Welcome to the 14th day on the Hill.
Budget requests and more attacks on the judiciary. It’s the start of another week of the legislative session.
There’s only 31 days left!
Observations from the Hill
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BUDGET REQUESTS: The Economic and Community Development Appropriations Subcommittee heard a slate of requests for appropriation (RFAs) that, taken together, offered a glimpse of competing visions for economic mobility and community investment.
Several proposals focused on breaking cycles of poverty and instability, including a recidivism and workforce program, a nutrition program addressing food insecurity among low-income families, and a “Nurturing Fathers” initiative designed to support fatherless communities. There was also a significant request tied to affordable housing acquisition, leveraging state dollars with private bank matching to expand low-income housing access. On the opportunity side, lawmakers also heard a request to partially fund a Children’s Technology and Science Center at Thanksgiving Point, framed as a way to give low-income kids free access to STEM programming and build confidence early.
Collectively, these RFAs underscored a familiar tension: Utah has no shortage of innovative ideas to support families and upward mobility, but the looming budget environment will determine which legislative priorities actually get the resources they need.
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE: During House floor debate on HB 79, Rep. Casey Snider delivered one of the most pointed attacks on Utah’s judiciary we’ve seen this session, calling recent Supreme Court decisions “judicial activism” and describing the Supreme Court case that necessitated this bill as “ground zero” for that activism. His remarks framed the bill as an attempt to “correct” what he characterized as a judicial wrong.
To be clear, Better Utah doesn’t have an opinion on HB 79 and I hadn’t heard about this specific frustration with the Court until today. But the rhetoric matters. Lawmakers continue to advance bills aimed at reshaping the courts and for Utahns who care about checks and balances, this rhetoric about judicial activism related to this bill is part of a broader and escalating fight over judicial independence.
