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How Utah lawmakers want to spend their $30 billion ‘sox and underwear’ budget this year

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How Utah lawmakers want to spend their  billion ‘sox and underwear’ budget this year


Republican legislative leaders unveiled their “socks and underwear” budget Friday, allocating about $30 billion in taxpayer money and adding millions of dollars to school voucher programs, career training for high school students, raises for state employees and tax cuts for a fifth year in a row.

The full budget won’t be decided until the final minutes of Utah’s annual lawmaking effort, which ends at midnight on March 7 — meaning lawmakers, lobbyists and Utahns looking for funds for their programs still have a week to make their final requests and pleas to lawmakers.

“By maintaining fiscal discipline while making critical investments, we are ensuring Utah’s long-term prosperity,” Senate Executive Appropriations Committee Chair Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, said in a statement Friday. “This budget keeps our state on a path of sustainable growth, economic opportunity and a high quality of life for all Utahns.”

Republican leaders have tried to downplay budget expectations this year after announcing that revenue numbers came in $112 million lower than forecast a few months earlier, leaving them less money to spend on new projects and programs.

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That number, however, did not include about $230 million that they had set aside last year for tax cuts or $104 million tucked away to give raises to state employees and teachers.

Friday morning, Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders announced that teachers would get a $1,400 pay raise and support staff would get a one-time $1,000 bonus.

And tax cuts are still on the table, but have been scaled back.

Thursday night the House passed a bill that would reduce the income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.5% — cutting about $97 million in state revenue. It also would expand the child tax credit to parents with a child up to five years old and extend a tax break to companies that provide child care.

One of Cox’s main requests, a tax break for senior citizens’ Social Security income, is still being hashed out.

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House Speaker Mike Schultz said Thursday that the tax package would include an income tax reduction — the fifth consecutive year for such cuts — an extension of the child tax credit and some break on how much Social Security income is eligible for taxation.

“We want to give families a tax cut, every citizen a tax cut and we want to continue to work on Social Security,” Schultz said.

Schultz said he expected the House will end up not taxing Social Security income for households making up to $90,000, and maybe slightly more.

According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy done for Voices For Utah Children, a child advocacy group, the general income tax cut would mean $1,929 in annual savings for the state’s top 1% of earners and $35 a year for a household earning between $63,100 and $103,200.

If it is approved, the last five years of tax cuts will have saved the top 1% of households $17,361 a year and those middle income households $313 a year.

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Corporations have received the same tax breaks, 94.5% of which go to out-of-state corporations, while 5.5% of the reduction went to Utah businesses, according to the ITEP report.

Senate President Stuart Adams, in a statement Friday, said, “This budget reflects Utah’s values — responsibility, innovation and forward-thinking investments.”

Some highlights of the Legislature’s budget recommendations include:

• $65 million to expand a system of “catalyst centers” — modeled after a career-training program in Davis School District where students can take courses in health care programs, marketing and other fields — to school districts statewide. It was a project proposed by Schultz and one of two bills he ran this session.

• $40 million for school vouchers, half of what was requested by Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore. The appropriation would add vouchers for an additional 5,000 students. Cullimore had asked for $80 million.

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• $3.5 million for the governor’s “Operation Gigawatt,” a push to double Utah’s energy production in 10 years. Cox had asked for $20.4 million to incentivize nuclear power in Utah and $4.3 million for geothermal. The Legislature has budgeted $1.75 million in each category.

• $5 million for schools impacted by having a high number of students for whom English is a second language.

• $25 million for school safety improvements.

• $36.5 million for Convergence Hall, a tech hub at The Point development in Draper.

• An additional $20 million for a first-time homebuyer grant program, championed by Adams, that gives downpayment loans to Utahns buying their first homes.

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• $5.5 million so the University of Utah can accept 10 medical students in a satellite program at Utah Tech University.

• $600,000 for a newly revamped Utah Debate Committee, collaborating with multiple Utah universities.

• $2 million to combat quagga and zebra mussels under an invasive aquatic species program plus an additional $2 million each for decontamination tanks at Deer Creek Reservoir and Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell.

This story is developing and may be updated.



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Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president

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Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president


Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.



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Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods

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Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods


BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.

After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.

Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.

“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.

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An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.

Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.





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Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months

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Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months


EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.

Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.

Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.

“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”

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When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.

An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.

In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.

Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.

Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.

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In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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