-- 2025 Interim Study Items - Fire Chiefs .pdf

-- 2025 Interim Schedule.pdf

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2025 General Session of the 66th Legislature

Good morning chiefs, 

With the session behind us, we wanted to provide a quick summary of the 2025 legislative session. Below, we have highlighted a few of the major bills we were working on. We will do a full rundown during our legislative meeting at the end of the month. We will also start to make a list of the items we will need to work on during the interim (yes, that includes ambulances).  If you have questions before then, please feel free to reach out to us at any time. 

This was quite the year for us all - we were actively working on more major bills this year than any other that I can remember. We truly appreciate the amount of input, feedback and participation. With all your assistance, we were able to do some really great work this year. Thank you. 

HB 48 S. 3 (Rep. Snider) Wildland Urban Interface Modifications addresses Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) properties. Counties must enter into a cooperative agreement with the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands (the division) to assess a fee to be deposited into the Wildland-Urban Interface Prevention, Preparedness, and Mitigation Fund. A portion of this fee will be retained to pay implementation costs and counties may hold a lien on high risk WUI properties for past due fees. Counties must adopt WUI building code standards and the division may choose not to cover certain local government costs in cases of noncompliance. WUI Property and Casualty Insurers must use boundaries provided in the division’s wildfire risk assessment mapping tool to determine which properties are high risk, though additional fire hazard data may be used to set rates or underwrite high risk WUI properties if it complies with the division’s boundary determination. The division will create a program to evaluate high risk WUI property using a triage scale to determine its classification and the fee to be paid by the owner (estimated to be approximately $52 per high risk property owner). This data will be accessible to WUI Insurers. The division will offer resources to owners to improve their property’s classification. 

HB 65 S. 3 (Rep. Snider) Firefighter Cancer Amendments expands the list of cancers to 15 presumed to arise from service as a firefighter, excluding those related to cigarette, tobacco, or marijuana use. Cancer screenings will be provided to firefighters after seven years of service and before 8 years, after which screenings will be administered regularly depending on the firefighter’s age. Out-of-pocket screening costs will be covered by the firefighter’s department. Starting Jan. 1 2029, public fire departments/organizations will provide health care benefits, including cancer screenings, and will provide reimbursement to firefighters for co-payment, deductible, coinsurance, or other out-of-pocket expenses paid by firefighters to the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. The Division of Industrial Accidents will also conduct a five-year study determining which cancers are contracted through firefighting.

HB 267 S. 1 (Rep. Teuscher) Public Sector Labor Union Amendments prohibits a public employer from recognizing a labor organization as a bargaining agent, entering into collective bargaining contracts, or using public money/property to promote or deter union organizing. It excludes new labor org. employees from participating in Utah Retirement systems. The Membership Council will advise and coordinate with the Utah State Retirement Board on policies impacting members of various retirement systems. Of the 15 members of The Council, one will be a representative of the Public Safety Retirement System and one will represent paid professional firefighters who are members of the Firefighters’ Retirement System. HB 267 requires labor orgs using dues collected by public employers to provide annual accounting to org. members and the Labor Commission. The state risk manager will also administer professional liability insurance for disputes between public employees and employers based on demand.  

HB 301 S. 3 (Rep. Maloy) Ambulance Provider Payment Amendments sets a base rate for ground ambulance transports and prohibits ambulance providers from charging beyond established rates. This “base rate” includes charges for transportation, supplies, procedures, and the administration of medication, though not the cost of the medication itself. HB 301 prohibits balance billing and requires insurers and workers’ compensation to allow for established rates. Insurers must accept allowable base rate expenses and will make payment for claims directly to the provider, including out-of-network providers. The Office of the Legislative Auditor General will conduct an audit of ground ambulance providers, paramedic providers, and insurance companies regarding rates and payment, if prioritized by the Legislative Audit Subcommittee. 

HB 307 (Rep. Snider) Wildfire Funding Amendments combines several funds into the Utah Wildfire Fund and specifies the fund’s sources/components and permissible uses. It includes a coordination clause with HB 48 in which the Wildfire Urban Interface Prevention, Preparedness, and Mitigation Fund is to be replaced with the Utah Wildfire Fund.  The Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands will create criteria for WUI community wildfire preparedness plans and report annually the fund’s balance, yearly expenditures, and yearly deposits to the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee.

