When Utah lawmakers meet Tuesday to kick off their annual 45-day session, the focus will be on the lists of priorities set by the Republican supermajorities in the House and the Senate.
The House majority published a 45-page guide entitled, “For Utah A Bold Vision, A Bright Future,” to showcase their intention to “pass policies that address today’s problems and create generational benefits” for Utahns.
The Senate majority caucus put together a priority list, too, “Utahns First Sustainability At Every Level,” that promises the state can prepare for any challenges by “building on the achievements of the past and prioritizing family and business-friendly policies.”
The issues to be tackled are largely general and don’t delve into some of the hot-button topics coming up, such as efforts to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion practices at the state public universities and colleges, or attempts to limit voting by mail.
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Utah’s Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate aren’t planning to release their priorities until the start of the session, a spokeswoman said. Democrats hold just 14 of the 75 House seats and six of the 29 Senate seats.
New House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, went over his chamber’s priorities on Monday with the Deseret News editorial board and rolled them out at a news conference in the state Capitol on Wednesday,
“It’s been more robust, with more involvement, than any other one that we’ve done before,” Schultz told reporters Wednesday, saying the list of priorities “really, truly is our caucus as a whole coming together.”
They go beyond “what’s popular at the moment” to address long-term needs, the speaker said. “We’re at a pivotal time in the state’s history. As we transition form a small state to a medium state, the decisions we make today will have generational impact.”
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House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, joins with members of the House Majority Caucus to review policy priorities and answer questions at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Utah House Republican priorities
The House GOP divided its priorities into four areas:
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People: “We want to make sure we continue to create policy that makes us a family-friendly state gong forward,” House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss, R-Saratoga Springs, said at the news conference, including by reducing regulations that limit access to child care and promoting what’s known as the “success sequence” of life events for young adults.
Taxpayers, Moss said, are “feeling the sting of inflation.” The House majority is promising to “continue to improve government efficiency so we can ease tax burdens.” Legislative leaders have already set aside $160 million for what will likely be another income tax cut this year, but Schultz said it’s “irresponsible” to say that’s the right number until after new state revenue projections come out in February.
Limiting regulation is also the GOP representatives’ plan for improving the health and well-being of Utahns, Moss said, and working with local governments to address homelessness is also on the agenda.
Improving school safety, easing the burden of school fees and “making it a more desirable thing to be a teacher, looking for ways to create more innovative pathways into the teaching profession” are ways to helps students and teachers, Moss said.
Resources: For water, Moss said lawmakers will be trying “to find ways to conserve it and coordinating efforts across the state” to deal with drought. Energy is a big topic on the hill this year, with a statewide plan in the works to ensure “reliable, affordable and dispatchable” sources in the wake of what the majority caucus calls “Washington, D.C.’s irrational energy policy.”
The nation’s capital is also a target in the lands policy. “Lands is very important. We want to continue to fight for our lands, to be able to have access to our lands,” Moss said, referring to the federal government’s ownership of about two-thirds of the state’s acreage. The House Republicans are also calling for recognizing that “technological development and innovation in fossil fuels are part of the solution to our environmental challenges.”
Accountable government: “We believe the federal government continues to overreach and we want to continue to push back on that overreach, fighting for our state rights,” Moss said. “Internally, we want to make sure the government is more efficient, finding ways to cut waste.” Schultz told the Deseret News that the Legislature’s budget committees have not been given a specific goal for reducing spending.
Public safety is part of the focus on accountability. Moss said there are a number of effort underway to answer the question, “how do we make sure that our citizens feel safe,” Those include dealing with staffing shortages as well as “other challenges” threatening the safety and security of state prison staff and inmates.
Higher education falls into this category, too, in the House GOP list, “I know we’ve heard a lot about this. That’s making sure that our campuses are free to be able to express your opinions, and not have to worry about whether you’re going to be scrutinized on that. We want to make it inclusive for everyone,” Moss said. Also on the agenda is reducing the time and money needed to earn a degree.
Future: “We’re looking for innovative solutions to big problems,” Moss said, in housing, transportation and technology. Reducing regulation is again part of the plan to “streamline” the development of an increased supply of affordable housing.
Transportation investments “are essential to maintian Utah’s high quality of life,” the caucus’ guide says, accounting “for growth where it is happening” while considering all options including public transit.
Moss said House Republicans “want to look at new ways to embrace new technology but also make sure we’re safeguarding our data.” The guide points out that artificial intelligence “promises to boost productivity and enhance our everyday lives; however, potential risks like misinformation and deep fakes pose a threat to public wellbeing.”
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The Senate Chamber is pictured at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Utah Senate Republican priorities
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who is serving his sixth session as a top legislative leader, stressed the need to continue the state’s significant successes.
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“We’ve got kind of a legacy that we need to uphold. When I think about what’s been done before us, we’re very fortunate,” Adams said, citing Utah being singled out nationally for the state’s economic and other strengths, including volunteerism.
