(classical music) - Thank you for joining us tonight.

We are interrupting our normal programming to bring you live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of, news of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State address.

Following his remarks, we will also have a pre-recorded response from the Democratic leaders in the Utah Legislature.

And we do have the governor walking into the state capitol right now.

We're gonna go ahead and go to live coverage at the capitol.

(applauds) (applauds) - We will now hear the State of the State as delivered by our governor Spencer J. Cox.

- Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Madame Lieutenant Governor and to Utah's public servants and my fellow Utahns gathered here tonight, welcome.

Since 1852, territorial and state governors have been delivering a State of the State message in Utah, but this is the first time that elected officials in the legislature have been accompanied on the House floor by their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and other young family members.

Abby and I are joined this evening by our youngest daughter, Emma Kate.

I will warn each of you that she received her Utah driver's license just a few weeks ago.

(laughing) Now should any legislator within the sound of my voice tonight choose to run a bill changing the legal driving age to 21, I know a governor very interested in signing that bill.

(laughing) I did promise her I would try to limit the number of dad jokes tonight.

(laughing) In all seriousness, it is to this group of very special guests, the youth of our state, that I wish to direct my remarks this evening.

We have much to cover in a short amount of time and so I'll ask again like I did last year to please hold any applause until the end of the speech, no matter how difficult that may be for you.

(laughing) I'd like to focus my remarks tonight on one well worn line in our nation's Declaration of Independence.

I hope you are all familiar with this foundational and revolutionary idea that we are all endowed by our creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In particular, I want to focus on that last right, the pursuit of happiness.

You see, it isn't government's role to give you happiness, but it's government's job to protect your right to pursue it.

Now unfortunately, researchers from the University of Chicago recently reported that for the first time since the survey began almost 50 years ago, more Americans reported being not too happy than very happy.

Recent polling also tells us that more young people than ever before believe that for the first time in our nation's history, their generation will be worse off than their parents.

Many people seem to be accepting it as fact that any efforts to create a better world are futile, as if some sort of slouching towards mediocracy or mediocrity or worse is inevitable.

Now I know that many of the challenges of our day weight heavily on your generation.

Now as hard as it is to believe, your moms and dads and grandparents seated next to you tonight were once young too.

I grew up in the '80s and '90s and we worried about a lot of things you probably can't relate to.

We were hiding under our desks to practice for the nuclear bombs we were sure Communist Russia was sending our way as if those desks would provide sufficient protection.

We worried about overpopulation, acid rain, and it's true, we worried about the Great Salt Lake destroying homes and businesses in the floods, yes, floods of 1983.

We hung out at the 49th Street Galleria and the Delta Center.

That's right, the Delta Center.

And worried about someone scratching our brand new CD, the world shutting down thanks to Y2K or accidentally calling long distance when it wasn't a night or weekend.

(laughing) But one thing scared us, one of the things that scared us the most was something known as the hole in the ozone layer.

Due to our state's unique geography and demographics, we were told that the consequences of this environmental disaster would be especially dire in Utah.

With a population of only two million people, one local newspaper reported that more than half of us, an estimated 1.2 million Utahns would contract a life-changing cancer.

Farmers and others who work outdoors were said to be especially at risk with one report warning that even sheep were likely to go blind which if you've ever spent much time around sheep, you know it would have been very difficult to detect.

Right, Representative Chu?

(laughing) So here's the thing though.

We eventually found out that the culprit of the problem was chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs which at the time were found in many products such as aerosol cans, most notably hairspray.

Some people wondered why we had such great hair in the '80s.

Well, my friends, we discovered that great hair comes at a great price.

(laughing) Sometimes I miss those days and I definitely miss that hair.

(laughing) But if you haven't heard much about the hole in the ozone lately, that's probably because we've been busy fixing it and good news doesn't seem to sell as much as gloom and doom.

You see, the world came together with the United States leading the way and our planet is restoring that critical part of our atmosphere.

While these particular issues and many others from my own childhood may not be familiar to each of you, there is a common root in all of them, fear.

A former US president famously called fear the nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Oh, and and here's the thing.

Fear destroys happiness.

To every young person today grappling with fear, I wanna speak to you.

Whether it be fear of finding a good career or a home you can afford to buy or fear of a planet in peril or attacks on democracy at home or abroad or the effects of inflation or fear of any of the other crazy things in our society today, if there is one message that I could give to you, it is this.

The future of our state is not written in the stars.

It is for us, the free men and women of Utah, to dictate our destiny.

If I could turn your fears into one thing, it would be faith.

Now I don't mean faith in the religious sense, although I'm a proponent of that too.

I mean faith in good things to come, faith in us and faith in yourselves.

Faith in our capacity and commitment to solve today's hard problems together, faith in a future worth being excited about.

To anyone who believes that the next generation in Utah will be worse off than their parents, my message is simple.

Not now and not on our watch.

Now let me begin with the place where you spend most of your day, the classroom.

To those in the room tonight who had the terrible, once in a century luck of attending school in the middle of a global pandemic, you proudly led Utah as the only state in the nation where middle school math and reading scores did not decrease during COVID-19.

