The Utah legislative session began on Tuesday with prayers in the House and Senate from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Elder Matthew S. Holland from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both prayed for wisdom for the legislators, with Elder Holland also praying for “honesty, candor, friendship and civility,” while Elder Uchtdorf prayed that the audience be protected from “confusions, arrogance, self-righteousness, pride and greed.”
The first day also saw the State of the Judiciary speech by Utah Supreme Court Justice Matthew Durrant, who advocated for a salary increase of up to 20% because lawyer salaries have “gone through the roof,” increasing competition for Utah judges. In the afternoon, the House and Senate worked on consensus bills that came out of interim committee meetings.
On Day 2, the first day of committee hearings, legislators wasted no time plowing into controversial bills. These types of bills are usually heard at the end of the session, not the first week.
Right out of the gate, the Senate Health and Human Services committee heard SB16 sponsored by Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine. This bill bans sex-change surgeries and puberty-blocking hormones for minors. Physicians who perform such surgeries would be engaging in “unprofessional conduct,” and open themselves to medical malpractice lawsuits with an extended statute of limitations. SB93 by Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, prevents minors from changing their birth certificate and SB100 by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, prevents schools from changing a student’s pronouns without parental permission. The bills passed easily out of committee and onto the Senate floor, where, with suspension of the rules, they passed their second reading on Thursday and their third on Friday.
Proponents say the bills protect children while opponents say the bills are “a solution looking for a problem” and send a message to the LGBTQ+ community that they are not welcome here. The bills now move to the House. Gov. Spencer Cox has said he won’t veto the ban on surgeries and puberty blockers.
Over on the House side, HB215, the education bill that combines teacher salary increases to a bill authorizing an educational spending account for children outside the public school system, passed easily out of the House Education committee on Thursday.
Unlike vouchers that go to private schools, this money goes straight to parents whose children are not in the public school system, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, explained. The educational spending account “scholarship” is $8,000, while the weighted pupil unit in Utah is just over $4,000.
The committee heard from 30 members of the public — 15 for, 15 against, before passing the bill. Opponents included teachers and other public school supporters who say the bill is a “bribe” to get votes and marginalizes lower-income and rural students, as well as those with disabilities. Also opposing the bill were Gayle Ruzicka of Utah Eagle Forum, Natalie Cline, who is on the Utah State Board of Education, and others who asserted that this bill is broad government overreach that strips families of even more rights. There was no discussion about the portion of the bill that says the bump in teacher’s salaries will be cut in half if this bill does not pass.
Suspending the rules that require a bill to be on the House board for 24 hours, the bill was debated Friday on the House floor for a little over an hour. A third substitute to the bill was adopted that allows part-time public school students to access the spending account on a prorated basis, freezes the funding at $42 million and establishes an annual portfolio requirement. It passed the House on a 54-20 vote, and is heading to the Senate.
There were other bills discussed during the first four days of the 2023 legislature that received a little less attention. HJR2 is a joint resolution that would prevent judges from imposing injunctions on the basis that they present “serious issues on the merits,” which is the standard Judge Andrew Stone used to justify blocking Utah’s trigger law from going into effect while the case is argued. The bill would be applied retroactively, something rarely done in lawmaking.
The proposed new state flag, SB31, passed out of committee and is headed to the Senate. Opponents of the bill ask legislators to reject the “woke” design. A bill to create a Great Salt Lake special license plate passed out of committee and heads to the Senate floor, and a bill requiring health care facilities to allow visitors passed out of its committee and heads to the House.
Meanwhile, on Thursday night, Cox addressed his State of the State remarks to the young people of the state. He asked them to focus on the future and have faith in good things to come. He also outlined some of his administration’s top priorities: teacher pay, preserving the Great Salt Lake, affordable housing, including single family starter homes, tax cuts and working to diminish the negative effects social media has on our youth. “The future of our state is not written in the stars,” he said. “It is for us, the free men and women of Utah, to dictate our destiny.”
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy.