- Lawmakers introduced 962 bills and passed 582 during the 2025 legislative session.
- Gov. Spencer Cox said this is “way too many” and could hurt the quality of legislation.
- Some states, like California, limit the number of bills introduced by each lawmaker.
Utah
Is Utah passing too many laws? Gov. Cox thinks so
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he will discuss changes with lawmakers to decrease the number of bills jammed into the state’s short legislative session.
The Beehive State has one of the shortest lawmaking periods in the entire country, coming in at a constitutionally mandated 45 days. In 2025, only one other state has a 45-day session, Virginia, most other states range from four months to yearlong.
Despite its abbreviated session, Utah has seen a steady increase in the number of bills introduced and passed by the House and Senate’s 104 members over the last decade, and especially in the last three years.
In 2025, the Legislature introduced 959 bills and resolutions — a new record. And it sent 582 bills to the governor’s desk — second only to 2024, which saw elected representatives write, debate and approve 591 pieces of legislation.
“I think we passed way too many bills,” Cox told reporters on the final night of the legislative session.
Cox touted the work of his administration collaborating with the legislative branch to fit so much into such a short time and complimented legislators’ “messy” “sausage-making” as having produced mostly good policy. But there is room to improve, he said.
Cox committed to talk with legislative leadership during the interim between sessions about ways to “ratchet” down the number of bills “so that we can have more process, so that we can get better outcomes.”
“The process really matters,” Cox said. “How we do things is almost as important as what we do.”
While legislators got to say goodbye to the Capitol late on March 7, the end of the session marked the beginning of an intensive 20-day window where Cox’s office will review each of the bills.
Cox refused to comment on whether he planned to veto any specific bills. In 2024, Cox used his veto power on seven bills to instruct the Legislature on which bills were unnecessary because they could have been solved with a “phone call.”
“There is a cost associated with each new piece of legislation, and I’m increasingly concerned that we’re not giving government administration adequate time to implement policy changes — both at the state and local levels,“ Cox told the Deseret News in a statement on Wednesday. ”With this recent trend of record-setting numbers of bills, it’s time to rethink our approach.”
Will lawmakers limit bills?
Over the last 15 years, the number of bills introduced each session has increased from the low 700s to the high 900s, according to data compiled by Adam Brown, an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.
The number of bills passed has similarly increased from around 480 to 580. As the number of bills has gone up, the time spent on the floor debating bills in both chambers has decreased from a median of around 14 minutes to 11 minutes, Brown’s analysis found.
“Lawmakers have a built-in incentive to introduce legislation, since passing more bills in their own name gives them something to highlight to voters,” Brown said. “But with only 45 days in the legislative session, more bills inevitably mean less time for thoughtful debate.”
Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, said during the last week of the session that the number of bills being passed at the state level might actually reflect positive differences between Utah and Washington, D.C.
Unlike Congress, where updates to code, small amendments and new provisions can all be added into federal statute in one giant “omnibus” bill, the Utah Legislature must consider each separate issue in state code in separate bills. A large portion of these bills are passed rapidly with a unanimous “consent” vote.
“We have the one subject rule,” Cullimore said. “Some of them are just tweaking things that we’ve done in years past, and it’s a line or two. At the federal level, you’d see that just merged into other bills.”
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, pushed back against policy changes to bring down the total number of bills.
While he would prefer there to be fewer bills, Adams said there is already a vigorous vetting process in place that winnows the initial number of around 1,500 bills that start being drafted, to less than 1,000 that are introduced, to less than 600 that are ultimately passed on the floor after committee consideration.
“We’re not going to limit the number of bills,” Adams said. “We’re not going to set a quota on it.”
How does Utah compare to other states?
Utah legislators actually introduce far fewer bills than legislators in other states — though this may have something to do with the truncated legislative session.
Over the 2023-24 legislative session, New York lawmakers introduced 24,284 bills, Massachusetts had 16,670 and Texas had 13,092, with many states hovering between 2,000 and 5,000.
Utah sat at the back of the pack, with Alaska introducing the fewest bills, at 812, and Wyoming, Idaho and the Dakotas joining Utah at around 1,000 introduced pieces of legislation.
Some states have placed a limit on the number of bills each lawmaker may introduce. California limits its lawmakers to 35 bills that they can introduce during each two-year session.
Utah could follow California’s lead in setting a cap on the number of bills each lawmaker can introduce, Brown said, or the state could also consider extending the length of the session, letting lawmakers hire professional staff to help evaluate bills or setting earlier deadlines for lawmakers to draft, introduce and pass bills.
But, at Utah’s levels, an increasing number of new bill files might actually be a good thing, according to James Curry, a professor of political science at the University of Utah.
“One of the measures of a healthy legislature is members actively introducing policy ideas (rather than doing very little and letting unelected bureaucrats make policy),” Curry said. “We should want them trying to do more, not less.”
The more interesting question is why Utah legislators introduce so few bills, Curry said. The reasons could include the inertia of doing things as they have been done in the past or a desire from leadership to maintain more control over the process, Curry said.
