SALT LAKE CITY – Gov. Spencer Cox’s annual message to Utah lawmakers can be succinctly summarized as “Build, baby, build!”
“We stand on the shoulder of giants,” Cox reminded the members of the Legislature during his 2025 State of the State address on Jan. 23.
“Our ancestors irrigated farms, excavated minerals, built homes and neighborhoods, powered cities and connected the continent by rail. In the face of adversity, they built.”
The recurring refrain in the governor’s address was “we must build” to create housing attainability; energy abundance; infrastructure and permitting reform; community safety and support; and family strength.
Over the past couple of decades … negativity and inertia replaced the culture of building in America, according to Cox.
“But not here,” he insisted. “At least, not yet. Utah is an outlier. Utah has stayed … weird, in the best way …
“For 180 years and counting, Utahns have been building our way out of problems, even when things looked impossible.”
As examples of that determination, the governor’s address cited rugged individuals and pioneers who made Utah history.
His remarks recalled John Rowe Moyle, a one-legged stonemason who helped to build Temple Square; Philo Farnsworth, the Utah farm boy who envisioned the first television; and the Borgstrom family of Thatcher, who sacrificed four sons to the fury of combat in World War II.
“Our government is not what makes Utah great,” Cox admitted. “It’s our people – faith, family and community …
“Mostly, I want to make sure that our government stays off your back and out of your way, so that we do not block the good that I know you are eager to do.”
Cox concluded his remarks with a litany of things that the motto of “We must build” should always mean to Utahns.
Among those aspirational ideas were the knowledge that every breakthrough started with someone who refused to accept impossibility; knowing that success is not inevitable, it is earned; axing every possible tax, so that Utahns can keep their hard-earned money; rejecting attempts to weaponize our attention and destroy what makes us special; supporting the self-determination of all Utahns; making Utah welcoming to every lawful newcomer; not forsaking our ideals, even when we fall short of them; and doing big, hard things in our lives and this legislative session.
Finally, the governor concluded his address by emphasizing that lawmakers should do everything possible to build a bright future and give their descendants an inspiring story to tell 180 years from now.