(dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Thank you for joining us tonight.

We are interrupting our normal programming to bring you live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State Address.

Following his remarks, we will also have a prerecorded response from the Democratic leaders in the Utah legislature.

And as we are waiting, as the governor is entering, some expectations for what's to come for the State of the State Address.

We do see some talks about affordable housing, the Great Salt Lake, as well as rural issues.

Now, the Utah legislatures just started their 2024 session and a lot of controversial topics have come to the forefront.

There you can see the governor is entering, so we'll head live to the Capitol to listen to his speech.

(audience applauding) (applause continues) (applause continues) (applause continues) (applause continues) - [Speaker] We will now hear the State of the State Address, addressed and delivered by our Governor Spencer J Cox.

- Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, by the way, this is not in the script, two of the best people on the planet.

(audience applauding) Madame Lieutenant Governor, my best friend Abby, and to Utah's public servants and my fellow Utahns gathered here tonight, welcome.

I want to especially recognize Senator Balderree, Representative McPherson, and Representative Defay.

Congratulations on joining the best legislative body in the country.

(audience applauding) Alright, I'm glad we got the clapping out of the way.

We have so much to cover in a short amount of time, so I'll ask again like I did in previous years to please hold any applause until the end of the speech, no matter how difficult that may be, especially for Mike Mower in the gallery, right?

(audience laughing) So in 1847, a group of peculiar people arrived in Utah, but what they found was a place that Native Americans already knew was quite different than anywhere else.

Our mountains are taller, our snow is deeper, and our red rocks are otherworldly.

We have natural wonders impossible to describe, like Goblin Valley, Dead Horse Point, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and Pando, the largest living organism in the world.

Am I right, Representative Stratton?

The famed explorer, the people on TV have no idea what we're talking about right now, but that's okay.

The famed explorer John Wesley Powell described his travels in Utah thusly.

"Past these towering monuments, past these mounted billows of orange sandstone, past these oak set glens, past these fern decked alcoves, past these mural curves we glide hour after hour, stopping now and then as our attention is arrested by some new wonder."

And the only thing weirder than the landscape, the people who would inhabit it.

We have strangely spelled town names like Tooele and Mantua and even stranger-spelled names for our people.

While many of us have a grandfather named Levar or Lavonne, now each of us has a niece with names like Sadie or Laiken with extra E's and N's and Y's just strewn about willy-nilly.

In Utah, we dine on fry sauce, funeral potatoes, and dirty diet sodas from our neighborhood swig.

We play the lottery in Idaho and buy our fireworks in Wyoming.

(audience laughing) We build rockets in Box Elder County to send astronauts into space.

And once they arrive, they can actually look back to see the Utah mine which produced the copper needed to send them there.

And to work in that mine and many others across the state, immigrants came from all over the world, including our Greek-American friends who developed the incomparable pastrami burger, a Utah original.

We have a Hawaiian ghost town of Iosepa in Tooele County, a gas station in Hanksville built inside a mountain.

And I challenge you to find another store on the planet more eclectic than Smith and Edwards in Ogden.

(audience laughing) We believe in the Bear Lake Monster.

And some of you here tonight are Delta Rabbits and Jordan Beetdiggers.

Now, I'm sure this is all what our first Territorial Governor Brigham Young had in mind when he said, "This is the right place."

But there's another way in which Utah is different and even a little weird.

Despite being a small, oddly shaped state out west, Utah continues to dominate endless lists of national rankings.

Utah was recently named the best state to start a business, the most charitable state, and the state with the most independent people.

We were even named the number one state for trick or treating.

This is true.

But I know that won't stop Senator Cullimore's efforts to help us reach even higher heights.

Now, probably my favorite ranking comes from US News and World Report where they evaluated all 50 states using thousands of data points and more than 70 different metrics in eight categories.

Their goal, to determine definitively which is the best state.

And for the first time in 2023, Utah was named the best state in the nation, period.

And while it's surely fun to tout that ranking, and I certainly have, I'm much more interested in why we are objectively the best state.

And I'm most interested in how we keep it that way.

Now, I think there are two more rankings that can help us answer those questions.

The first comes from a research study on the American Dream, which experts simplified into an analysis of social mobility, which in simple terms means if you work hard, you can get ahead.

Now after looking at measures of social mobility in entrepreneurship, institutions and the rule of law, education, and social capital, the study concluded that Utah was the best state in the country for social mobility.

The American Dream lives here.

You see, in Utah, we still care about our communities, we still care about our neighbors, we still believe that we can solve problems and help those who are struggling.

We know that we have a duty to give back and lift others.

Now the second study is actually even more fascinating to me.

In September of last year, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a robust study on zero sum thinking.

Now they define zero sum thinking as the belief that gains for one individual or group tend to come at the cost of the others.

So in other words, if you win, then I lose.

Now this type of thinking is deeply associated with a scarcity mentality.

Not only is every person out for themselves, but so is every group or identity.

And identities become paramount.

Race, religion, political party.

My team can only win by tearing your team down.

