The House voted unanimously Thursday to pass HB50, which formally removes from state code the “obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman.” The measure now goes to the Senate.
The Legislature created the position in 2000, saying it would provide resources for residents to curb pornography in their neighborhoods and online. Attorney Paula Houston was hired and given a budget of $150,000 a year, and became the nation’s first and only “porn czar” in 2001.
“Of course, the whole thing was a public-relations nightmare and kind of made Utah the laughingstock of the nation,” Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, cosponsor of the new bill, said recently.