You have proven your resilience time and time again despite the unprecedented challenges you've had to face and you weren't alone.

The data is clear.

The largest variable in student outcomes is the quality of the teacher, period.

I've said this many times and I will say it again.

If we ran an experiment with two identical students and you let me pick the teacher and I let you pick everything else, the school, the curriculum, the books, the software, electronics, the administration, I will win every single time.

And if we want to guarantee that we have the best teachers, we must invest in those teachers.

That is why I'm asking the legislature to help me, help me make this the year of the teacher.

Not only can we provide at least a 5% increase in the weighted pupil unit, we can also give every teacher the largest raise in our state's history.

And one more suggestion if I may, a small thank you to your teachers goes a long ways.

A recent poll shows that nearly every Utah parent approves of their child's local school with only 2% saying they view them not at all favorably, 2%.

But I worry that our teachers haven't felt that love from Utah's silent majority quite like they should.

Teaching was once a destination profession and it can be again.

Let's make Utah the state where the very best teachers want to live and work with our kids.

But even having the best teachers won't matter much if young people can't find an affordable place to live.

In Utah, we want nothing more than for our kids and grandkids to live near us, but not necessarily with us.

(laughing) Fortunately, this is a problem that we can solve.

I took an economics class when I was your age and the one thing I remember, the only thing I remember, is that when demand exceeds supply, prices go up.

It really is that simple.

If we want less expensive housing, we simply need more of it and not just deeply affordable or low income housing, although we certainly need that too, but more of everything.

Sadly, we know that government decisions are one of the major drivers in the price of a home.

Not just taxes and fees, but every requirement placed on a builder including the time it takes to make those decisions increases the cost of a home.

Tonight I'm calling on us to change it.

We can build more and do it in a way that does not diminish the quality of life.

Smart density in the right places paired with improved infrastructure from wise investments and renewed emphasis on single family starter homes, remember those, will make certain that Utah does not become like California and that the future generations will be able to call this state home.

That's why I am very excited to work with Nico Fillmore's dad and Ruthie White's dad, the League of Cities and Towns and other stakeholders on significant legislation to ensure that we increase supply and reduce the cost of housing.

Of course even good jobs and good homes won't mean much if we are not good stewards of this beautiful place that we call home and any discussion of stewardship in a desert climate must start with water.

We find ourselves in the greatest drought in the western United States in over 1200 years.

Earlier this month, a report predicted that in just five short years the Great Salt Lake will completely disappear.

Let me be absolutely clear.

We are not going to let that happen.

Last year your parents and grandparents in the legislature passed 12 major water conservation bills and $500 million in new funding and even more important, the people of Utah responded by saving billions, tens of billions of gallons of water in our time of need.

I wanna thank Ella Muckley's grandpa and Zach Wilson's dad for their dedicated efforts on water legislation.

Now you've heard me ask our fellow Utahns to unite in faith and prayer in asking God to deliver us from drought.

I've been mocked both at home and abroad by clever comedians and pundits in the media.

But as a man of faith, I make no excuses for my beliefs.

I believe there is real power in people of all different faiths and backgrounds uniting together and pleading for help from a higher authority than our own.

I am grateful and I thank God every night for the impressive amounts of snow we've received so far this season.

Miraculously, the Great Salt Lake has already risen more than it did all of last year.

A few months ago before the first big storm, I asked my team to include $5 million in my budget proposal for flood mitigation.

I didn't wanna be the person to show up for a prayer meeting without my umbrella.

(laughing) It's too soon to know, but I sincerely hope that we need that money.

So whether you believe in God or karma or the whale at ninth and ninth, I ask again that we join together to ask for relief from this drought all while knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

You see, I believe that God can fill the lake, but if not, then we must.

We have to maintain a continued focus on water conservation and agriculture optimization.

To that end, I am proposing another $500 million in water conservation investment in addition to new policy changes that will reduce our per capita use.

And if I might ask, please look beyond those who would demonize our farmers.

Our farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our nation and state.

They do some of the most difficult work imaginable and they deserve our respect.

I promise, I promise they will be a huge part of the solution just like you and me.

Let's continue to help them modernize their operations so that we can both save water and increase food production.

Now when it comes to our wellbeing as a state, one of the biggest challenges facing young people is the proliferation and danger of social media.

The research is now proving what most of us instinctively already know.

Social media and focus destroying apps are negatively affecting the mental health of us all, but especially our youth in profound and debilitating ways.

Beginning in 2009, mental health issues among students exploded.

Emergency room visits for self-harm by young people between the ages of 10 and 19 skyrocketed.

For young women, that number more than doubled, more than doubled and that was before the pandemic.

If these types of numbers were associated with any other disease, we would be focusing every resource and effort to fix what is broken, but somehow because it is technology related, we've done almost nothing as a country.

This is unacceptable.

In Utah, we are done waiting for someone else to solve this problem.

To the social media companies who have been reckless in protecting our youth, Utah parents are putting you on notice.

If you insist on fighting us, be assured that we are more than ready for a fight and we will win.

Or you can join us and be part of the solution.

