HB 229 Utah House · 2026 General Session

Restricted Account Modifications

HB 229 modifies rules for two state restricted accounts: the Tobacco Settlement Restricted Account and the Electronic Cigarette Substance and Nicotine Product Proceeds Restricted Account. It updates how funds are allocated when legislative appropriations exceed available revenue (requiring sequential, partial funding until exhausted) and adds a sunset review requirement for electronic cigarette account provisions before their automatic repeal. The bill makes technical corrections to ensure consistency but does not appropriate new money. These changes primarily affect state agencies that manage tobacco-related funding, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the State Tax Commission.

Issues: ✓ Budget & Taxes

Bill status passed 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Jan 2026

House Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Feb 2026

Governor

Introduced Jan 20, 2026 Last action Mar 7, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Substitute #1 → Substitute #2 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill updates how money from tobacco and electronic cigarette settlement accounts is spent and managed. It changes the language to clarify that the Legislature must explicitly state its intent for each funding request and adds a process to automatically transfer funds if the requested amounts exceed available money. The bill also simplifies the rules for handling shortages by removing complex 'discretionary' tiers and consolidating the order in which funds are distributed.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on the Tobacco Settlement Restricted Account and the Electronic Cigarette Substance and Nicotine Product Proceeds Restricted Account, but the mechanisms for distributing funds have been streamlined and clarified.

FISCAL

Replaced the complex 'discretionary appropriation' tier with a direct rule: if the Legislature requests more money than is available, the Division of Finance must distribute funds sequentially until the account is empty.

REQUIREMENT

Added a new requirement that the Legislature must include specific 'intent language' in every appropriation to clearly link the funding to the specific program or purpose.

TECHNICAL

Corrected a reference error in the Electronic Cigarette account section where a program description was accidentally repeated instead of referring to a different subsection.

Added a Senate Sponsor name (Evan J. Vickers) and updated the document timestamp to reflect the latest version.

Floor votes · House Feb 10, 2026

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 12, 2026

Introduced

Senate/ 1st reading (Introduced)

upper

Feb 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

House/ passed 3rd reading

upper

Jan 30, 2026

Lower · Passed

House/ comm rpt/ substituted [House Revenue and Taxation Committee]

lower

Jan 29, 2026

Lower · Passed

House Comm - Favorable Recommendation [House Revenue and Taxation Committee]

lower

Jan 27, 2026

Committee

House/ to standing committee [House Revenue and Taxation Committee]

lower

Jan 20, 2026

Introduced

House/ 1st reading (Introduced)

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor