- A Utah transportation bill stalled in the House Transportation Committee with a 4-4 vote.
- Concerns included state control over Salt Lake City roads and third-party towing data.
- Lawmakers believe the bill will be revived with a tight window to pass; legislative session ends this Friday.
SALT LAKE CITY — An omnibus transportation bill that's gained scrutiny over proposing greater state control over roads in Salt Lake City faced a shocking setback over a different provision in the massive bill.
In a surprising move, SB242 failed to advance out of the House Transportation Committee on Monday, with members split 4-4. The vote took place after residents and industry experts voiced concerns over the state's involvement in managing the capital city's roads and a section tied to a third-party system that towing companies would be required to use, during a lengthy discussion.
However, lawmakers told KSL afterward that they expect the bill to be revived before the end of the legislative session on Friday.
SB242 cleared the Senate with a 20-7 vote on Thursday, largely along party lines. That followed a meeting where residents brought up issues with the provision that prohibits Salt Lake City from conducting traffic projects on major roads in the city, while giving the Utah Department of Transportation a larger say on projects on other important roads, while mitigating impacts on certain recent projects.
That issue was present again on Monday, as some described the lingering pain they've felt from vehicle collisions that happened to them or to loved ones in their neighborhood. They argued that people are injured or killed "far too often," and traffic calming helps improve safety.
Salt Lake City leaders also came to the hearing to speak to the bill, saying they're aware of the concerns of traffic impacts and safety repercussions that they're working to navigate as the bill goes through the legislative process.
"While we prefer local control over our roads, we understand that there is statewide interest in the capital city," said Salt Lake City Councilman Chris Wharton. "We're hopeful that the provisions in this legislation will add more engagement to the already robust community process that Salt Lake City uses for all of our transportation projects."
However, another section of the latest bill version appeared to be a sticking point in the bill.
It requires vehicle towing operators to enter vehicle and timing information into a database controlled by a third-party towing dispatch vendor. This would be used to collect backend data to help handle complaints about towing charges and other disputes, Utah Highway Patrol officials said.
While language in the bill prevents the company from entering "personally identifiable information about the owner" into the database, industry experts said the state's selected vendor openly says it can sell data it collects. They say most of the data that would be collected by a third-party vendor is already collected by towing companies anyway.
"We don't want to be compelled by state statute to break federal statute in reporting personal information," said Neil Schultz, president of the Ogden Weber Towing Association. "I know that language has been modified within the bill (to refine what types of information are collected), but there's no provision to patrol that or penalize."
When pressed, the bill's sponsor, Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, said he hasn't found a "good, clean way" to include a penalty for violations of the data requirement.
The split vote took place after questions about that section of the bill, with little debate. While it's not the outright end of the bill, the vote puts a long list of proposed transportation items also included in the bill in jeopardy of being approved this year, given that this is the final week of the legislative session.
Harper said he was open to adjustments to address concerns raised by the towing industry before the vote. Other lawmakers told KSL that they believed the bill would be brought back to the committee on Tuesday, where it will get a second chance with more committee members. Four were absent for Monday's vote.
Any changes would have to be approved by the House and reapproved by the Senate by the end of Friday before going to Gov. Spencer Cox's desk for final clearance.