Now, this scarcity mentality also leads to false choices.

You either care about the Great Salt Lake or you drive a John Deere tractor.

If you want to lower taxes, then you must really hate public schools.

If you have concerns with federal regulation, then you definitely want to start drilling for oil under Delicate Arch.

Now, I promise you, it feels so good to fall into these traps.

There's no feeling more enjoyable in the short term than righteous indignation.

Sadly, a majority of people in a majority of states are now acting that way, as the study proved, as zero sum thinkers, with endless pity parties and complaints of victimhood.

They are buying what the conflict entrepreneurs in our politics and media are selling.

But not so much in Utah.

It turns out that Utahns, far more than people in any other state, reject zero sum thinking.

Utah still believes in the win-win.

We reject false choices and help others succeed.

We see abundance in place of scarcity.

Utah, it turns out, is profoundly weird.

Now, our prosperity and abundance mindset was on display in last year's legislative session.

Told that we had to choose between reducing taxes and supporting our teachers, we rejected that false choice.

Instead, we, you, all of us together delivered both the largest tax cut ever by a huge margin, and the largest increase in teacher salaries in our state's history.

Even better, over the past three years, we have reduced taxes by over $1 billion, with a B.

And for the first time, the average Utah teacher is now paid more than neighboring states like Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico.

But we went even further.

We enhanced career pathways and apprenticeships, froze college tuition, and made school choice available to all Utahns.

And oh, by the way, Utah is now the best state in the nation for providing more per pupil funding to higher poverty districts versus low poverty ones.

We were also faced with drought and water insecurity, and we rejected the scarcity mindset that tells us we have to choose between prosperity or water security.

Over the past two years, we've provided more than $1 billion in water conservation and infrastructure funding.

But even more importantly, the people of Utah have responded by using less water.

And while it's easy to convince people to conserve during the driest years, Utahns shocked the experts last year by using even less water in one of the wettest water years in our state's history.

That doesn't happen.

In fact, in the driest part of our state, despite a historic water year and a 5% increase in service connections, our friends in Washington County decreased its total water use by 1.2 billion gallons.

This is proof of a paradigm shift.

Utahns are doing the right thing without the heavy hand of state government.

And the best news of all is that our reservoirs currently sit at 82%, 24% above average.

This provides us with a springboard for the ongoing implementation of conservation projects.

And it means that as we have promised, we will save the Great Salt Lake.

Utah's ability to solve these problems has received more national attention, including when Representative Teuscher, Senator Cullimore and Senator McKell decided to take on the plague that social media has unleashed on the mental health of our youth.

In a rare display of national bipartisanship, I have received messages from Republicans and Democrats in other states, members of Congress and the President himself thanking us for leading the nation to save our kids.

While we still have more to do on this issue, I am grateful for the courage of Republicans and Democrats in this room who are willing to put these companies on notice that our kids' mental health is more important than their profits.

Sometimes, though, politics is binary, it's not always possible to find a win-win.

But even then, how we win absolutely matters.

Now look, I know last session there were difficult and controversial bills, including a pause on transgender surgeries and puberty blockers for minors, which I supported.

I know there are people impacted who are angry and upset with me, and with many of you gathered in this room.

I want to thank Senator Kennedy for helping to navigate this debate with compassion.

Every other state that has passed this law did it along partisan lines, end of story.

And yes, we did the same in Utah.

But that's not where the story ends, and that's what makes us different.

At the same time, we also unanimously passed a ban on conversion therapy and approved $1 million in funding to provide additional talk therapy for our transgender youth, with one primary goal, to help those kids and let them know we want to keep you here.

We want you to stay.

Even when we disagree and disagree passionately, we must still love.

And speaking of weird, at the bill signing banning conversion therapy, Equality Utah and the Eagle Forum stood side by side.

Now, sadly, while almost every media outlet in the country wrote about the controversial bill, this one got very little attention.

And yet it shows that we still have the ability to solve hard problems and work together in the Utah way, by disagreeing better.

That's something that as Chair of the National Governor's Association I've been working on with my fellow governors.

There's a real desire all across the nation to disagree better, the Utah way, to remember how to stand up for our own beliefs without demonizing and tearing down our opponents.

Okay, friends.

So we find ourselves at the beginning of another 45 day legislative session.

43 now, to be exact, and I know we're all counting.

I wish I could report that we had solved every issue, but we know we have more to do.

But the most pressing challenges in our state today relate to growth.

I was recently asked, is Utah growing too fast?

Now this question implies zero sum thinking.

I think the reporter was surprised by my response.

I said, "The only way to not grow is to suck at being a state."

Sorry mom.

And I'm not interested in that.

I want Utah to be the best place to live in the nation.

I want Utah to be the best place to start a business.

I want Utah to be the best place to have a family.

And if that attracts people, well, we live in a free country and a free market.

Now, don't get me wrong, you guys, I would love to build a wall around our state and get California to pay for it.

(audience laughing) But I know that is not going to happen.

And so it is up to you and me and all of us to make sure that we grow in the right way.