“There’s been some great things happening in Utah,” he said. “But with those great things, there are some challenges also.” The Senate majority caucus has identified those that will be a priority this session. They are:
Energy: “Energy drives our economy,” Adams said. “We’re going to do everything we can to try to keep our energy prices reasonable in Utah even though a lot of it is out of our control. We’ll do what we can here.”
The state will still move toward renewable energy “but we’re not going to do it at the expense of our economy, he said, adding that means finding ways to keep coal-fired power plants open longer, although it’s “very unlikely” there will be financial incentives offered.
Water: “Water has already been a priority in a drought,” Adams said, “We’ll continue to look at innovative conservation practices and trying to find a way to protect Great Salt Lake and develop the water resources we need.”
Education: Among contiguous states, “we have the highest starting teacher salaries after what we did last year and we’ve doubled the spending, on education in the last 10 years,” he said, but a bill is in the works to raise the pay to $100,000 or “high performing teachers.”
Affordable housing: “Great efforts” have been made in the past on higher-density developments in cities but Adams said he’s “been panicked we’re losing our middle class. Home ownership is really the American dream.”
Last session, the Senate leader sponsored legislation setting up a fund for first-time homebuyers that he said sparked the governor’s budget proposals on housing. Adams stopped short of signing off on that plan, but pledged to “continue to focus on trying to get people into a home.”
Homelessness and criminal justice reform: While the issues are listed separately on the Senate majority’s list, Adams said they should be combined. “We need to make sure we’re giving people a hand up, not a hand out, that we’re trying to motivate them to change their circumstances.”
He said there will probably be some “refinements’ of the governor’s homelessness proposals but “we’re aligned for sure in principle.”
Infrastructure: The economy may dictate what lawmakers can do, Adams said, when it comes to improving Utah’s transportation system and addressing traffic congestion to keep up with the continued growth in our state.
Fiscally responsible tax cut: “We’ve cut taxes again and again and again, three years in a row but again this year we’ll be probably a little more cautious,” Adams said, due to the slowdown in the state’s revenue growth that he blames on energy prices. Like Schultz, he suggested there may be changes to he proposed $160 million tax cut.
Social media: Utah “will continue to lead in that. We’ll stand up and protect our kids against any litigation,” Adams said. “It’s pretty much documented that we’re seeing some difficult social effects from social media,” especially on teenaged girls,
SPANISH FORK — The man charged with capital murder in the death of Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser is once again facing additional charges for allegedly spraying a deputy at the Utah County Jail with an unknown liquid.
Michael Aaron Jayne, 43, of Garrett, Indiana — who is already awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated murder and is facing a possible death sentence if convicted — is now accused of propelling an unidentified liquid into the face of a Utah County sheriff’s deputy while incarcerated.
On Sunday, about 6:50 p.m., Jayne allegedly used his hands “to forcefully hit something on the inside of his cell door through the crack, causing liquid to spray out onto the victim. When this happened, the cell door was shut. It took planning and effort to shoot the substance through the crack in his door at the right time. The victim then stepped back and radioed for an additional deputy. I then entered the unit and saw the victim wipe his face and liquid droplets on the victim’s pants and shirt,” according to a police booking affidavit.
Deputies later reviewed surveillance video and saw Jayne watching the deputy as he entered the housing unit to do a head count, the affidavit states.
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He was initially arrested and later charged for allegedly running over Hooser with a semitruck intentionally on May 5, 2024, according to charging documents. A preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled to begin Nov. 24.
In August, Jayne was charged with aggravated assault by a prisoner, a second-degree felony; two counts of assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony; and causing property damage, a class A misdemeanor. In that case, he is accused of attacking multiple deputies on July 30.
In September, his defense team filed a motion stating they are “gravely concerned” that if their client isn’t moved out of the Utah County Jail, he may not live to see a trial. But just a week later, that motion was withdrawn.
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.
A Utah judge on Monday rejected the new congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers, adopting an alternate proposal that creates a Democrat-leaning district ahead of the the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans currently hold all four of Utah’s House seats and had advanced a map poised to protect them.
Judge Dianna Gibson ruled just before a midnight deadline that the Legislature’s new map “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.”
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She had ordered lawmakers to draw a map that complies with standards established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor a party, a practice known as gerrymandering.
If they failed, Gibson warned she may consider other maps submitted by plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led her to throw out Utah’s existing map.
Gibson ultimately selected a map drawn by plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. It keeps Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district, instead of dividing the heavily Democratic population center among all four districts, as was the case previously.
The judge’s ruling throws a curveball for Republicans in a state where they expected a clean sweep as they’re working to add winnable seats elsewhere.
Nationally, Democrats need to net three US House seats next year to wrest control of the chamber from the GOP, which is trying to buck a historic pattern of the president’s party losing seats in the midterms.
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The newly approved map gives Democrats a much stronger chance to flip a seat in a state that has not had a Democrat in Congress since early 2021.
