Gov. Spencer Cox delivered his 2024 State of the State Address to a joint session of the Utah Legislature on Thursday, Jan. 18 (Image courtesy of Facebook).
SALT LAKE CITY – Gov. Spencer Cox hit the nail on the head when he tried to describe the secret of the Beehive State’s success in his 2024 State of the State address.
“Utah is weird,” he confessed.
Some of the symptoms of that weirdness include tall mountains, deep snow and otherworldly red rock landscapes; strangely named towns like Tooele and Mantua; oddly spelled Christian names with extra E’s, N’s and Y’s strewn about willy-nilly; steady diets of fry sauce, funeral potatoes and dirty diet sodas; belief in ghost towns and Bear Lake Monsters; and neighbors who play the lottery in Idaho and buy fireworks in Wyoming.
But Utah also dominates endless list of national rankings, he said, including the best state to start a business, the most charitable state, the state with the most independent people and, finally, the best state in the union in 2023, thanks to an analysis of 70 different metrics by the U.S. News and World Report magazine.
But Cox reported that he is proudest of two recent rankings.
The first is that Utah has been recognized as the state with the most social mobility in terms of entrepreneurship, institutions, rule of law, education and social capital.
The second comes from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which praised Utah for its rejection of zero-sum thinking with its “endless pity parties and complaints of victimhood,” in favor of a statewide win-win attitude.
That win-win attitude has resulted, Cox emphasized, in impressive achievements during the last couple of general sessions of the Utah Legislature.
Cox praised lawmakers for delivering the largest tax cuts ever; the largest increase in teacher salaries in Utah’s history; enhancing career pathways and apprenticeships; freezing college tuition; making school choice available to all Utahns; and providing more than $1 billion for water conservation and infrastructure.
Those Legislative sessions have not been without controversy, Cox acknowledged, adding that he supported a pause on transgender surgeries and puberty blockers for minors enacted in 2023.
“At the same time,” he said, “ we also unanimously passed a ban on conversion therapy and approved $1 million in funding for additional talk therapy for our transgender youth.”
The primary goal of that funding is “… to help those kids and let them know we want to keep them here.”
For the upcoming legislative session, Cox said one of the biggest challenges will be managing growth.
“I would love to build a wall around our state – and get California to pay for it,” Cox quipped. “But that is not going to happen. So it is up to you, me and all of us to make sure we grow in the right way.”
The skyrocketing price of housing is the biggest obstacle to “growing the right way,” he added, urging lawmakers to rise to that challenge by supporting his Utah First Homes initiative, with the audacious goal of building 35,000 starter homes throughout the state in the next five years.
Another troubling trend is the growing crisis of homelessness, the governor added. He called on lawmakers to end unsanctioned camping in Utah’s parks and streets; to provide help and services for those truly in need; real consequences and jail time for those who willingly break the law; and civic commitment when absolutely necessary.
In the upcoming session, Cox said that lawmakers must continue supporting teachers and improving education; remove unnecessary government regulations; increase the number of licensed professionals to help those struggling with mental health; strengthen families; and close the divide between rural and urban communities.
“We’re different,” Cox concluded. “We’re weird. The good kind of weird. The kind of weird the rest of our nation is desperate for right now.
“So, stay weird, Utah.”