To that end, I believe the single greatest threat to our future prosperity is the price of housing, period.

Housing attainability is a crisis in Utah and every state in the country.

But remember, remember, we aren't like the rest of the country.

No one has figured this out yet.

And I truly believe that we can.

For more than a century, home ownership has been the cornerstone of the American Dream.

It is the key to financial independence and the ability to break away from government support.

Home ownership is also the key to family and community.

People who own homes care more about their mayor and school board.

They care more about their neighbors.

Homeowners have more financial capital and social capital, and most importantly, homeowners have kids.

Which again, going back to that weird thing, it turns out that all of those late night comedians who made fun of us for having so many kids, guess what?

That's the number one reason our state is number one.

That is why I have proposed the Utah First Homes program with the audacious goal to build 35,000 starter homes in the next five years.

While we need more of everything, my focus is on affordable, attainable, single-family, owner-occupied, detached housing.

Most of us grew up or started our own families in a 1300 square foot home.

Our kids and grandkids are desperate for that same opportunity.

The greatest generation did this after World War II, and we can do it again.

The American Dream is alive in Utah, but it will be dead soon if we don't get this right.

Utah must lead the nation with bold and innovative solutions.

Now, there is another troubling trend happening across our country, the growing crisis of homelessness.

All across America, in our most iconic cities, people are suffering and dying on the streets.

Tents and camps metastasizing, assaults, shoplifting, and vandalism skyrocketing, citizens scared to walk down their streets or play with their kids in public parks.

But there is nothing that requires us to be like the rest of the nation.

I refuse to believe that our capital city must suffer the same fate.

Not on our watch.

Zero sum thinking says that we must choose between compassion and accountability.

We decline that offer.

There is nothing compassionate about allowing people to suffer and die on our streets.

And there is nothing compassionate about allowing laws to be flagrantly ignored and broken.

We can provide help and demand accountability.

Unsanctioned camping must end.

We will provide help and services for those in need, and real consequences and jail for those who willingly break the law and civil commitment when absolutely necessary.

Now, when I talk about accountability, I'm also referring to us as public servants and the way these dollars are spent.

You deserve to know, the people of Utah deserve to know where every single dollar is being spent and if it is actually working.

If it's not working, then we should move it to a place where it will, or not spend it at all.

Of course, there are many other issues that need Utah weird solutions.

This session, we have opportunities to continue supporting our teachers in improving education.

We can work to remove unnecessary government regulations.

We can significantly increase the number of licensed professionals to help those struggling with mental health.

We can strengthen families, including better understanding the struggles of boys and men and providing more opportunities for women and girls.

We can continue to close the divide between rural and urban communities, making sure that opportunity exists in every corner of our state.

And finally, I ask you to support the service initiatives I've proposed this session, especially new paths for high school and college students to give back.

Now, I confess that I still beam with pride, probably more than I should, when I see the flagpole that I put up in our cemetery in Fairview for my Eagle Scout project.

The rootedness that comes from rolling up your sleeves to make the place you live better is a defining feature of our state's culture.

And I want to preserve that for your kids and grandkids and mine.

So on that note, I started this speech by talking about how weird we are.

I'm hoping you'll permit me a little personal privilege to share a story about a remarkably weird person.

His name was Ivan Roy Cox, and he was my grandpa's brother.

Ivan grew up in my small town of Fairview.

Now I just thought he was a quirky old guy.

He had a prosthetic arm and only three fingers on his other hand.

At Christmas, he would come to our house and sing Christmas carols alone with a tape recorder of his own voice, so he could harmonize with himself.

(audience laughing) When I was 15, he passed away.

It was at his funeral when I realized how truly unique he really was.

You see, it turns out that Ivan was the closest thing to a real life George Bailey from the film "It's A Wonderful Life" of anyone I have ever met.

I know that now.

My great-grandfather had purchased the Fairview Telephone Company in 1919.

In 1939, a terrible snowstorm knocked down power lines all over town.

Ivan, then aged 25, bundled up and went out to help restore phone service.

Now, unbeknownst to him, way down the line, a high voltage power line had fallen onto the telephone line.

So when he cut through the wire with a pair of old, uninsulated pliers, 6,000 volts of electricity shot through his body.

As he lays smoldering in the snow, everyone assumed he was dead.

Miraculously he survived, but he lost his left arm and two fingers on his other hand.

Now, as people always do in Fairview, the community rallied to help and support him.

Later, he would marry and celebrate the birth of his first child, a baby boy.

Tragically, his wife died just a few months later.

Again, the people of Fairview rallied to help and support the young widower and his baby.

Sorry.

In fact, several women in town volunteered to take turns watching and caring for this little boy, feeding him, reading to him, helping him to find some sense of family and normalcy.

Now, these two tragic events and traumatic events would've shattered most people.

But somehow Ivan became even stronger and more determined.

He figured out how to climb telephone poles with one arm and string wire with three fingers.

He married an amazing woman and helped to raise her daughters.

He took over the phone company and ran it for 40 years.

