into a committee meeting to debate the bill. It was debated on the floor on' Monday. He would like a response re-sponse from Beaver County on this bill. Rep. Washburn asks for some local input on HB-11 which permits per-mits counties to raise from S25.000 to $75,000 projects put out to bid on contracts. He said all County Commissioners in ihe district are on record favoring favor-ing the change. A group of contractors con-tractors are lobbying against the bill. Rep. Washburn welcomes input in-put from Beaver, Piute and Sevier counties, addressed to State Capitol Bldg., Salt Lake City. LEAVITT, from page one state hunters bought a $50 deer license. This bill would also raise the cost of an out of state license to $75 dollars. Here is where the loss of funds could be caused. The Federal government gov-ernment suggests a 1 to 5 ratio in the cost of in state to out of state licenses. Already Utah has a 1 to 10 ratio. A $25 dollar raise would make the ratio 1 tc 15. This could cause Utah to lose Federal funds because so much of the deer hunting areas are on Federal ground. Senator Leavitt is desirous of knowing how the public feels about this bill. He would appreciate letters let-ters from his constituents on this and any other matter. |