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HB191 • The House voted by a wide margin Monday to repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students who can't, through a parent or legal guardian, prove they have paid state taxes for three consecutive years.
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, had fought to repeal the in-state tuition rates for the entire undocumented population, but agreed to compromise with an amendment offered by Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, who chose to include undocumented students who were paying taxes through a job or whose parents were gainfully employed and paying taxes in Utah.
"One of the big arguments... is the reason that illegal immigrants get in-state tuition is that they pay taxes and a person from Idaho doesn't pay taxes to the state," Wimmer said. "So show they have paid those taxes. You have to balance compassion with personal responsibility and I believe this bill does that."
The bill, HB191, passed 44-28 — but not before a lot of attempted changes. It now goes to the Senate.
Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, made an impassioned plea to keep the in-state tuition for undocumented students, saying it would benefit nobody to sideline that population from getting an education. He argued that those who supported Wimmer's bill would be "on the wrong side of history" and cited the examples of school lockouts of blacks in the South.
"It turned out to be wildly popular at the time and over the years has turned to shame and embarrassment," McIff said.
Wimmer's bill appeared to be dead on Friday when the Herriman Republican said he wouldn't continue to carry the bill with amendments or changes. Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, had a substitute bill similar to Kiser's amendment, but Wimmer at the time turned it down. Wright's substitute bill passed 38-36.
Wimmer then spent time looking to see if he could flip some votes and, when it appeared he couldn't, accepted Kiser's change.
"The amendment is a good compromise," Wimmer said. "I'd rather have the original bill, but I won't be selfish."
Ron Mortensen, co-founder of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, also said the compromise was "fair." He said that in digesting the suggested change to the bill, it allowed supporters of Wimmer's original proposal to feel comfortable with it.
"Basically it says if you've been paying the taxes, prove it," Mortensen said. "We think that's fair."
The bill now moves to the Senate.
But Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, said the bill would be patently unfair. She said that if, through a job loss, the parents couldn't provide the tax proof, those children would be excluded from the in-state tuition rate.
She also presented a story of a woman who called her office and said she was brought to Utah when she was 2 and went through the public school system and graduated from the University of Utah. Arent said the woman met her now-husband there and is now a citizen of the United States.
But the representative said had the in-state tuition not been in place, she couldn't have attended.
Currently, a semester at the University of Utah for a full-time Utah resident is $2,645 per semester. For full-time out of state tuition, it jumps to $8,313.