Utah lawmakers funded housing, education, transportation and water conservation, but buried those investments under anti-"woke" posturing 

• By Derek Carlisle

CAPITOL HILL—Flush with cash, rebounding from pandemic upheaval and facing generational challenges around housing, transportation and environmental decline, Utah lawmakers sprinted in January to enact their most deeply held priorities: banning transgender health care and creating a voucher program for private- and home-schooling families.

With those tasks achieved, the annual legislative session—which ended Friday—shifted to a scattered blast of culture war grievances: "divisive concepts" in schools; "pornographic material" in libraries; "manipulation" of the financial market through subjective investments; whether to count the unborn in traffic management; the differences between "racism" and "anti-racism;" and of course, the relentless pursuit of the most restrictive legislation possible on abortion.

But under the surface of those fights, the currents were relatively calm. A budget came together with little public squabbling between the two chambers, and lawmakers paired tax cuts—decreasing the levies on income and gasoline and boosting the dependent exemption for young children—with considerable increases in the funding for public education, transportation, water conservation, housing and other areas of critical government spending.

"I think it's been a phenomenal session," said Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton. "The number of bills, tax cuts, funding—record breaking in every regard."

The state also paid down some of its debts, retiring bonds related to highway construction and university and college facilities, and going one step further by establishing reserve accounts and funding formulas to avoid the need to borrow in the future.

"With what we've done the last two years, on top of this year, we should never have to bond again in this state for roads," said Rep. Mike Schultz, R-Hooper. "We really wanted to make generational investments that benefit us today, but really benefit our kids and our grandkids."

Schools Rush In
On paper, the 2023 legislative session looks pretty good for the Utah Education Association.

The teachers union asked for a 6.5% increase in per-pupil spending; lawmakers approved 6% with additional line-item appropriations that add up to the equivalent of an 18% increase. The union asked for $25 million in funding for at-risk students; lawmakers approved $25.9 million.

For years, educators have touted the need for optional full-day kindergarten to be expanded statewide. Not only did that finally pass in 2023, lawmakers funded it above the levels sought by the UEA.

A portion of teacher salaries was tied to automatic inflationary adjustments for the first time, and school grading—opposed from Day 1 by educators—finally met its end after an ignominious run that saw near-annual attempts to fix the law into something useful.

"It is very validating to have that off the table," said UEA President Renée Pinkney. "That [letter grade] is so demoralizing. We only control what happens in our classroom. We can't control all of the other compounding variables that our society brings."

But then there were the two "bookends" of the session, as described by Pinkney.

The first week saw lawmakers holding teacher raises hostage in order to pass a school voucher program. The final week produced a convoluted scheme that in 2024 will ask voters to choose whether to end the state sales tax on food in exchange for diluting constitutional language that restricts income tax revenue to spending on education.

"That has overshadowed everything," Pinkney said.

Education groups also had to spend another year swatting down and negotiating changes to a host of bills ostensibly aimed at school and curriculum "transparency," which to varying degrees insert parents, law enforcement and the heavy hand of the state into classroom-level materials and discussions.

Pinkney said the combined weight of those efforts carry an implication that teachers, broadly, are doing unacceptable things. She said it's a drain on morale and stands in contrast to how the state treats private schools and homeschooling, of which families can now apply for taxpayer rebates with little oversight over how those funds are spent.

"Those message bills are sowing seeds of doubt in public education and public educators," Pinkney said. "The micromanaging and the overregulation—in light of the fact that the voucher bill does not have any of that—is frustrating."

Currently, the UEA has taken no position on the food tax/constitutional amendment package after opposing its original version. While they and most education groups have opposed previous attempts to weaken the income tax earmark (Pinkney prefers the term "mandate"), negotiations with legislative leadership led to new amendment language that would enshrine the prioritization—but not exclusivity—of public schools.

"You look at the last four or five years, and education has been a big winner in this state," Adams, the Senate president, said. "It hasn't been because of the constitutional earmark, it's been because of the legislative effort to fund education."

Lawmakers have chipped away at the income tax earmark over time, first by adding higher education in the '90s and, more recently, expanding the permissible uses of the Education Fund to include services for children and individuals with disabilities. But recent years have also seen the development of a stabilization account, with the intent of buffering schools from the economic volatility that can see feast one year and famine the next.

It's that process being held up as a compromise solution, essentially trading a guarantee of all income tax revenue in a particular year (be it large or small) with a promise of predictable, reliable investment over time.

"This is a slow, steady increase in money," said Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden. "I think that's what brings the stability to public education that it needs."

With the public vote almost two years away, Pinkney said the teachers union will continue to negotiate with lawmakers on the precise wording of the constitutional amendment.

"We will still have an opportunity in the interim and during the next legislative session to make the language stronger," she said.

• Benjamin Wood
• Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, left, and Rep. Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, take questions from reporters on the final day of the 2023 legislative session.