With this in mind, I'm pleased to announce that we are working closely with Tanner Teuscher's dad, Capri Cullimore's dad, and yes even Landon McKell's dad on legislation that will prevent social media companies from collecting data from our kids, limit the use of cell phones in the classroom and empower parents to reduce this toxic technology in our homes.

And speaking of our homes, it's been said that good homes are still the best source of good humans.

And I agree.

Getting upstream of our biggest social issues and costs inevitably starts with stronger families.

As you may remember, I'm sure you all remember, last year from this podium I proposed the creation of a new Office of Families.

I am pleased to report back that the Office of Families is now operational with my talented former opponent in the 2020 governor's race, Aimee Winder Newton leading the charge.

In Utah, we haven't forgotten the simple truth that when families win, we all win economically as well as socially.

There is no guesswork here.

The data shows that married family connected Utahns earn more, produce more, save more, and contribute more than their counterparts.

And young people who get at least a high school degree, get a job, marry and have kids in that order are far less likely to experience poverty than those who don't.

And yet not every home is perfect.

White picket fences are nice, but not always the norm.

My administration's singular focus will be on this simple principle, that no matter the situation, every Utah child deserves a home filled with love and support and I do mean every child.

Thanks to the leadership of my best friend and your first lady, Abby Cox, Utah is taking on a bold new goal.

Over the coming weeks, you will hear the details of a significant plan to support current foster families and to recruit new families to open their homes and their hearts to Utah's most vulnerable children.

We believe that with your help, Utah can be the first state in the nation to have no children waiting for a foster family.

Imagine that.

Instead of children waiting for families, Utah will have families waiting for children and a list of thousands of Utahns who will help those families with childcare, car rides, meals, and anything else they need to succeed.

And if Utah truly believes in supporting life, we must always show our commitment with more than words.

That's why I'm also proposing this session, a first of its kind tax credit for all children, the born and the unborn.

We must also expand postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months and we have to do more.

We have to do more.

Please help me do more to support victims of domestic violence and to reduce this insidious evil.

I'm grateful to Maggie Holtz's aunt, my tenacious lieutenant governor, for her tireless work in this space.

I also want to thank the parents of Benji Pierucci, Landon Weiler, Elisa Ivory Anderson, Seal Cordero and Sarah Lisonbee for their indispensable work to prevent domestic violence.

Please join me in supporting their legislation this year.

One of the most important ways we can support your families, especially during difficult economic times, is to return more of your tax dollars.

Over the past two years, we've already had a record $300 million tax cut.

We have more money in savings than ever before.

We are one of the few states with a AAA bond rating and consistently recognized among the best managed and fiscally responsible states.

And thanks to the people of our great state, we have the best economy in the country which means we can do even more.

My philosophy is simple.

I believe that Utah families can spend this surplus better than we can and so I'm proposing an historic $1 billion in tax relief for Utah families.

While almost all of the levers in inflation are outside of our state's control, we can and must enable Utahns to keep more of their hard earned dollars to combat the rising cost of living.

And the cool thing is we can do all of these things while finding more ways to simply serve Utahns and make their quality of life better.

With your help, we can begin to implement a bold vision to build a statewide network of trails for Utahns of all ages and abilities.

We can do more to support skills-based learning for those who don't choose to pursue a college degree and freeze tuition costs for those who do.

We can fund more mental health resources and crisis interventions in our communities.

We can modernize our our IT infrastructure to improve the service we provide our citizens.

And may we always remember that sometimes the best bill is one that doesn't pass at all.

I am confident that we will accomplish all of these objectives and many more during this legislative session if those of us in elected office keep our eye single to our children and grandchildren.

Now before we conclude, I want to return to that pursuit of happiness thing.

I hope you're not surprised to learn that experts have determined that happiness can't be found chasing shiny objects like money, power, pleasure, and fame.

Instead, real happiness comes from four simple but profound pillars, faith, family, friends, and work that serves others.

It comes from finding real meaning in life, knowing why you're here and what you would die for.

There are so many of you who already understand this, but let me conclude tonight with just two brief examples.

A young man was working his evening shift at a soda shop when a customer's credit card was declined.

Feeling an almost unexpected but profound desire to help, he decided to pay for the large drink order with his own money.

Turned out that was his entire wages for that shift, ensuring that he basically worked for free that night.

Well his dad was understandably proud and shared his son's kind act with a few others.

Soon, good Samaritans all over the state began donating to this young man almost $1,000 in all because that's what we do in Utah.

Now it would be a great story if it ended there, but it didn't.

You see, this young man took that $1,000 and used it to buy gifts on an angel tree for kids in need.

That's why I have faith in our state's future because young people like Finn Besinger who is here tonight will make it so.

Finn, will you stand up?

You can clap for him.

(applauds) Thank you, Finn, for your awesome example.

Now another young man in our state, just 25 years of age, recently achieved his lifelong dream of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a law enforcement officer.

And while serving and protecting the people of Provo would be more than enough giving back for most people, he decided he could give even more.

Last Saturday, he was elected as the youngest member of the Utah House of Representatives.

Welcome, Representative Clancy.

Your dad would be proud.