“This is a win for every Utahn,” said state House and Senate Democrats in a joint statement. “We took an oath to serve the people of Utah, and fair representation is the truest measure of that promise.”
In August, Gibson struck down the Utah congressional map adopted after the 2020 census because the Legislature had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.
The ruling thrust Utah into a national redistricting battle as President Donald Trump urged other Republican-led states to take up mid-decade redistricting to try to help the GOP retain control of the House in 2026.
Some Democratic states are considering new maps of their own, with California voters approving a map last week that gives Democrats a shot at winning five more seats. Republicans are still ahead in the redistricting fight.
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Redistricting typically occurs once a decade after a census. There are no federal restrictions to redrawing districts mid-decade, but some states — more led by Democrats than Republicans — set their own limitations.
The Utah ruling gives an unexpected boost to Democrats, who have fewer opportunities to gain seats through redistricting.
If Gibson had instead approved the map drawn by lawmakers, all four districts would still lean Republican but two would have become slightly competitive for Democrats. Their proposal gambled on Republicans’ ability to protect all four seats under much slimmer margins rather than create a single-left leaning district.
The ruling came minutes before midnight on the day the state’s top election official said was the latest possible date to enact a new congressional map so county clerks would have enough time to prepare for candidate filings for the 2026 midterms.
Republicans have argued Gibson does not have legal authority to enact a map that wasn’t approved by the Legislature. State Rep. Matt MacPherson called the ruling a “gross abuse of power” and said he has opened a bill to pursue impeachment against Gibson.
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Gibson said in her ruling she has an obligation to ensure a lawful map is in place by the deadline.
When most people think about seafood production, a landlocked state like Utah may not be the first state that comes to mind. But Utah already plays a pivotal role in America’s seafood supply chain — thanks to the Great Salt Lake — and expanding aquaculture into deep open ocean waters off our coasts would bring even greater opportunities and benefits for Utah’s economy and local communities.
With demand for sustainable protein on the rise, aquaculture has become one of the fastest-growing food production systems. Advances in science and technology have made open-ocean aquaculture one of the most efficient and environmentally responsible methods for producing protein. Yet in the U.S., the industry remains largely untapped. Once a global leader in seafood production, America now ranks 18th in aquaculture and imports up to 85% of the seafood we consume, including half from overseas fish farms. Expanding U.S. aquaculture production off our shores through open-ocean aquaculture is critical to strengthening food security, creating jobs and ensuring American families have greater access to locally raised seafood.
Utah has a unique stake in this national effort. The Great Salt Lake is the world’s leading source of brine shrimp, a critical ingredient in aquaculture feeds. Brine shrimp provide the nutrition needed to raise healthy fish, and aquaculture operations across the U.S. depend on Utah’s supply. That connection generates an estimated $67 million for Utah’s economy each year, sustaining jobs and cementing Utah’s role in the seafood supply chain.
Utah’s fish feed industry is a prime example of how aquaculture expansion in the U.S. would deliver benefits far beyond America’s coastal states. New farms in federal waters would bring jobs and investment to waterfront areas, while ripple effects across the seafood supply chain would reach deep inland states. Utah producers would benefit from increased demand for fish feed, and farmers across the Heartland, including Utah’s own wheat and corn growers, would benefit from rising demand for American-grown crops that are used in plant-based aquaculture feeds. From hatcheries and feed suppliers to processors and retailers, seafood supply chain businesses throughout the state and across the country would benefit from growing demand for American-raised seafood.
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But for the U.S. to realize the potential of open ocean aquaculture in federal waters, legislation is needed. The bipartisan Marine Aquaculture Research for America (MARA) Act of 2025, recently introduced in both the House and Senate (H.R.5746/S.2586), would create a pathway for open ocean aquaculture in federal waters, supporting the growth of U.S. seafood production. This bipartisan bill has already garnered strong support from leading environmental groups, seafood industry leaders, award-winning chefs and academics, who all recognize that aquaculture is a crucial tool for producing more sustainable protein, meeting rising demand and alleviating pressure on wild fisheries.
Utah is well positioned to benefit from the growth of aquaculture. Home to established companies and suppliers with decades of experience in aquaculture and aquafeed production, Utah businesses are ready to support the seafood supply chain and meet the increased demand that expanded U.S. aquaculture would create. At the same time, research institutions like Utah State University are advancing sustainable harvest practices that balance economic activity with the health of the Great Salt Lake.
Expanding U.S. aquaculture isn’t just about producing more seafood. It’s about creating jobs, strengthening food security and securing America’s future food supply while supporting communities nationwide, both inland and along the coast. With our established aquafeed producers, research expertise and strong ties to the seafood supply chain, Utah is ready to support aquaculture expansion in America. By passing the MARA Act and advancing American aquaculture, Congress can help deliver a stronger American seafood industry.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25218049/merlin_3013282.jpg "What are the priorities for the Utah Legislature’s Republican supermajority for the 2024 session?")