But more than anything else, he spent the rest of his life giving back to the community that saved him.

He volunteered to be the town Scout Master, learning how to swim with one arm and tie knots with his three fingered hand.

He bought a station wagon and learned how to drive with his disability so he could take the young men on camp outs.

He spearheaded the local chapter of the Lions Club, volunteering and gathering donations for humanitarian projects all over the world, donating more than $1,000 even though he could never afford it.

Ivan wanted to help local families buy their first home or car, but there was no bank in Fairview to lend them money.

So he set out to recruit one.

And when every bank turned him down, he decided to start the first credit union.

Eventually he convinced Far West Bank to take a chance on the sleepy town.

The company he ran was always on the verge of bankruptcy, not because it didn't have potential, but because Ivan was generous to a fault.

He donated to every cause in town, whether the company was profitable or not.

He refused to send delinquent accounts to collections.

He knew what hard times felt like.

And he was sure he didn't want to make them any harder.

Ivan was also a man of deep faith.

He believed there was a higher power that had saved his life and carried him through the darkest times.

He believed that when you were in the service of your fellow beings, you were only in the service of God.

He served three missions for his church.

And on the back of his business card, now remember, he ran a telephone company, read the words, "Pray, call home often, it's free."

If a homeless stranger was passing through town, they stayed at Ivan's home.

If someone was hitchhiking, he picked them up.

When he noticed the elderly in town struggling with loneliness, he started the first senior citizens' program.

In his later years, I would often see him sweeping the sidewalks on Main Street just to make the town a little nicer.

Talk about a weird guy.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I think we need more of this kind of weird today.

I think we need to amplify and preserve this type of weirdness as if our state's future depends on it.

I'm convinced it does.

There's a little park in Fairview today where kids and families come to play.

It's appropriately called the Ivan R Cox Lions Park.

I hope you get a chance to visit it sometime.

I want to recognize Ivan's son Branch and his family who are here with us tonight for their incredible legacy.

The truth is, the truth is that Ivan didn't change the world, but he changed Fairview.

And I've come to believe that that is far more important.

I was inspired at our One Utah summit this year by the author and pundit, Charles Cook, who said this.

"I often think that we give young people bad advice when it comes to politics.

We teach them about the most important and pivotal moments in American history, and then we encourage them to go and change the world.

For most people, that actually isn't an especially useful goal.

We would be in a better place as a country if people resolve to go and change their town or their community or their local food bank."

You see, while the world around us is staggering a bit from war, from loneliness, from contempt, there are Ivan Coxes in every community in this state, at least there used to be.

And we need them now more than ever.

Fortunately, we're in a room full of them tonight.

People like Greg Buxton, Dan Johnson, Mark Wheatley, Robert Spendlove, Susan Pulsipher, Jay Cobb, Marsha Judkins, and Steve Lund.

All of you are following in the footsteps of Ivan.

For 45 days, you and your families are sacrificing to better your communities and our state.

I love you all for doing this, I really do.

Even you, Phil.

(audience laughing) And you too, Brian.

(audience laughing) I love you guys.

Look, I only got to serve one year as a member of the legislature.

And Abby will tell you that in my 20 years of public service as a City Councilman, a Mayor, County Commissioner, Lieutenant Governor and Governor, that one year in the House was my absolute favorite.

My friends, the State of the State has never ever been stronger.

And I'm convinced with every passing day the source of our state's strength is what for the longest time people told us was our weakness.

We are different, we are weird.

The good kind of weird, the kind of weird the rest of the nation is desperate for right now.

And I am praying, I'm praying we can keep it that way.

So stay weird, Utah.

May God bless each of you and may God bless the great state of Utah.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) (applause continues) - If you're just joining us, this is the live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State Address.

We are interrupting our normal programming to bring you this special coverage online and over the air on television and radio.

We now turn to a prerecorded response from the Democratic leadership in the Utah House and Senate for their response to the governor's address.

- Hi, I am Senator Luz Escamilla, Minority Leader in the Utah State Senate, and I'm honored to be here alongside my friend, Representative Angela Romero.

As Democratic leaders of our respective legislative bodies, we affirm our commitment to you and your family that we will fight for the priorities that resonate with the people of the state of Utah.

And we will continue to fight against the extremist agenda that undermines the wellbeing of all of our citizens.

- Our great state of Utah is changing.

We are not the same state we were five years ago, and our population is continuing to diversify.

We are committed to protecting the rights of our diverse communities.

- We are experiencing a homelessness crisis, and we must recognize that this is no longer an issue exclusively tied to our capital city.

It is time that we prioritize providing shelter, mental behavioral health support, permanent housing, and job opportunities for those experiencing homelessness.

We will work and champion ideas where we can address the needs of the unhoused Utahns.

Let's work towards a community where no one is left behind.

- Utah garnered national attention this winter when our capital city experienced an alarming stretch of days with the poorest air quality in the entire United States.

As a legislature, we must prioritize policies that actively work to decrease pollutants in our air and expand public transportation services.