And I don't know where you are, but I hope you're here somewhere.

Representative, welcome.

(applauds) To the older people in this room, remember that Utah is the youngest state in the nation and I think we benefit from, in a sense, acting our age for we must never forget the qualities of youth.

Not a time of life, but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity.

We would all be better off being curious like the young people around us tonight like my grandma who at age 90 decided she wanted to learn how to paint.

She painted this for me as a reminder of home.

Today is her 94th birthday and I want to be young like her.

Legislative friends.

remember that our time in these positions is often brief.

Rather than spreading fear, let's build more and tear down less.

Let's renew again our determination to focus on doing the big things, the hard things that matter.

Let's make no little plans for they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.

And finally, to the young people who have joined us, I have an importance and heartfelt request to make of you.

I and your loved ones and the elected officials seated around you are committed to doing our part to defend and protect your God-given right to freely pursue happiness.

But tonight I am asking you, I am begging you, to embrace that pursuit unlike any generation before you.

You see, while we can protect your right to pursue happiness, we can't do the pursuing for you even if we wanted to.

Your challenges are different from the ones we faced, but I believe that each of you is uniquely prepared to face these challenges.

So stand up a little straighter and feel free to smile a little bigger.

We can do this.

In such a pursuit, I am confident that you will find happiness that is not some light or fleeting thing.

You will find deep and lasting happiness that flows not just from freedom itself, but in rising to make good on your responsibilities, from meeting your rendezvous with destiny head on as the baton of leadership in this state inevitably passes to you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I truly believe that there has never ever been a better time in the history of the world to be alive than right now.

And there has never been a better place in the history of the world to live than right here in Utah.

Your future is brighter than ever because we have the power to make it so.

I trust the people sitting next to you.

And more importantly, I trust you.

I trust that you will turn from the fears that would paralyze and that you will keep the faith.

I trust that you will show the world what it looks like to aggressively pursue real happiness in our modern world.

And I trust the state of our state which has never been stronger than it is today will one day reach even greater heights in your capable hands.

You've got this.

May God bless the great state of Utah and the young people that make it great.

Thank you.

(applauds) - If you're just joining us, this is live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State address.

We are interrupting our normal programming to bring you this special coverage online and over the air on television and radio.

We now turn to a prerecorded message from the Democratic leadership in the Utah House and Senate for their response to the governor's address.

- It's been a season of big change and we are excited to get to work serving our communities and families across Utah.

- We are excited about our new leadership teams.

With new leadership, we have achieved not only the first all female House and Senate teams, but also another first, Latinas as minority leaders in the Utah State Legislature.

- Together as Democrats, we're committed to taking stands for our constituencies, democratic values and common sense solutions to bring forth good public policy.

- Today our state is facing more challenges than ever and it is critical we take steps now to address our most pressing issues.

Water conservation, domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, housing and homelessness, tax cuts, education and access to healthcare will be the focal point of our caucuses during the 65th legislature.

- For many years, Democrats have sounded the alarm about the water crisis in Utah.

During this time, we have consistently worked alongside stakeholders to propose legislation that will create a plan to ensure our water future.

We know this affects everyone in the state, but we particularly are concerned about the agriculture industry, an essential part of our rural communities.

We need to act with greater urgency, use technology to find solutions, and lead with a spirit of innovation.

Due to the combined impacts of climate change and lack of action, immediate commitment is essential before the Great Salt Lake disappears.

Democrats will continue to be part of the solution and we're excited for what's next.

The work ahead to strengthen the statewide response to support our unsheltered families and communities must continue to be a priority.

Each of our communities bears a responsibility to ensure nobody is left out in the cold.

We must provide adequate shelter space and wraparound services for those experiencing homelessness.

As Democrats, we will continue to advocate for housing solutions that are affordable and practice intelligent forward thinking community planning and development.

- 2022 continues to highlight the challenging circumstances of home ownership and the housing crisis, particularly for our young workforce and families.

Skyrocketing prices and a shortage of available units have pushed too many people out.

We need to take action to provide more affordable spaces for families to place down their roots.

- And coverage should go beyond housing.

Better access to affordable healthcare is a critical need for everyone, particularly for our children.

Utah ranks 46th in the nation when it comes to insuring children and an estimated 82,000 of them in our state are uninsured.

This is a 39 increase since 2016, the highest in the nation.

It is vital that all of our children and their families have access to high quality preventive medical care.

When this access is provided early on, it sets up our kids for success and helps significantly reduce the uncompensated care that we all bear a burden of.

- Our public education system including our public charter schools are a critical cornerstone of our state and our economy.

We all agree teacher pay is priority.

We also feel strongly about small classroom sizes, full day Kindergarten and increasing the social support in our schools for our children to succeed.

As Democrats, we will continue to firmly oppose vouchers and other proposals that undermine and erode our public education system.

- Utah to serve a state government and state budget bill for and by the people.

Investment in our state's future not only takes delivered forethought, research, and careful planning driven by data, but it also takes compassion and a diverse understanding of the needs of all Utahns.

As inflation and a looming recession continues to weigh heavy on working families in our state, Democrats will advocate against impulsive tax cuts.

