After last year’s clash between Capitol Hill and Salt Lake City over a ban on pride flags at public buildings, a Republican lawmaker says his bill is a win for “neutrality.” …
A GOP lawmaker from Salt Lake County says he is trying to “stop the flag wars” touched off last year by the Utah Legislature’s move to ban Salt Lake City and others from hoisting unofficial banners over schools and government buildings.
Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, says his HB302 doesn’t repeal any of the controversial flag law passed last session, but instead seeks to strike a new balance on the hot-button impasse in the name of “neutrality.”
Utah cities would only be allowed to adopt one official flag but as many ceremonial flags as they want under his bill. That official flag — subject to state review — would then be the only one allowed to fly above courthouses, schools, airports or public transit facilities.
Cities could fly their ceremonial flags on other buildings as they wish.
With resistance from some Democrats, the measure had cleared its initial House committee and the full House chamber as of Friday. It now awaits Senate debate.
The lone official city flag authorized for adoption under the bill would be subject to state review by a legislative oversight panel, MacPherson said, but only to ensure “government neutrality.”
MacPherson gave the examples of a city adopting an overtly partisan “Make America Great Again” flag or an anti-Joe Biden “Let’s Go Brandon” flag as moves that would be barred by state oversight under the neutrality principles in his bill.
“We’re just saying we want [cities] to have whatever ceremonial and other types of flags they’d like,” he told colleagues in mid-February. “But when it comes to the specific regulated flags, the state has an interest in ensuring that they meet the neutrality standards.”
Stopping short of a full endorsement, a spokesperson for Salt Lake City said in a statement that “local authority is a foundational principle for elected officials in representing their constituents.”
“We appreciate that this legislation maintains that authority,” the statement continued.
The House measure, meanwhile, has drawn a neutral stance from the influential Utah League of Cities and Towns as well as a statement of caution of Equality Utah, the state’s leading LGBTQ civil rights organization.
“We appreciate that HB302 would largely allow for individual expression in the form of flag display by government entities,” said the group’s policy director, Marina Lowe. “We still have concerns about legislative control over municipal and county-level government action.”
Last session’s HB77 openly sought to bar the pride flag over all government buildings, according to its Republican sponsor, Rep. Trevor Lee of Layton.
Just hours before the law resulting from HB77’s passage took effect, Salt Lake City adopted its own versions of the pride, transgender visibility and Juneteenth flags as official city flags in order to keep those banners flying over City Hall and tacitly defy the ban.
This latest bill to limit one official city flag to be flown over certain types of government buildings passed a House committee 8-3, with three no votes from Democratic lawmakers.
HB302 then passed the House floor on a margin of 57-12, with 11 opposing votes from Democrats and one from Rep. Leah Hansen, R-Saratoga Springs.
The measure sat in the Senate Rules Committee late Friday as the legislative session nears its March 6 close.
Source: Utah News