Workin' on the Railroad

A $200 million line item will pay for the construction of a new FrontRunner station near the former State Prison site in Draper—set to become a so-called "15-minute" community where cars are not required for daily needs—and the ongoing double-tracking of the FrontRunner line.

Over 2022 and now 2023, the state has directed more than $500 million toward the double-tracking of FrontRunner, which could be completed in 2029 if the state is awarded matching grant funding from the federal government. And John Gleason, spokesman for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) said that "complete" refers to when trains would be able to run on a 15-minute frequency during peak hours, instead of the 30- and even 60-minute intervals currently in use.

"We're about 25% double-tracked right now and this would take it to 50% double-tracked in those strategic locations," Gleason said.

But a proposal by Gov. Spencer Cox to fund free transit fares for a year was dead on arrival, made all the more glaring by 2022's Free Fare February experiment being reduced in 2023 to only a 10-day stretch that coincided with the NBA All-Star Game.

Cox argued that removing the cost of transit fares would help families struggling with inflation and the high costs of gasoline, help to clean up the state's poor air quality and, potentially, help to reduce the need for perpetual highway expansion.

"We need to get more people off of the roads and onto transit, and there sometimes needs to be some incentives for people to change behavior," Cox said. "We saw it during Free Fare February last year—a significant increase in ridership. If we could do that for a year, we could change behavior, potentially, and get people used to transit for a longer period of time."

Schultz, the House majority leader, is a vocal critic of free transit fares. But he agreed with the need for transit to be more competitive with the private automobile.

"The way FrontRunner currently operates, I don't get on it, I wouldn't get on it," Schultz said. "But you start talking about [moving] 150 mph and getting from Ogden to Salt Lake in 10 minutes and Provo to Salt Lake in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that's what's going to get people on FrontRunner."

The Legislature also appropriated $150 million for transportation in the Cottonwood canyons, which will kick off Phase 1 of what will eventually become the controversial gondola to Alta and Snowbird. Schultz said that money will fund the construction of the planned "intermodal hub" at the mouth of the canyon—an artful UDOT phrase that means, in essence, a park-and-ride garage—to serve the "enhanced busing" that will run up to the ski resorts until the gondola is built.

Schultz said he would prefer to build a train up Little Cottonwood instead of a gondola, and joked that "we can't have good things because of environmentalists." A canyon "ski train" was considered—it would better allow for additional stops beyond the ski resorts and would make car-free skiing considerably more practical—but wasn't pursued due, in part, to objections over the assumed need for road widening in some recreationally and environmentally sensitive locations.

"Sooner or later the gondola has to happen; buses aren't going to solve the problem," Schultz said. "The goal, long-term, is to be able to get off of a plane at the airport and get to skiing and never have to get in a car."

Cox was similarly critical of the way that pro-environment barriers make it difficult to build the kinds of projects that would get cars off of roads. He said it's an increasingly bipartisan challenge that goes beyond Utah and one that he's raised in conversation with federal officials, including President Joe Biden.

"These laws that were put in place to clean up our environment are making it hard for us to clean up our environment," Cox said. "We now know what we need to do, and so I am hopeful we can get some [federal] permitting reform."

In addition to passenger rail, legislators debated and passed several pieces of legislation related to freight operations, including the creation of a new, state-level Office of Rail Safety. Schultz said there's a need for better communication between the railroads and Utah cities, many of which have seen growth and development projects stalled, if not prevented entirely, by intractable freight rights-of-way.

"Transportation is crucial," Schultz said. "That's why you saw such a big investment in every mode of transportation—certainly roads, [but also] transit and active transportation."

Schultz said he understands why Utahns are skeptical about transit. But he said it's necessary to look beyond the bus and train network as it exists today and toward the network that Utah hopes to build.

"You have to be looking 10 years into the future—because it's going to take 10 years to get high-speed rail on the FrontRunner—so it's important that we start making investments," he said. "That's what leaders do, they look into the future and set us up for good."

• wikicommons
• Utah lawmakers appropriated roughly $500 million toward efforts to preserve the shrinking Great Salt Lake but were criticized for rejecting a non-binding lake level target.

Lake It to the Limit
Lawmakers made a splash early in the session by designating and celebrating "Water Week," focusing on water-related bills in committee and making a point to wear blue clothing. But the much-hyped week became something of a punchline on Capitol Hill after many of those bills—and particularly a non-binding resolution to set a target level for the Great Salt Lake—failed to move forward.

"Unfortunately, it didn't get any traction," Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said, adding that she was generally "underwhelmed" by the state's work on water conservation and management.

The Great Salt Lake has been dropping for years under persistent drought conditions, exposing large tracts of mineral-laden shoreline and raising the specter of toxic dust storms along the Wasatch Front. Researchers have suggested the state could have as little as five years to reverse the lake's decline, and Mendenhall said there's a feeling of insecurity born from the scale of the problem and the need for immediate action.

"I haven't seen the bridge that connects the preponderance of scientific evidence to the [state's] recent policies and funding," she said. "I hope that it presents itself rather quickly."