Democrats seek to provide meaningful relief and investment to uplift everyone.

- As Democrats in our Utah State Legislature, we believe everyone deserves the right to feel like they belong and are valued.

- And not simply just belong, but have the opportunity to live their life with dignity and respect for them and their families.

- Together we commit to continue building a foundation in Utah that unites us, one that re-energizes our priorities on equal opportunity for all.

- One that emphasizes the importance of strong communities and supports all families.

- One that provides adequate healthcare and empowers the stewardship of our public lands and environment.

- One that represents the voices of all Utahns.

- Once again, if you're just joining us, this is live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State address as well as response from the Democratic leadership in the Utah Legislature.

Whether you're joining us online or through one of our over the air signals, we thank you and we now wanna turn to the political experts from PBS Utah and KUER News for some analysis.

Joining me in the studio we have Jason Perry, host of the Hinckley Report and director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics.

And we have Saige Miller, politics reporter with KUER and co-host of the State Street podcast.

And Sean Higgins, also a politics reporter with KUER and co-host of the State Street podcast.

So Jason, I wanna start with you as someone who has worked in a previous administration.

What strategy goes into crafting these State of the State address and does it fit into the political so to say dance the executive branch has to navigate with the legislature?

- It really is a dance so when you look at one of these speeches, you know, it's all polished, but you look behind what's happened to get ready for it.

I've worked on speeches like this for for several governors and there's a lot of thought that goes into the messaging itself so the governor's trying to be aspirational, he wants to motivate Utahans around certain themes and certain topics that he thinks is important, but realizing he is giving it in the legislator's home.

These are his former colleagues which makes it even more interesting of a dance for him as well because they are about to pass laws and he needs them to implement many of these policies that he's going to put forward so he's trying to find a very careful balance right there where he's trying to motivate Utahns, use the pulpit that only he has at this time, and still try to get those legislators on board for the policies he's interested in.

- Okay and some of the calls to action, we heard about the teachers, housing, the Great Salt Lake.

What stood out to you, Saige?

- I think specifically I'm a very big fan of water and have been following kind of this water problem that Utah has been facing, specifically with the mega drought and the declining levels of the Great Salt Lake and kind of what momentum, how far are they gonna go, what progressive action are they going to take to actually rise the levels, to fill our reservoirs, to figure out the issues with the Colorado River and the legislature has made some pretty big moves, some pretty big moves, but there's also that pretty damning study from BYU that says if we don't take really progressive action within the next five years, the Great Salt Lake could dry up.

So right now it's really the time for imminent action to actually get water to the Great Salt Lake and I think something that was kind of missing out of the governor's speech is what is that tangible action.

What exactly are we going to do?

What does ag optimization look like?

And I know they're throwing a bunch of money behind it and that's great and I hope something comes out of it, but I hope something comes out of it fast.

I know through my talks with the governor last week, he wants to see that $40 million Great Salt Lake trust that was established last legislative session actually start putting into action.

He wants to get water rights to the Great Salt Lake.

And one question that really comes to my mind is what kind of water rights.

Where are they gonna be on the priority list?

If they're at the bottom of the priority list, will that water actually make it to Great Salt Lake?

But can they purchase water rights, like higher up on the priority list, we can ensure that that water makes it there.

And so I'm very interested on what these policy changes that he was talking about, like what are exactly are those actions?

Is it secondary water metering?

Is it updating agriculture infrastructure?

Is it studying how residents are wasting water?

Like what exactly does that look like?

And I'm hopeful that the legislature will address those concerns within the next 43 days.

- He seemed very passionate about the the water for sure.

And what do you think, Sean?

Was there anything that he might have missed that you think should have been in that speech?

- I mean I certainly thought it was particularly interesting that there was no mention of school choice.

We have a huge bill running through the legislature right now, was passed out of committee this afternoon, dealing with that year of the teacher historic pay bump that he was talking so much about.

That is being coupled with a school choice component this year.

There's a lot of back and forth on that.

The committee was very lively this morning from what we're hearing and no mention of school choice.

In fact we kinda backed up that Utah parents have faith in their local schools, saying that only 2% have no faith at all in their local school system so I thought it was particularly interesting that that was not mentioned given that is such a pillar of this bill that is currently going through.

We'll see how that plays out on the floor, what amendments do get added in, get taken out.

But I think that particularly and then no mention of the transgender community.

We had some very emotional testimony over the last couple of days dealing with SB 16 which would block gender affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors.

Some really gut-wrenching testimony from people in that community.

Spencer Cox has shown that he has been an ally of that community in the past.

He announced today that he would not be vetoing that bill, but again, amendments could change and interesting that he did not mention that today.

- So it's an interesting point on this veto.

You just brought that up because you may recall, when he gave his first State of the State speech, he said something kinda like this.

I'm gonna be vetoing a lot more of your bills than my predecessor did.

You know, yeah, I think he vetoed maybe three of them.

In his second State of the State, he mentioned that a little bit.

He didn't mention that in this particular speech to his colleagues that there are some controversial bills and I may or may not decide to veto some of those.