HB 391 S. 3 (Rep. Nguyen) Emergency Medical Services Revisions directs the Trauma System and Emergency Medical Services Committee to provide a yearly fine schedule recommendation to the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (BEMS). BEMS must consider these suggestions and issue an annual fine schedule for potential fines for violations by licensed emergency medical service providers. Collected fines will be deposited into the Emergency Medical Services Critical Needs Account created by this bill. BEMS will allocate no more than 25% of account funds quarterly to fund critical needs grants. 

SB 25 (Rep. Harper) Postretirement Reemployment for Emergency Services Workers modifies provisions of the Utah State Retirement and Insurance Benefits Act to increase the earnings limits for postretirement emergency service workers. It allows emergency service workers to earn compensation in various forms including regular payment, tax credits, vouchers, or cash without cancelation of their retirement allowance so long as the total annual amount does not exceed the lesser of $15,000 (currently indexed to about $20,000 based on annual adjustments) or one-half of the retiree’s final average salary.  

SB 215 S. 2 (Sen. Owens) Emergency Medical Services Modifications requires and gives exclusive authority to counties and municipalities (C/M) to ensure a minimum level of ground ambulance interfacility transport services within their jurisdiction. C/Ms must review an emergency medical service (EMS) provider’s service every four years. They must also enter into an interlocal agreement with a public or private provider to provide backup interfacility transport services when the primary provider is unavailable. Backup agreements must be shared with relevant dispatchers and health care facilities. Upon the expiration of 4-year EMS provider licenses, a C/M must offer first right to provide interfacility transports to the existing 911 ambulance provider. If the current 911 provider and interfacility transport provider are not the same, the current interfacility provider’s license will be valid until the latter of two years after the enactment of this bill or the day of the next formal review by a C/M (which cannot take place more than three months before a provider’s license expires). The C/M will issue a formal request for proposals to analyze alternative EMS and interfacility providers, both for-profit and government operated. SB 215 removes the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (BEMS) from a C/M’s EMS provider selection process, except to verify that the provider meets minimum requirements. BEMS has investigative authority and may discipline non-911 ambulance providers. Willfully disobeying a valid subpoena or cease and desist letter from BEMS is made a class B misdemeanor. 

SB 327 S. 4 (Sen. Fillmore) Public Sector Labor Organization Amendments clarifies in greater detail definitions for terms regarding public sector labor organizations and delineates private employees’ right to collectively bargain with employers. A coordination clause makes definitions found in Section 34-32-101 supersede those found in Section 34-32-101 in HB 267.

BILLS THAT FAILED 

HB 525 (Rep. Cutler) Clean Truck Amendments failed but will be worked on during the interim.  It prohibits the Division of Motor Vehicles (division) from accepting new registrations for vehicles in certain counties (first or second class counties in an ozone nonattainment area) if the vehicle has a gross weight rating of over 14,000 lbs or was made before 2010. Owners of prohibited vehicles may be exempt if they certify that they own the vehicle as sole proprietor or sole member of a business entity, that they own only one prohibited vehicle, and that the vehicle is used for construction. Tax credits for purchases of qualified heavy duty vehicles will be made available if the owner certifies that 50% of the miles driven by the vehicle annually will be within the state of Utah and provides proof that the vehicle was sold to a person outside the county and the vehicle’s permanent disability. 

SB 67 S. 1 (Sen. Owens) Local Option Sales Tax Amendments failed due to running out of time. The bill would have allowed certain local governments to impose a sales tax to fund emergency services. A governing body may tax up to .33% if it holds a public hearing and subsequently passes an ordinance/resolution approving the tax, or up to 1% with the approval of a majority of the governing body and voters in the political subdivision. Political subdivisions may use these taxes to fund emergency services in areas where the tax is not imposed. It also repeals legislation permitting the imposition of a rural county health care facilities tax to fund emergency services.