Mendenhall said she was encouraged by incentives to replace grass lawns and funding for wetlands preservation. She was also happy about some of the bills that did not pass, like an effort to overturn local regulations around mining and a late-arriving bill that would have given developers the power to levy taxes, issue bonds and exercise eminent domain.

"It's taxation and land use without representation," Mendenhall said. "There were some good and bad and ugly bills—as there are every year."

Cox disagreed, praising lawmakers for their efforts on water management and saying he has never been more optimistic about the Great Salt Lake after the 2022 and 2023 session saw more than $1 billion combined directed at various programs and with the benefit of an above-average snowpack last winter. The state was already in the process of buying back private water rights, he said, and will now be in a better position to shepherd spring runoff into the lake and other bodies of water.

"I really do think people should be excited about Water Week, gimmicks aside," Cox said. "There's going to be even more water going into the lake than we had hoped for and planned for."

The Legislature also approved the creation of a new water commissioner, to be appointed by the governor, who will coordinate various water conservation efforts into a unified strategy.

• Benjamin Wood
• Senate President Stuart Adams, left, looks at the new Utah state flag with Sens. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, center, and Daniel McCay, R-Riverton.

"That's not just a token thing," Cox said. "This person is going to have the ability to work with all departments and agencies in the state and really get water to the end of the row."

Mendenhall was more encouraged on the topics of housing and homelessness. The Legislature directed funding toward both deeply affordable housing and a new lending program for first-time homebuyers, and approved legislation that permits Salt Lake County to use a small portion—a "fifth-fifth" of a percent—of its local option sales tax for mental health services.

"I trust the county," Mendenhall said. "I trust Mayor [Jenny] Wilson in analyzing what those opportunities are, and I agree that the mental health needs of the people in this country have been woefully underfunded, both federally and from other sources."

Mendenhall said she's grateful that state leaders are continuing to take a more active role in homelessness, a statewide issue that for too long was expected to be addressed by Salt Lake City alone.

"Our city is less of a direct target of the Legislature," Mendenhall said. "We have a functional, even productive, relationship with state leadership. We are not in a perpetually defensive mode."

Utah is facing a statewide housing shortage, which drives up the prices of existing housing stock. And while Salt Lake and other cities have loosened zoning restrictions and looked at incentives for tiny homes, accessory dwelling units and other smaller-scale infill housing, others have largely refused to allow density of any kind, preferring instead to maintain single-family plots and pushing new development outward in a perpetual suburban expansion.

Cox and other state leaders are increasingly vocal about the challenge to overcome NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) attitudes toward new—and particularly affordable—housing. And while bills that would have superseded municipal zoning were shelved this year, others were approved that incentivize construction of new housing stock and that make it harder for residents to delay or repeal city council-approved developments.

"Trying to find that balance—of local control versus the NIMBYism piece—every state is dealing with it," Cox said. "I'm ecstatic about where we ended up. Every session is a mixed bag, but this one is by far the most positive I've had."

• Courtesy Photo
• Fans of the NBA All-Star Game were warned to take Utah’s anti-abortion laws seriously.

Odds and Ends
With hundreds of bills proposed, debated and passed each year, it's impossible to keep track of every law that comes out of the Utah Legislature. Here's some of the highlights—and lowlights—of the 2023 session.

• Utah's abortion ban is held up in court, but that didn't stop lawmakers from going further this year, effectively banning the existance of abortion clinics and requiring that the few procedures permitted by law be performed in a hospital. The Alliance for a Better Utah knew the fix was in and used the festivities around the NBA All-Star Game to draw attention to the creeping loss of bodily autonomy, releasing ads and custom-made condoms urging folks to "Control your J*zz." Planned Parenthood says it is exploring all options in response to the new ban.

• Four years after being broadly laughed out of the rooms of the Capitol, Utah's vexillological community saw its dream of a well-designed state flag come true. The prior, seal-on-a-bedsheet version remains codified as Utah's "historic" flag. But the real, official banner is now the so-called Beehive Flag, a combination of blue skies, snowy white mountains, red rock canyons and, of course, the state's most enduring symbol.

• The air-quality war has a new big bad: US Magnesium. Its Tooele facility was found to contribute as much as 25% of the Wasatch Front's air pollution due to bromine, which acts like fertilizer for ozone and noxious particulate matter. A unanimous bill will see the Division of Environmental Quality take a formal inventory of bromine and other halogen emissions, and then create a plan to reduce them.

• Utahns were not disenfranchised (beyond the degree that they already are) despite attempts to roll back mail-in voting, ranked-choice voting and the signature route to party primaries. But don't relax quite yet, a powerful contingent within the Republican supermajorities remains committed to making voting as hard as possible for anyone outside their clique.

• Porcini is now the official state mushroom, joining other august Utah symbols like the California gull, the Dutch oven, the Bonneville cutthroat trout, the sego lily and—never forget—the Browning M1911, Utah's official state gun. In other fungus news, a bill to legalize a different kind of mushroom (you know ... that one) failed to gain support.