This is a premier power of the governor, his ability to veto a piece of legislation and we have some very controversial bills, even this very first week of the legislative session.

Not only did he not really talk about those, the ones that Sean just mentioned, but he didn't talk about whether or not he would veto those or not.

He talked about it outside of his speech today, but he didn't mention it directly head on in this speech.

- Do you think those bills are gonna make it to his desk?

- I think high likelihood, yes.

We're gonna see some variation.

Sean mentioned those, the transgender bill when it comes to gender affirming surgery, puberty blockers, hormone therapy.

That bill seems to be going through the legislature pretty quickly.

Things like abortion, for example, we are probably going to see as well.

And those are big items that he's going to have to weigh in on, either during the session or with his pen.

- I think it is worth mentioning that the power of that veto has diminished some.

Super majorities in both the House and Senate with the Republicans.

We saw a veto get overturned last year on this exact issue with the transgender sports bill so I think politically speaking, there is a little bit of a tightrope walk that Spencer Cox needs to walk.

- And I know the Democrats did mention the vouchers which the Republicans didn't or Governor Cox didn't so they were pretty passionate about it.

Do you feel like they have a leg to stand on?

Any of you wanna weigh in on that?

- It's really hard when you have a very strong super majority and that super majority actually grew this legislative session if you can believe it or not.

I do think they have a message to send and it does take two to tango, right?

I think that there is going to be some negotiations on the Democratic side and I don't really know what those are going to look like, but from what I have heard from the Republican majority on both the House and the Senate is that they're pretty confident that this school choice bill that representative Candice Pierucci has that is on its way to the House actually today that we found out after the vote today.

They're pretty confident it's going to pass and they said they've made some revisions from last year's bill that failed overwhelmingly.

They've made some revisions, they've got more people on board and I'm pretty sure it's gonna make it through.

- So I, my understanding is these negotiations are still going on about the details of that which is why I think the governor throughout is gonna be the year of the teacher.

That was his phrase.

It's gonna be a record amount of money going to the teachers and I think maybe he didn't get into some of those other things because there's still some negotiations to be had and when it comes to whether or not this state tax funds could be used as a scholarship for these other programs.

I think it's going to go through also.

Our legislature seems ready for it.

And it, that question seems to be true is will it, will the Utah Fits All Bill be tied to the teacher pay?

It looks like it probably is.

- It is.

And the governor didn't really hit that head on which means to me that there's still some discussion to be had.

- Yeah, we are still very early in this session.

I mean quite frankly it feels like we've been doing it for three months and it's been three days, but there's a lot more that needs to be done and if there's one thing I've learned about working on this legislative session is that they move so quickly, they move so quick.

And so things are always changing.

They have to go through a bunch of negotiations.

There's amendments they have to vote on, there's substitutions they have to move on, I mean vote on.

And so we're really not gonna know what the outcome of any of this legislation is, whether it be education, whether it be taxes, whether it be transgender healthcare access until they get through both floors and either they make it or they don't.

- What has changed since 2007 when vouchers were brought up?

- Well some public sentiment has changed a little bit, but also I'm just gonna talk about why I think that has happened is don't forget a lot of this happened during COVID when the response from our school system was not completely uniform.

We had some, we had one school district in the state that moved everyone online and people in that district had some things to say about that.

Our legislators weighed in last legislative session when it came to, when it came to schools and their ability to either put students in the classroom or out.

I really think that people looked at the COVID, you know, the COVID situation and realized that some of the decisions they cared about the most are happening from people that they mostly don't even know, names they wouldn't even be able to identify or the ones making these, some of these decisions.

And I think the legislature's looking at us and talking to the public saying should we give you more options.

And there are a lot of good minds on both sides of this thing, but I think we've, it has come a little bit of a distance and I attribute COVID to a lot of that.

- Okay, I wanna get to affordable housing 'cause Governor Cox did touch on that, that we need to build more, build more.

A lot of people will say we don't have the infrastructure for that.

Sean, what are your feelings?

- I think this will be an interesting part of that negotiation, Jason, you were mentioning.

He's asking for $150 million in the state budget to go directly towards projects of that type this year.

He got 50, 55 million last year so we'll see how the negotiations pan out over the next few weeks on that.

But I think it's also important to note that the state and the State Legislature doesn't have much of a say on what gets built and where.

That goes down to local governments.

You have planning commissions, city councils that actually say yes or no to these projects.

So the money can be there and the funding can be there, but ultimately what gets built and where it gets built comes down to local officials.

- Okay and it's really becoming too expensive for many.

We're mostly contributing to it, the record inflation.

We don't have enough housing.

People can't even afford to buy them.

What do you think's got to give, Saige?

- That's a, it's a really great question.

If anybody has like more clearer thoughts, I welcome you to jump in, but I think Utah is rapidly changing and the legislature isn't really up to speed with all that kind of needs to be done.

We're the fastest growing state in the nation and that's something that they've talked about over and over again.

Legislatures, researchers, the governors, that we have to do it smartly.

We have to figure a way that we can stretch our water, how we can stretch our dollar further, how we can figure out how to build more housing.

And right now they're in that innovative phase.

