SB 338 amends Utah law governing nonprofit entities, with a focus on which organizations are treated as “governmental nonprofit corporations” and what financial or compensation information they must disclose. The bill specifically excludes the Utah Association of Special Districts from the definition of governmental nonprofit corporation and clarifies that a private nonprofit organization that is not a public employees’ association is not required to post employee compensation information online.
The bill also expands the Utah Public Finance Website disclosure framework by expressly including governmental nonprofit corporations among the entities that must make public financial information available through the state auditor’s website. In practice, this means qualifying governmental nonprofit corporations must post financial records such as budgets, audits, and other documents used to allocate or account for public funds, while continuing to protect records classified as private, controlled, or protected under GRAMA. The bill takes effect May 7, 2025.
Impact
SB 338 amends Sections 11-13a-102 and 67-3-12 of the Utah Code. It narrows the scope of the governmental nonprofit corporation definition by carving out the Utah Association of Special Districts, and it removes private nonprofits that are not public employees’ associations from the category of URS-participating employers required to provide employee compensation information. At the same time, it adds governmental nonprofit corporations to the list of entities subject to public finance website reporting requirements, increasing transparency obligations for those organizations and directing them into the state auditor’s financial disclosure system.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly well received and noncontroversial. It passed the Senate committee unanimously, passed both Senate floor readings unanimously, and then passed the House unanimously as well. The voting history suggests strong bipartisan support and little visible opposition to the bill’s overall approach to refining nonprofit disclosure rules and public finance reporting.
Contention
There is little evidence of major contention in the available record, but the bill’s main policy tension is between transparency and administrative burden. Supporters of the disclosure provisions appear to favor clearer public access to financial information for entities that are publicly controlled or publicly funded, while the exemption for private nonprofits that are not public employees’ associations suggests an effort to avoid imposing compensation-reporting requirements on organizations that are not sufficiently governmental in character. The exclusion of the Utah Association of Special Districts from the governmental nonprofit definition is another targeted carveout that may reflect a judgment that this entity should not be treated like other government-controlled nonprofits for reporting purposes.