Miranda Jones Cox, WFRC government affairs staff, briefed the committee on several state legislative items that could affect local transportation policy and funding. She said the current session felt “quieter” on appropriations because the legislature’s recent multi‑year investments in multimodal transportation mean many projects are moving into implementation.

Bills highlighted
- SB 174 (Transit and transportation governance amendments, Sen. Harper): clarifies roles for UTA executive leadership, the board of trustees and local advisory committees and adds oversight provisions for UDOT on fixed‑guideway capital development.
- HB 229 (Corridor preservation amendments): a technical change clarifying corridor preservation funds may be used for transit projects administered by UDOT and UTA.
- HB 454 (Local government fees / transportation utility fee): WFRC staff said the bill would put procedural parameters on municipal transportation utility fees (TUFs); a related bill would exempt certain nonprofit religious institutions from a TUF. Miranda said WFRC has been supportive of HB 454 and was monitoring committee action.
- SB 195 (Transportation amendments, Sen. Harper): earlier versions would have required cities to plan and build connections across water conveyances (canals); sponsors and staff revised the provision to instead require updates to transportation elements of general plans to identify priority connections and report back on station‑area planning progress after five years.
- SB 290 (Bicycle lane safety amendments): would define a bicycle lane as a designated lane for active‑transportation users and create moving‑violation provisions for driving or obstructing a bike lane except under specified conditions.
- SB 96 (Advanced air mobility): directs UDOT to conduct outreach and create a toolkit for local jurisdictions related to advanced air mobility technologies.

Why it matters
Miranda said the legislature has put substantial one‑time funding into transit, trails and other multimodal investments over the past 4–5 years; this session’s work is largely focused on building those investments into projects and on technical or policy clarifications. She cautioned that bills addressing population estimates (HB 379) could shift apportionment formulas used for some road funds and local option sales tax distributions if enacted.

Questions and next steps
Miranda noted WFRC’s bill and appropriations trackers and offered the committee WFRC’s weekly government‑affairs updates during the session. She said staff would monitor committee hearings (for example, HB 454 was in committee the same day) and report back to Transcom as bills move.

Ending
The committee heard the legislative update and staff encouraged members to use WFRC tracking resources and weekly government‑affairs bulletins for bill status.