They're not necessarily in that way of executing.

They're very much so still brainstorming.

- And it's interesting because some of the things the governor mentioned were sort of, kind of principles, you know, it's this, like, you know, smarter density, the way we build those apartments and the affordable housing, a little about getting people into those starter homes is what he talked about.

Didn't give exactly how to get to that, but those are the key problems is people cannot afford a home and the apartments you see in Salt Lake City and about these places, they're just going up.

But these are not affordable places to get downtown.

So that seems to be a real problem.

Well we didn't see what those solutions were necessarily, but I think he's right on what the problem is.

- Okay and turning to taxes, we heard from the Democrats and from Governor Cox.

Very different answers on on that for sure.

Do any of you wanna weigh in on the tax debate here?

- I think the concept of fiscal responsibility is different to every person.

Like my fiscal irresponsibility is your well thought out and perfectly reasonable program.

And when it comes to taxes, I think it's, the state of Utah is in a wonderful place with the surplus it does have.

What the state decides to do with that money I think the Democrats would push for more investment in public services like transportation or infrastructure projects that need to be built.

Affordable housing could be one of those things, going towards the Great Salt Lake.

We've heard very clearly from Governor Cox and his Republican colleagues that they believe families can spend that money better so I think it's a bit of a philosophical push and pull on that one what gets done there.

- Yeah, and to kind of piggyback off of that, Governor Cox says it's the year of the teacher, but the legislature will say over and over again it's the year of the tax cut.

However, they have not been able to identify where this massive tax cut is coming from.

From asking Senate majority, not Senate majority, House majority leader Mike Schultz, he says there's a big surplus in income tax, but we're kind of scared to pull away from it because that's kind of where we're able to put our money as a legislature.

And then there's some bills, Representative Judy Weeks-Rohner on the Republican side wants to get, wants to abolish the state food, the state sales tax on food.

And so there's a bunch of different areas where they're looking at it where, but they haven't been able to to come to a consensus of where that's going to cut.

And I do know that on the Democratic side, they are very interested in abolishing the sales food tax or at least doing something away to help put money back in the pockets of specifically low income families where they are spending a lot of money on food where that could be a direct savings that they see.

And when we talked about property taxes specifically, they kinda pass it on of like oh, yeah, that's kind of a local government thing.

We would maybe like to do something with property taxes which is a big issue that constituents said at the end of that year when they have to somehow fork over what could be their mortgage and they, yeah, they've said we'd like to look, kinda do some stuff with that.

But usually it's the local government.

So there really is a push and pull, a tug of war right now of like where that tax is gonna go.

- When you are looking at over $3 billion surplus is, which is what the legislature has between ongoing and one-time funding, they're going to go to this tax cut option.

And that's one thing the governor is completely resolute about, the legislature is, and the Democrats, they didn't say no, they just need to be smart in how we do that and where we do it which I think is kind of to Saige's great point right there.

I think that it's leading to a bigger conversation on education, how these things are really tied together when you start looking at income tax which is, you know, earmarked for public education and that seems to be the growing fund and the sales tax still continues to be an issue.

I think they're going to probably get into that income tax.

They've indicated they would.

They would lower the income tax slightly, but I think they're gonna have to start talking about the, how the general fund and the income tax fund, which education fund really plays together.

So you can't talk about education, tax cuts completely independently.

- Okay and do you think that the, when the governor asks for the one billion relief for families and tax cuts, do you, how does that translate to the legislature?

How do they get there?

How do they get to the same page?

- Well all the proposals aren't out yet.

The billion dollar is sort of the governor's number.

It's not been the legislators' number yet, but you saw the opening day of the legislative session.

President Stuart Adams, the president Senate stood up and said we are going to cut taxes.

He said again, again, again I think is how he said it.

They are, they're going to find a way to do it and they're find ways, whether it's income tax or there's some other sorts of tax benefits that they can give to people.

Even, you know, we'll see, Saige.

Sales tax on food you think maybe, one more time, that one.

Saige is saying it.

We'll see.

There are various mechanisms in the legislature would like to under-promise and over-deliver on the tax cut proposals.

- Okay, another topic I didn't hear was public transportation.

Do you guys think that was a missed opportunity?

- It's definitely one of Spencer Cox's big wishlist items is this free fare for a year proposal, $25 million in the grand scheme of a $28 billion proposed budget.

That's pretty minimal.

But we heard from House leadership earlier this month that there's not much support for it right now so I think it is a little bit of a wishful thinking to see if that is going to come to fruition, but again, we're not even a week into this session so things could change.

- And it kinda comes back to this idea of what does smart growth look like.

There are talks right now to expanding I-5.

Yeah I-5.

- 15.

- 15, thank you, I'm from Oregon so I'm like I-5, but I think that's wrong.

Yeah, so I-15 and Governor Cox, I'm sorry President Stuart Adams doesn't wanna add another freeway, but he also said that he wasn't opposed to expanding the freeway that we do have, but did mention during a scrum with reporters on the first day of the legislature that we do need to figure out something to do with transit, whether that be increasing the routes, whether that be adding another front runner, trying to figure out ways to get kind of cars off the road and people more comfortable using public transit.