Which lawmakers introduced the most bills?
The number of bills introduced by individual lawmakers vary dramatically.
Over the past four legislative sessions, a handful of lawmakers have consistently introduced two to four times the number of bills as the median lawmaker.
These lawmakers include: Sens. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville; Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan; and Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross; and House Rules Chair Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan.
In 2025, Weiler, Harper and Fillmore again topped the list, with Weiler requesting 33 bill files and Harper and Fillmore each requesting 26. Teuscher requested more than any other representative, with 19 bill requests.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics is making a notable change to the Huntsman Center gameday setup, but the move is about more than where the team sits.
The Runnin’ Utes are moving the team bench from the east side of the Jon M. Huntsman Center to the west side, returning the bench to the side it occupied during the Rick Majerus era. The change will also move the MUSS and band from the west side to the east side.
The shift is part of a larger effort by Utah Athletics to improve the student-section experience, create a more consistent setup inside the Huntsman Center and better connect the arena to the university’s growing College Town Magic initiative.
Enhancing The MUSS And Fan Experience
Nowlin said the primary motivation behind the change is improving the MUSS and the overall fan experience.
“The reason we’re doing this is we want to enhance the MUSS,” Utah’s Deputy Athletics Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Patrick Nowlin said. “As an ongoing effort, we’ve been working on for the past two years, how do we enhance the fan experience?”
One issue Utah identified was that the MUSS had been located in different areas for different events. Moving the student section and band to the east side gives the department a more consistent location to build around.
“We wanted to create a better fan experience,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to be able to have one spot that we can build on, which means we can brand. We can enhance everything about it.”
The move also ties directly into College Town Magic. Nowlin said the area around the Huntsman Center will include more than 2,900 total beds, including more than 1,400 new beds, giving students a direct path from nearby housing to the student-section entrance.
“There’s over 2,900 new beds that are right there, which will be right at the branded entrance, right where the student section is,” Nowlin said. “They don’t have to go far at all. So it’s just a walk straight down from the dorm, right in the door.”
And according to Utah’s Patrick Nowlin, the move is not limited to men’s basketball.
“It’s not just men’s basketball. It’s all Huntsman Center events,” Nowlin said.
A Nod To Utah Basketball History
While the move is primarily about fan experience, there is also a clear basketball-history component.
The west-side bench location is where Utah sat during the Majerus era, when the Runnin’ Utes were one of the top programs in the country and the Huntsman Center had a different level of edge. Alex Jensen was part of that era as a player, and now, as Utah’s head coach, the move reconnects the current program with one of its most successful periods.
Nowlin said the historical connection was part of the conversation, even if it was not solely Jensen’s decision.
“Yeah, it’s a nod to history,” Nowlin said. “I think Alex, him being here, he’s a steward of the program. There’s a lot of history to having it on that side.”
Still, Nowlin made clear the change was not simply pushed through by Jensen.
“It wasn’t a push from him,” Nowlin said. “It was a concerted effort from everybody to where, how do we create an area that the MUSS can have, but also how do we lean into our history, but still move forward in a way that we can honor that, but create an unbelievable environment.”
That is the heart of the move. Utah is trying to bring back a piece of its basketball identity while also reworking the building for the future.
How Fans Will Be Impacted
The change will affect some season-ticket holders, donors and fans seated near the current bench, MUSS and band areas, but Utah tried to limit the disruption.
Nowlin said the department spent months working through the seating impact and expects fewer than 200 accounts to be directly affected. Those accounts are in sections T, U and V.
“This wasn’t something that just came about,” Nowlin said. “We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and we wanted to find a way that we could minimize the accounts that were directly impacted, but still create the fan experience change we were after.”
Utah’s plan is to work individually with affected fans and mirror their seat location as closely as possible on the other end of the court.
“If you’re on one end and now you’re going on the other end, we will work with you to get you in the seat that is similar to where you were and allow you to have the same experience you’ve had, just on the other end of the court,” Nowlin said.
Utah will also hold a virtual seat-selection process from July 7-17, allowing fans who want to move to choose from available options.
“We’re going to take care of everybody, but we’re also going to allow people the choice and the freedom to be able to make the changes they want to make,” Nowlin said. “We want to create every opportunity we can to give our fans opportunities to choose their own experience.”
Not Part Of The Huntsman Renovation
The bench and MUSS move is not directly tied to the larger Huntsman Center renovation discussions. Nowlin said the change is instead connected to College Town Magic and Utah’s effort to improve the student and fan experience inside the building.
“It does not have to do with the renovation, but it does have to do with College Town Magic,” Nowlin said.
The move could create some new seating and premium opportunities, particularly around courtside and floor seating. Nowlin said Utah is still evaluating those possibilities.
“By doing this, this will create additional opportunities for us on courtside and floor,” Nowlin said. “We’re also looking to how do we enhance our premium experience across the board. So this is a step in a process that will continue.”
