A new bill that would divert a quarter of the money the state makes from selling alcohol into a longtime affordable housing fund, is struggling to find support.

HB286, sponsored by Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, has already been heard twice by the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee. Both times, the committee voted to hold the bill rather than send it to the full House.

Moss said at a Friday news conference in the Capitol that she’s not giving up.

“We hear about the need for housing all the time,” she said, for people at all income levels. Meanwhile, Moss said revenues from state-controlled liquor sales should grow, driven by tourism that’s expected to get a boost from the 2034 Winter Games.

Her bill would send 25% of the money made from state alcohol sales to the the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund, named for Utah’s first woman governor. The fund was established in 1987 to provide low-interest loans and grants for affordable housing.

“The revenue stream we’re asking for is not taking away money from school kids or anyone else,” she said, since state-controlled sales are already bringing in much more than the revenue used for school lunches, underage drinking prevention and public safety.

“Many of the people that end up without homes are people that have suffered from alcohol abuse and so it seems like kind of a good match,” Moss said. She said she believes there is still an opportunity to advance the bill this session.

The fund, which has received a $2.2 million annual allocation from the Utah Legislature in recent years, at times runs out of money to loan, longtime housing advocate Steve Erickson said. The bill would add just over $28 million a year to the fund in the new budget year that begins July 1.

Information provided about the bill showed that money could help bring in as much as $453.75 million in other funding, including from private sources, for an estimated 1,375 affordable housing units.

Moss said the size of the earmark, intended to provide a reliable funding source for affordable housing, could be scaled back. The bill is backed by the Utah Housing Coalition, Habitat for Humanity organizations in Utah and a long list of other groups.

During the bill’s second hearing last week, Rep. Troy Shelley, R-Ephraim, pushed back after Moss said the private sector is hindering rather than helping efforts to provide more affordable housing for Utah.

“I probably am opposed to the position that the free market is not fulfilling the need and therefore there is a need for government to come in. My perception is the need for the government to get out of the way is probably the better answer,” Shelley said.

He also appeared to take issue with only 40% of the fund going towards assisting with the purchase of single family homes and the rest used for building multifamily housing that’s typically rented.

“The American dream is to be able to own a home and not always be paying rent,” he said, proposing that the fund look at ways rent assistance could be used towards a down payment on a home, giving participants in the program “a goal to strive for.”

Shelley, who also gave examples of constituents who had been unable to connect with the fund, suggesting that lawmakers look at ways it could be made more efficient during interim meetings before the 2026 Legislature meets.

Another member of the committee, House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss, R-Saratoga Springs, endorsed putting off any action this session so lawmakers could take more time to consider how the funding would impact other efforts to make housing more affordable.

“I think we need to be very aggressively looking at this area. But there are just so many different things that are coming. We’re hearing creative sources (of funding) here or there,” the majority leader said.

He said his biggest concern is bringing together all of the groups working on the issue “and having those conversations, and making sure that we are doing this in a more holistic manner rather than just trying to find piecemeal ways to get around things.”

GOP senators didn’t seem too excited about Moss’ bill, either.

On Friday, Senate Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, pointed to his bill raising the state’s markup on liquor and wine from 88.5% to 89% to fund prison education as an alternative, saying there’s not enough money from liquor revenues to fix Utah’s housing issues.

Contributing: Brigham Tomco