We must prioritize legislation that will improve our air quality to protect the health of our communities.

- The housing shortage and cost of housing are challenges that are affecting too many in our state.

Many are young families.

Additionally, the cost of living has increased dramatically.

For many, the dream of owning a home, the American Dream, is no longer attainable.

We must work together towards solutions that tackle our housing crisis and open pathways for people to be able to afford a comfortable life in our state.

- DEI policies play a crucial role in understanding and addressing the underlying challenges in our schools and communities.

These programs provide essential opportunities for underserved populations to access higher education and pursue opportunities.

- When we attack diversity, equity, and inclusion, we stand against progress.

Let's embrace our differences.

Recognizing that a diverse and inclusive society is stronger, is stronger for our state and it's stronger for our economy.

- We will strongly condemn any behavior that discriminates against our LGBTQ plus communities and continue to fight for your voice and who you are.

You are not alone, and we will ensure that is heard through the halls of the Capitol.

- Passing legislation to make high quality childcare more accessible and affordable is a priority.

It's essential to empower working families and to ensure the wellbeing of our children.

By addressing these challenges, we will support our economic development in our state and empower families to be more resilient and have a better quality of life.

- Supporting our public education systems is essential to cultivating our thriving and equitable society.

By investing in public education, we invest in the future workforce and leaders who will contribute to the wellbeing of our state.

We are committed to keeping taxpayer dollars in our public schools.

- We remain committed to advocating for high quality education for all of our students so they can learn from a variety of authors and various subjects.

Finally, we wanna take this opportunity to recognize our amazing teachers all across the state.

We wanna thank you and commend your effort and dedication to our children.

- The Utah House and Senate Democratic caucuses are committed to building a stronger, more united Utah that embraces the uniqueness of its communities.

Contact your legislators, come up to the People's House, the Utah State Capitol, and attend committees that matter to you.

Attend town halls and let your voice be heard.

- Together we have the power to shape Utah into a state that supports every member of its diverse population.

Through collaboration, striving toward a future marked by inclusivity, we aim to create a state where everyone feels welcome, valued, and included.

- Once again, if you're just joining us, this is live coverage from PBS Utah and KUER News of Governor Spencer Cox's State of the State Address, as well as the response from the Democratic leadership in the Utah legislature.

Whether you're joining us online, through one of our over the air signals, we thank you.

We now turn to the political experts from PBS Utah and KUER News for some analysis.

Joining me in the studio we have Jason Perry, Host of "The Hinckley Report" and Director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics.

Saige Miller, Politics Reporter for KUER and Co-Host of the "State Street Podcast".

And Sean Higgins, also a Politics Reporter with KUER and Co-Host of the "State Street Podcast".

Thanks so much for being with us tonight.

I wanna just start, what were some of the points that you think he's focusing on for the legislative session coming up, Sean?

- Well, I think it's safe to say we heard the greatest hits of Governor Spencer Cox's first term.

A lot of look at the accomplishments of the past, but also some talk about the future.

We heard the two main pillars of Governor Cox's budget, this Utah First Home Buyers program and money towards addressing homelessness in the state.

$150 million for the First Time Home Buyers program.

I think $193, almost $200 million for homelessness.

And when we hear Governor Cox speaking eloquently, trying to weave these things together, it really comes down to these two things.

We need to provide more opportunities for our young people to achieve that American dream we heard him talk about.

And the governor really sees it in housing, in that social mobility, being able to climb the ladder.

And the other side of that coin is when you are struggling, they don't want to fall into homelessness and potentially find themselves in a really hard way, whether that's out on the street, in jail perhaps.

So I think there's gonna be a lot of talk over the next 43 days to address some of those issues.

- And Jason, what were your thoughts about his speech as well as the Democratic response?

- Well, what's interesting about these speeches is really the preparation.

And if you look at the speech and you try to get to some of the content and the response, this is the first time that Governor Cox has given a State of the State as a candidate, which changes how you approach this.

He addressed at least one of his, you know, two of his challengers, I guess the Democrat and one of the Republicans.

So look through that filter just a little bit too.

He said, you know, he's not just giving a State of the State, he's trying to stay in the position, which is why I think Sean is right.

He's talking about some of these issues that are important like homelessness and the First Time Buyers programs.

And these are interesting too because these are generally considered local programs.

And so this is the big government, this is the state of Utah stepping in to try to fix some of these things over the top of some of the locals, which I think is interesting as well.

But to your point and question also, there's a little bit of an interesting kind of same substance from the response and from the speech that came from the governor, when it comes to homelessness, when it comes to buying homes, they all talked about that, but they're looking at it through two different lenses, really, which became very clear in this response.

- Okay, and Saige, you've been up there at the legislature for a couple days.

Most of the topics that we saw from the governor and the Democratic response lined up.

Would you agree with that?

- [Saige] Would I agree with what exactly?

- They lined up, those two lined up.

- Oh yeah.

- But looking through that scope of, it's coming differently from each party.

- They lined up on kind of the same pressing issues that we're seeing across the state, right?

