SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah lawmakers closed out their annual session Thursday night after making big changes to the state’s liquor laws and backing off from major efforts to overhaul taxes and pass medical marijuana.
While legislators shied away from passing a broad medical marijuana program during their 45-day session, they did vote to allow research of medical uses of the drug. In the final weeks of the session, they discussed making major changes to Utah tax laws, including raising the tax on groceries, but decided they needed more time to study it.
Overall, legislators in the Republican-dominated statehouse hewed more closely to their conservative roots this year than they did in 2016, when they came close to passing a medical marijuana law and eliminating the death penalty. This year, Utah legislators voted to allow those as young as 18 to carry concealed guns, killed a plan to offer more comprehensive sex education in schools and passed rules requiring doctors to tell women that medication-induced abortions can be halted halfway through, despite doctors’ groups disputing the idea.
Five minutes before adjourning at midnight, lawmakers passed a bill reworking Utah’s polygamy ban, meaning those convicted under the bigamy law would face harsher penalties if they’re also convicted of other crimes such as domestic abuse.
Utah’s current polygamy law, which survived a recent court challenge from the family on TV’s “Sister Wives,” bars married people from living with an extra spouse or claiming to have a second purported “spiritual spouse.” The new measure makes it a crime only if someone lives with a claimed second spouse.
Two proposals took center stage this term - one that eased rules for hiding the preparation of alcoholic drinks in restaurants and another that gives the state the country’s toughest DUI threshold.
Both measures still need to be signed by Gov. Gary Herbert, but the Republican has said he supports them.
Utah leaders in recent years have strained to balance appeasing a growing population of non-Mormon drinkers and increased tourism while upholding a deep cultural aversion to allowing an “alcohol culture,” a perspective that stems from teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to avoid alcohol.
A longtime rule requiring restaurants to hide the mixing and pouring of alcoholic drinks would be relaxed under one proposal, though the barriers some restaurants use, nicknamed “Zion Curtains” may not go away entirely. The proposal allows restaurants to stop using a barrier - generally a frosted glass wall around a bar or a back room for preparing drinks - if they instead set up a child-free buffer-zone around bars. Most restaurants in Utah are not currently required to have the barriers because the last big liquor overhaul only applied the rule to restaurants built after 2009.
The new proposal requires all restaurants to pick one of several options to set up their bar areas so children are prevented from seeing drinks being made. Officials expect some restaurants may build or keep Zion Curtains because doing so could save money on renovation costs.
The Zion Curtains have been a target of the hospitality industry for years but past efforts to roll back the rule met stiff resistance from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church has been a powerful moral voice on state liquor laws and its stance on issues carries weight with Utah lawmakers, most of whom are members of the faith.
The success of this year’s proposal was fueled by support from the church, along with new alcohol abuse prevention programs paid for by a 2 percentage point increase in the rate Utah marks up the price on alcohol from the case price.
The proposal raises the markup to 88 percent for liquor and wine and 66.5 for beer with more than 4 percent of alcohol by volume that’s only sold in state-run stores.
The proposal has been billed by some as another step forward for Utah’s hospitality industry.
But some legislators said that tougher DUI standards will hurt tourism and sends a message that drinking is bad. The measure lowers Utah’s limit for a driver’s blood-alcohol content to 0.05 percent, down from 0.08 percent.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, said drivers start to become impaired with one drink and the measure will save lives.
Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, says Utah should not pioneer the harsher standard because it will exacerbate the state’s “weirdness factor.”
Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, disagreed.
“You come to Utah and you’re on our roads, you’re going to be safer,” he said. “So that should be an attraction for tourism.”
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Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed to this report.
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