But then the house majority leader Mike Schultz wants to shut down this proposal to make fares free for a year or zero fare for a year.

And so there really is this push and pull.

Governor Cox says that he's heard these arguments that public transportation is already very heavily subsidized, but he came back with this question of well do you know how much we subsidize our roads.

So is there something that we can do to make it more accessible, to clean up our air, to get more cars off the road, to help people's pockets with inflation?

And so it's definitely a discussion that looks like the Senate is a little bit more gung-ho on than the House is.

But yeah, as Sean said, perfect point, we're three days in so there's a lot of negotiations that needs to be made, but we do know that infrastructure, whatever that may look like, is a priority in the majority's book.

- Okay and another topic I didn't hear was abortion.

We have some pretty divisive topics going on in the legislature which they came out of the gate coming off with one with transgender, but do you think abortion's coming up?

I know we've got several bills that have been on the way.

- Yes, and it's already making its way through the pipeline.

There is a joint resolution in the Senate that would change how the state issues injunctions and if this joint resolution passes, it effectively overturns the injunction placed on Utah's abortion trigger law and then Planned Parenthood Association of Utah would have to refile and kind of go back through this process.

So that's one way that they're looking at it.

There is another bill that focuses on abortion revisions that is kind of making some technical changes to languages like when a doctor is allowed to perform an abortion on somebody, specifically if a mother or a pregnant person's health is at risk or the baby is at risk.

But it hasn't been as large of a focus as transgender healthcare access right now.

But yeah, it's definitely coming down the pipeline.

- Okay and I do wanna get to social media because this is something Governor Cox has been seeming to be all over right now.

Do you think, Jason, that this is a federal issue or the states can handle it?

- Well so the states can handle it, but the federal government might have a play too.

Just this very day which is why it's so interesting, Congressman Chris Stewart is introducing legislation in Washington DC to try to hold these social media companies accountable, try to set age limits for when you can start having, you know, kids access to social media.

This is one of the most powerful parts of the speech and it was certainly one of the more emotional parts of the speech for our governor as well because the social media, so the dangers we know of are very much connected to mental health and that's what the governor talked about and it's something that our legislature's looking at, that our governor's looking at.

So I think it's gonna be an approach from the federal government and from the state government.

It's not as easy for state governments to go after these big companies to set standards.

We'll do some, but I think that our state is gonna work in conjunction with our federal delegation and others to try to reign in these social media companies.

The harm isn't just a speculation anymore.

It's very clear it's having an impact on our kids.

And what's interesting is not just the social media.

We even saw sort of a veiled comment there about mobile phones in schools in this particular speech which I thought was interesting as well.

- And getting rid of the phones in the classroom.

Had you guys have any thoughts about that?

- Yeah, there is a bill to ban phones in the classroom running through the legislature this year sponsored by new Representative Trevor Lee.

We actually got the chance to sit down with him a couple weeks ago to talk a little bit about it and actually quite a bit of bipartisan support for that.

He said he had a lot of support from the teaching community, some support from Democrats as well.

But again, we have not heard any public debate on that yet.

Whether that gets through is still to be seen.

- I do think it's probably a good sign if you have teachers' support though to really put those phones away.

And I know that there's gonna probably be some like constitutionality questions that like arise of can you take away somebody's property, for example, that they'll be able to work through.

But Trevor Lee, Representative Lee seems very passionate about this bill and has yeah, like Sean said, has garnered some Democratic support that you can hear on State Street 'cause they admit that.

(laughing) - Shameless plug.

- Yeah, but it was, yeah, I mean I, it was a great example of building bipartisan bridges and how Democrats and Republicans can work together on pieces of legislation despite being from opposing political aisles.

- Okay and we just have a couple minutes left so I wanna give you guys each about 30 seconds to tell me what you are looking for in this legislative session.

Jason, do you wanna go ahead?

- Well I'm looking for what the resolutions that come to these big social issues because they're, we have seen particularly when, like when it comes to abortion, as you mentioned, these big questions are left to the states themselves.

And so our state government's going to have to come to some kind of resolution on this and it may be something that takes a little bit of time and I think, you know, they may not tackle like a big issue like that one necessarily, but maybe get to some of the other kind of issues connected to it.

They might be able to make some people happy with for a moment.

Anyway, I'm watching really closely by what margin these bills pass and that is something that's gonna really dictate what happens after.

- Really quick topics.

What are you looking forward to the most?

- Absolutely Water.

Like I said at the beginning, I wanna figure out how they're going to kind of revamp and get water to the lake.

And also this issue of healthcare access for transgender youth which we know is one of the most vulnerable populations in the nation.

- Okay, real quick.

- For me it's housing.

I wanna see how much of this $150 million ask the governor actually gets.

The pilot program last year proved that there was demand for that.

I think over $168 million worth of applications went toward that program.

So very curious to see how much is allocated toward affordable housing.

- Okay, thank you guys so much for joining us.

It was really a great conversation and it's gonna be a really fun legislature to watch this year and lots of action.

So we will go back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Again, thank you so much for watching our live coverage.

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