So yes, homelessness and yes, of course housing, but then there's absolute differences between the two parties about how they address more social issues like diversity, equity, and inclusion inside school buildings or inside government funded buildings.

Same with issues when it comes around transgender Utahns and what bathrooms they're allowed to access, for example, or what healthcare that they have the ability to obtain.

And so those are the kind of the two very big different ones.

I agree with Jason 100% that they're looking at it through different lenses, but they're also looking at, well, if there's a mental health problem and there's a homelessness problem, that's going to be tied to access to healthcare or the lack there of it.

And so therefore, they kind of go hand in hand, we kind of need to fix both of them, we need to hear all Utahns.

One thing that I also found very interesting that happened with Angela Romero, House Minority's Leader Angela Romero, is that she was having essentially a call to action of saying, hey Utahns, get out, if you're upset, if you want something to be done, if you want to be involved in this process at any means necessary, like please come down to the Capitol, like meet your legislators, like have them know who you are.

And that's not something that we necessarily heard from Cox, especially during an election year when he wants people to come out and vote for him, so.

- Speaking of DEI, that's a word that is being thrown around a lot right now, but I didn't hear it from Governor Cox.

That's one of the bills that's quickly moving through the legislature right now.

And a lot of people are hearing this word, may not understand it.

Sean, can you just give us a quick recap of what that is and what are the issues with it at the legislature?

- So DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and inclusion.

And these offices, these DEI offices were set up decades ago in the wake of the civil rights movement of the 1960s to provide resources and try and level the playing field a little bit for people in underserved and underrepresented communities in places like universities, other institutions, you see some of that in the private sector.

And I think the focus has really shifted to this in the wake of the George Floyd protests.

You see certainly figures on the right politically really focusing on this issue.

Affirmative action is another one we can loop into this.

The conversation on critical race theory I think is involved in this as well.

And it really kind of also colors a lot of this decades-old thought on the political right that Utah, or not Utah, but America's institutions of higher learning, quote unquote indoctrinate our young people into liberal ways of thinking.

And this is a way to kind of fight back on some of this.

And this bill, like you said, is moving incredibly fast.

It was introduced on the first day of the legislature and we had a full committee hearing yesterday that lasted almost three hours, with an hour and a half of public comment.

And I think the underlying idea is to make Utah's institutions, public institutions, whether it's K-12 universities, or government entities, quote unquote colorblind.

That may be a noble goal in thought.

But in practice, we look at outcomes, it has not been that way.

And I think there's a lot of kind of heartache on the left from the Democratic side.

We heard from Representative Romero that she's a product of these programs.

She would not be the minority leader in the Utah legislature if it weren't for campus DEI programs, that connected her with resources, that got her to the place she is now.

And eliminating some of those programs, it sounds like in in practice, some of that might continue, just not in the name of DEI.

The details, there's still a lot to go, a lot could happen.

The bill could get amended, but a version of this will become law in Utah.

- And also on the topic of education with Spencer Cox is that he touted, you know, a big, big raise that teachers got last legislative session that was coupled with, you know, this idea of school choice or school vouchers.

And that was essentially a way to kind of, I think, motivate teachers to stay within the industry and continue to teaching, 'cause there is such a big teacher shortage.

But I also think another big piece of the puzzle is the fact that a lot of teachers feel like there's a moving target when it comes to what they can teach in school.

like what kind of flag can they wave in their classroom?

What books are they allowed to teach?

So there's always this shifting target to a point where they're kind of just burned out, they're exhausted, it's not worth it anymore.

And so when you see these bills like DEI or sensitive materials in schools come to fruition in the legislature, I don't know if that's necessarily a motivator to keep teachers in the classroom, even if you are throwing a little bit more money into their pocket.

So there's more pieces to that puzzle that need to be solved that doesn't just come with a pocketbook from the legislature.

- Okay.

And Jason, he touched on most of the topics that the Democrats did as well, but there were some missed ones.

Do you think that's a missed opportunity for him?

- Well, he's shaping the narrative the way he gets to shape it.

You know, so I would like him to address more issues, and particularly the ones that the legislature's looking at right now.

You got to DEI, talk about bathrooms, talk about tax cuts, will we still have an income tax by the time this session's over?

There are a few of those things that people are talking about now right now that he could have addressed for sure.

But this was opportunity where the governor really just gets to own his own message.

And because this is going through a campaign filter of sorts, I think we're seeing what he's gonna be talking about all the way through November.

So that's what he really has used this for.

So there's a lot of things we would like him to talk about, but he's going to carefully tailor this message while he has a chance to tailor it by himself.

- Okay.

And another frequent topic we usually hear from Governor Cox on is the air quality, but we missed that tonight from his speech.

- Totally missed it.

- What did you think of that?

- I thought it was pretty interesting to omit the discussion of air quality when one, it's been kind of a campaign stump speech for him in some areas of saying, hey, we need to clean up the air.

We recognize that inversion is unique to our climate.

But additionally Utah wants to host the Olympics in 2034.

