Coming up is a special session for the Utah Legislature on August 20th. On KVNU’s For the Program on Thursday, outgoing senator Lyle Hillyard looked ahead to next year as someone else will deal with all the budgets, emails and debates.
“About a week before the votes started being counted, I just had an epiphany….’what if you lose’. And I had such a relief come over me because I know how difficult budgets are going to be and cutting…all you have to do is look at my emails everyday. I get people who don’t want the governor to have any power to do this emergency power and then people wanting to mandate masks, people who don’t want school to start, those who do want school to start,” Hillyard explained.
He said the last couple of years has had its share of pressures and it’s a difficult time to get consensus, trying to get people to agree. Hillyard said the problem is there has been so much mis-information with people relying on what someone says on the internet or in a tweet. He hopes to be able to enjoy retirement.
“I just hope COVID-19 is calmed down enough, so come December or January when I’m through, my wife and I can take a much-needed vacation and just go away and for the first time just sit back and enjoy life, enjoy each other and living some life without pressure.”
He said one thing he’s learned about doing budgets during his tenure is that basically the state employees are wonderful as they do a lot of the changes. Hillyard thinks one of the reasons the state is doing as well as it is doing is owing to the fact that state employees have been doing such a great job.
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