Low-income advocates worry that a policy change could force them to pay to rent meeting rooms at the Capitol, putting even more stress on their already strained budgets and hampering their efforts at the Legislature.

The Capitol Preservation Board has told nonprofit groups that they no longer will get free use of meeting rooms at the Capitol complex.

During the last legislative session, the fees were waived. But now, partly because of tightened state budgets, said Dave Hart, architect of the Capitol, groups will be on the hook for fees that start at $50 per hour.

That bothers some. "It's democracy. It's the people's house and we paid taxes to build it," said Melissa Smith of the Community Action Partnership of Utah.

Linda Hilton, director of the Coalition of Religious Communities, which does low-income advocacy at the Legislature, said the change could be harmful.

"It will shut down our organization on the Hill," she said. "I just think it's another way to cut low-income advocates out of the public process."

Hilton and other low-income groups have held weekly meetings at the Capitol while the Legislature is in session to train volunteers and coordinate their message. It's crucial to their work, she said, and it's impractical for them to meet in the noisy cafeteria.

Hart said he is responding to the Legislature, which approved a new fee schedule for Capitol room rentals last session and also directed the preservation board to get more of its budget from fees and less from taxpayers.

The board still is deciding how to implement the Legislature's directive and has scheduled a meeting next week to discuss whether to continue to grant waivers to nonprofits or perhaps charge them a reduced rate.

Hart says his preference is to find a way not to charge nonprofits. But that would require lawmakers to find a way to cover that expense when they meet next January. Until then, the groups would have to pay rent.

For Hart, it boils down to this: "Is it the taxpayers' responsibility? Because ultimately they have to be the ones to maintain these things."

gehrke@sltrib.com