And one of the big kind of requirements or kind of goalposts that Utah needs to hit is reducing emissions by a good amount and cleaning up the air.

And so like a lot of the legislature and a lot of state leaders are very stoked on this possibility of the Olympics coming back.

And we even see some bills that haven't necessarily moved forward in the legislature yet, but that are discussing helping reduce emissions.

They haven't gone to committee, we're on day three.

Like, we got some time to go through these committee hearings, but of actually really kind of trying to tackle this issue and could have put a game plan together in order to secure the games.

And so that's something that Cox really, really wants to bring back, but I'm shocked that it wasn't in this speech, but it was in fact in the Democrats' as one of their priorities.

And so that's also a place where I see Republicans and Democrats working together on an issue to actually put forth a bipartisan bill.

They did it last legislative session and it's a good chance it's going to happen again this year.

- Another environmental topic that he did bring up was the Great Salt Lake, and he was saying we will save the Great Salt Lake.

I'm curious what your guys' thoughts are on that, or if we're gonna have more legislation coming through.

- We definitely will have more legislation as it pertains to the Great Salt Lake.

And something that I found interesting about Cox's speech is that he says we will save the Great Salt Lake, look at how full our reservoirs are.

And I think it's a pretty weak link.

We cannot ensure that another great, fruitful winter will happen again.

And that we need to figure out kind of what we need to do with our water supply and what that looks like.

I know that there's a bill going through the legislature to accurately measure the water that is being donated or given to Great Salt Lake to make sure that's actually getting there.

There is no implementation process right now.

And so that's again, another, a step in the right direction that the legislature is taking.

- Yeah, I really do think that this conversation is going to continue about the Great Salt Lake.

For a long time people didn't really get into it as much, but a lot of money has been put towards it.

Contributions of water have been sent to the Great Salt Lake and now they're gonna start monitoring this.

It is an economic issue, as it turns out, which is why both Republicans and Democrats are going to keep talking about it.

Until it stabilizes in some way, we're going to keep hearing them talk about, although the way they do is through an economic development pitch instead of maybe just a pure conservation pitch.

- And on the economic pitch, we did see that he has presented a record breaking budget plan.

Can you talk about what he's prioritizing, Sean?

- I mean, the number one and number two things are homes and homelessness are his two big kind of marquee pillars to this.

But I think the majority of the budget goes toward just funding the way the state operates.

And I think the state has grown in such a way where I think a lot of people see $29.5 billion, they've been around the state for any number of time, and their eyes pop outta their head and like, they go, I remember when a $5 million budget was what we were arguing about.

And I think it speaks to the amount the state has grown in recent years.

It speaks to the amount that the state is changing.

And looking at the priorities that are in the budget, Governor Cox is looking toward the future on a lot of this stuff.

He wants, he called it an audacious goal of 35,000 new starter homes in four years.

It's an incredible amount of construction that needs to happen.

And there's a lot of economic factors that are not in anyone in Utah's control when we talk about interest rates in the state of the broader economy.

But I think when we look at what is and isn't prioritized, I think, like Jason said, we're seeing Candidate Cox tonight, not necessarily a Governor Cox.

If I was on his advisory team for his campaign, I'd say don't rock the boat.

And I don't think he rocked the boat much tonight.

- I'll tell you an interesting point from this is he talked at the very beginning about how we are the number one state.

And as you start talking about that, there's a lot of things that come with it.

Like our growth, for example, our infrastructure, even water that's connected to the Great Salt Lake, and the conversation's really turning to him is, and he asked the question, is how do we keep it that way?

And that is really what our legislature's looking at right now is there are certain decisions that have to be made based on the growth.

And we have a changing demographic here without question in Utah.

We have more people moving in than are born, which is new.

And a lot of people coming from outside the state of Utah, which is creating issues around the way we are growing.

So we saw a little piece of that in this speech, but through this session in the coming years, this is gonna be a prime source of conversation is how do you grow in a smart way given limited resources in a state like ours?

- Okay, and I'm back to the budget, the legislature's ultimately who is gonna decide this, is that correct?

Governor Cox can have his budget and his wishes, but it's coming down to what-- - Well, without question that's how it is.

You know, every December the governor has a big press conference and a lot of big posters about what his priorities are going to be, delivers it to the legislature, but they control all of the money.

The governor will say that most of the time, I think he's given a number, like 80 plus percent of the time they align, at least in terms of those priorities.

But without question, before the session's over, even though everyone was really happy there and he's talking to his former colleagues, the legislature is gonna do what they want to do.

- Okay.

One thing we didn't hear from either was on the energy and infrastructure realm.

So speaking of the environment and the climate change and other, priority is, it seems like in the legislature is energy independence.

Were you expecting to hear that, either of you?

- In my conversations with some leaders up at the legislature, there is this kind of unique, whether it's just rhetoric to say Utah should be energy independent.

What that looks like in practice, I think some people are a little questionable of, but there's a definite push to unshackle Utah from some of the binds they think that have been put on them by, whether it's EPA regulations or lack of permitting reform that is preventing the deployment of other alternative forms of energy in the state of Utah.

