May Interim 

Interim meetings resumed last month and I’m excited to dive deep into some of the significant issues facing our state and working with my colleagues to find the best solutions. You can view the highlights here. All members of the public are invited to watch committee meetings in person or online. This month’s interim meetings will be held on June 14-15th. 

End of the Session

We made it to the end of the 2022 General Session, and I am proud of what we accomplished! We passed several bills that exemplify the Utah Way. None of this would be possible without the hard work and contributions of the House staff, my fellow legislators, stakeholders across the state, insight and feedback from my many constituents, and most importantly…my family. I am grateful for all of you!

The crisis in Ukraine is dismaying. My heart goes out to the residents of Ukraine, as well as my thoughts and prayers for them and our world. I hope for a quick and peaceful resolution to the conflict. I would also like to recognize the brave efforts of the service members and their families from Hill Air Force Base who have been deployed to the Eastern flank of NATO in Europe. Thank you! 

As we wrap up week 5 of the Legislative Session, I wanted to share some highlights! I had the opportunity to meet with several groups, including the Santaquin City Council. You have great leaders there and I am glad that I could talk with them. I also had the opportunity to meet with OUTRAGE youth advocates on Thursday. Their efforts to get involved in the legislative process are impressive and vital to building a bright future for the state. I also enjoyed meeting with students from Santaquin and Payson sharing their art at the Capitol. They are extremely talented, and I am grateful for the chance to have met them. Each of these groups brought their unique and valuable perspective to many issues, just like you can.

We are officially halfway through the 2022 Legislative Session! Another busy and interesting week is over, and I am excited to share with you some of what happened! SB 59, Tax Amendments, passed this week and was sent to the Governor for his signature. This law lowers the income tax from 4.95% to 4.85%. It also decreases taxes on social security benefits for the elderly ($15 million) and adds additional taxpayer savings through the Earned Income Tax Credit ($16 million). Another hot topic to watch is Utah Lake. There were competing messages regarding the best path forward regarding Utah Lake. Don’t Pave Utah Lake was at the Capitol for a rally as well as The Utah Lake Restoration Project. There are a few bills regarding Utah Lake that I expect to see sometime in the next two weeks. Ultimately, we need to have an open, meaningful, and transparent dialogue on this important issue. Utah Lake is a critical feature of Utah for water, wildlife, recreation, and more. I look forward to taking a deep dive into this issue. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the issue. I value your input and concern about this great state!

As we are wrapping up another week of the General Legislative Session, I would like to share some highlights. This week the appropriations committees finished hearing presentations for funding requests. We will now deliberate and make final recommendations to the executive committee next week. A particularly meaningful bill for me was House Bill 23 (HB23), First Responder Mental Health Amendments, which provides $5 million in funding to mental health services for first responders. Our first responders bounce from traffic accidents to domestic violence calls, home fires, and more, then to help someone unlock a car to retrieve their keys they (This may or may not have happened to me on occasion). This takes a tremendous toll on our first responders. They carry the stress of everyone’s worst day from incident to incident. It is a lot to bear. This is a small portion of the debt of gratitude we owe these heroes.

Week 2

Week 2 of the Legislative Session is in the books! It was a busy week setting the base budgets for the state, hearing interim session bills and working on upcoming legislation in committees. I also met with the US Forest Services and US Representative Burgess Owens and his staff to discuss plans to continue to repair the road in Santaquin Canyon. I am also working on an educational sandbox bill, providing educators with another tool to innovate. More to come on this. 

This week we started the 2022 Legislative Session. It was exciting to get back to work serving you with my fellow legislators. A highlight of the week was meeting in person in the State Capitol Building, allowing me the chance to meet the Santaquin Youth Council and students from Mt. Nebo. Our future is in good hands! 

Utah lawmakers met together for interim on Tuesday, May 18th to discuss important issues impacting our state. In addition to study items, the committees discussed the following bills, which were presented and debated during the special session. The following day, the Legislature was called into a special session to address timely and important issues including, accepting federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and clean up bills from the past general session. You can learn more about each of these bills here.

The Legislature will meet on May 18 for interim meetings. You can view interim committee assignments here. On May 19, we will convene in a special session to appropriate federal COVID-19 relief funds. Review Utah’s budget and find out more information here.