The Bottom Line
Utah’s bench move is not just a nostalgic callback to the Rick Majerus era, and it is not just a seating chart adjustment. It is part of a broader effort to reshape the Huntsman Center experience.
The team bench is moving back to the west side, where Utah sat during some of the program’s most successful years. The MUSS and band are moving to the east side, where Utah believes it can build a stronger, more consistent student-section identity tied to College Town Magic.
For Utah Athletics, it is another step toward rethinking how the Huntsman Center looks, sounds and feels on game day. For Jensen, the move reconnects the program to its winning past.
The symbolism will matter to longtime Utah basketball fans. The logistics will matter to students, band members and season-ticket holders. But the larger goal is simple: make the building feel more intentional, more connected and more like home again.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
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SALT LAKE CITY – The San Juan County assessor has resigned partway through his second term, following a recommendation that he be removed from office.
Rick Meyer’s resignation became effective on Monday, according to San Juan County Commissioner Lori Maughan. A copy of Meyer’s resignation letter was not immediately available.
This comes after the Utah State Tax Commission determined that Meyer had failed to follow the law and was “unfit to perform his duties.” In a letter last week to San Juan County commissioners, the tax commission recommended “the immediate removal of the San Juan County assessor from office to protect the public interest and restore the integrity of the property tax system in San Juan County.”
Among other things, Meyer was accused of failing to tax agricultural buildings, misclassifying property, and giving property tax exemptions to certain parcels, including vacant land, when he shouldn’t have.
The recommendation to remove Meyer from office was the first under a recent state law giving the Utah State Tax Commission more power to take corrective action against county assessors who aren’t doing their jobs properly. Assessors play a major role in the property tax process by determining the value of property throughout their counties.
Yet, it was unclear whether the San Juan County Commission could have actually removed Meyer from office had he not stepped down.
With Meyer’s resignation, the San Juan County Assessor’s Office has just one employee left. Deputy assessor Nathan Pitts will run the office until the San Juan County Republican Party recommends a replacement and the County Commission appoints one.
“It’s me holding down the fort here,” Pitts told KSL on Thursday, noting that he has spoken with the Utah Association of Counties and the state tax commission about plans for this interim period. “Everybody’s on board to assist and try to make it the best as we can, (but) I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me.”
Pitts said he does not plan to run for county assessor to replace his old boss.
“That is not my intention at all,” he said. “I’m quite content as a deputy assessor.”
Meyer was first elected as San Juan County assessor in 2020 and won reelection in 2024. His current term was set to conclude in 2029.
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.
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — The Rock Canyon Fire, burning in northern Arizona near the border with Utah, doubled in size overnight to 4,512 acres and was 5% contained.
The fire has caused firefighters to evacuate hikers and campers in the area, and some roads in the Kaibab National Forest are closed.
People in Jacob Lake — less than 20 miles from the Rock Canyon Fire — say the new fire is stirring up anxiety after last year’s devastating fire season. They say they’re confident in firefighters, but after the trauma, they’re still holding their breath.
Memories of last year’s fires
For over 100 years, Jacob Lake Inn has been serving cookies to guests who want to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or explore the Kaibab National Forest. Melinda Rich Marshall’s family has owned the inn since 1923.
Last year, they were evacuated during the White Sage Fire that burned close to 60,000 acres, and then the Dragon Bravo Fire, which destroyed nearly 150,000 acres, shut down the North Rim.
Now the Rock Canyon Fire has already burned thousands of acres north of the inn.
“I mean, honestly, our reaction was not again,” Rich Marshall said. “I mean, that’s really what it was.”
Rich Marshall said last year was hard enough, so once they heard about this new fire, it brought back bad memories.
“I’d say we have a little PTSD from it, seeing smoke and smelling smoke and all those things,” she said.
Fire burning in old burn scar
The Rock Canyon Fire was sparked over the weekend by a lightning strike.
Parts of it are burning in the White Sage burn scar. Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Dolores Garcia said old burn scars will usually slow down a new fire, but this time it’s actually fueling the flames.
“In some of those areas, we’re seeing quite a bit of fuels,” Garcia said. “We’re not seeing that the burn scar is helping much, especially with the winds as strong as they’ve been in some days and as dry as it’s been, those fuels are just tender and cured and really flammable.”
She said firefighters are attacking it from the ground and the air, but the high winds are limiting their ability to make water drops.
Hikers and campers were evacuated from the area. Garcia said she knows how stressful this must be to the surrounding communities after last year’s fires.
“We still understand that, it’s still a very fresh wound to many of the people who live up there, who’ve recreated up there for years,” she said. “That’s definitely at the forefront of our minds.”
Rich Marshall said while it’s scary, they have full trust in the firefighters.
“We’re really just grateful to see them and know the work that they are doing,” she said.
Rich Marshall said this is usually their peak season, but they’ve seen a bit of a slowdown even after the North rim reopened. She said people can support them by staying there or even just stopping in and getting some of their famous cookies.
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