So I think energy independence is a nice thing to put on a campaign mailer maybe.

But as far as what that means in practical terms, that's a very unclear statement to make.

- Okay, we are hearing that the legislature wants to create an Environmental Stewardship Caucus.

Have you guys heard of this yet up on the Hill?

- Yeah, I actually talked to Representative Clancy today about it, 'cause he's the one running that kind of sweeping plan for air quality to reduce it.

And he says that that's one of the bills that's going to this caucus to try and discuss.

And we already know that there is a Clean Air Caucus, a bipartisan Clean Air Caucus within the legislature.

So this is kind of tagging onto it as well to look at kinds of things of energy.

I don't know, Jason, if you have more insight into the interworkings.

- Well, what you described is exactly right.

But what's interesting about the kind of the substance of this group is the Republicans in the state are really trying to claim the environmental issues because it's become politically good for them.

And going back to one of your insightful questions a few minutes ago, the state does care about its reputation, does care how we look to the outside.

And even if you have the world coming to the state of Utah, like for the Olympics or something like that, this is one of those things that they're thinking about.

And it's because it's good for business to clean the air in some way, or to think about it or to talk about it.

So I think that's what this caucus is going to do, is they're gonna put money into innovations, ways that we can spur the local economy through different kinds of energy without, of course, forgetting about coal, which is still something our legislature's talking about using.

- Okay, and do you think from a policy standpoint that legislators actually can help with energy independence?

- Well, policies really do impact energy usage in the state.

The kind of investments you make and the technologies that are cleaner, cleaner burning coal, for example, solar, all the different aspects of energy are really funded through policies.

So if you wanna say, you know, how do we help our private industry and the people out there that have the innovations for energy independence?

It's gonna take a huge investment from the state, and that is not gonna come without the legislature.

So that is one of those positive signs, that they're thinking about it, and I think that they're going to do it.

It helps the economy and it also helps our exposure outside the state.

- Absolutely.

And we did hear from the governor about some transgender issues.

I want to touch on this a little bit.

You guys have talked about it somewhat.

But he mentioned stuff from last year.

He didn't mention anything from this year.

So Saige, can you talk about, you've been in hour-long committees for the transgender bathroom issue.

Did he miss an opportunity there to talk about that?

- I think to echo what Sean said, he wasn't really trying to rock the boat.

I think he was trying to prop up what he has with the National Governor's Association, which is the idea of disagreeing better.

So when he talked about SB-16, which was the bill that restricted access for transgender youth to undergo gender affirming care in some aspects, that was a very contentious bill.

That committee hearing was the longest and hardest one I've ever had to sit through.

And I know that it weighed heavily on a lot of lawmakers, that past session.

But then he brought up the conversion therapy bill, when you had the Utah Eagle Forum and you had Equality Utah kind of come together to help ban that practice.

And he was like, this is an idea of disagreeing better.

But that scenario is not necessarily happening with the transgender bathroom bill.

And I will say it's not specifically towards like, just transgender folks and kind of the access that they have, but it does heavily pertain to them and absolutely impact them every step of the way, of as this bill is being debated back and forth.

So I don't think he necessarily missed an opportunity 'cause I don't think he necessarily wanted to rock the boat by any means.

- Okay, we are almost outta time, but I do wanna give you guys about 30 seconds each just to wrap up.

Sean, do you wanna go ahead?

- I think a lot of what we're gonna see, and we got a taste of it tonight, from the legislature over the next few weeks is gonna be colored by primary season and then the election in November.

A number of lawmakers in the House and Senate are facing primary challenges.

Utah is a supermajority Republican state.

So we're gonna see a lot of positioning, a lot of messaging around some of these red meat issues that go on campaign materials and show delegates or voters that, here's what I stand for, keep me in office.

So I think going forward, we're gonna see a lot of that, especially from the governor.

I think when it comes to the governor's willingness to veto bills that we've seen in the past, he's not gonna be standing in front of any trains barreling his way when they come out of the legislature.

So I think everything is gonna be colored by the election.

- Okay, and any quick thoughts, Jason?

- Well, I think that's exactly right.

When you're in an election year, particularly given the new laws which made people file before the legislative session started, it's gonna change the kind of bills that we get.

It's gonna be more conservative, it's gonna be more like what we're seeing right now.

And every one of these candidates from the governor to the Republicans in the legislature are gonna use the legislation and the legislative session to advance their own campaigns to some extent.

We're gonna see more of that, which is why we're seeing these bills upfront.

- Okay, we are out of time.

I'm sorry, Saige, we didn't get to you.

But we will have obviously more with the legislative session coming from you two.

We appreciate all the hard work that all three of you put in.

So thank you so much for joining us for PBS Utah and KUER for live coverage and analysis of the 2024 State of the State Address.

Be sure to join both of our stations for ongoing coverage and analysis of the legislative session, "The Hinckley Report", "State Street Podcast", and KUER News.

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