Gov. Spencer Cox wants to give about a thousand bucks apiece to more than 150,000 Utahns.
How? By eliminating the state’s tax on Social Security.
It’s a central piece of Cox’s proposed budget for fiscal 2026 as he seeks to invest more in Utah’s aging and veteran populations.
His $30.6 billion plan, unveiled Thursday at the William E. Christoffersen Salt Lake Veterans Home, prioritizes “people, place and prosperity,” Cox said, and earmarks funding for aging Utahns, energy development and public education, among other areas.
It’s the biggest spending plan in state history, even as Cox says Utah’s economy is less “robust” than in previous years as COVID-era revenue streams — including federal stimulus funds — dry up.
“What we’re really seeing is a normalization of growth in our state,” Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial board Wednesday afternoon.
The keystone of Cox’s budget is a plan to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits, which the governor’s office says will save more than 150,000 Utahns close to $1,000 a year. The tax break would take a $143.8 million bite out of the state’s revenue pie.
“As Utah’s population ages, we must do more to support our seniors,” Cox said Thursday. “Aging is challenging enough. This step will ensure that Utah is a place where every generation is strong.”
AARP Utah said Thursday that its members “care deeply” about eliminating Social Security taxes.
“The state tax on Social Security benefits undermines the purpose of Social Security, which was designed to lift older Americans out of poverty — not to fund state government,” Joe Hirabayashi, AARP Utah’s advocacy director, said in a statement. “Right now, many Americans are struggling to afford basic needs, and this proposed tax relief couldn’t come at a more important time.”
Cox’s budget also designates $18.8 million toward a “homelessness alleviation effort,” which includes funding a second family shelter in Salt Lake County and a statewide emergency shelter. It’s much less than the $128 million he proposed in his fiscal 2025 plan for emergency shelters. Cox noted the state steered $216.7 million toward tackling homelessness in the current budget, and those investments are still bearing fruit.
His 2026 plan instead pegs $85 million for “vulnerable populations,” which include “those struggling with addiction or homelessness.”
“We’re working closely with the Legislature, closely with the city, the county and our providers to try to get this right,” Cox said. “We’re not there yet, but we are closer. I appreciate the Legislature and the investments that they made last year. It’s making a huge difference, but we still have a ways to go.”
Legislative leadership said Utah lawmakers “appreciate the governor’s budget proposal and remain committed to fiscal responsibility and strategic planning for the future.”
“The Legislature is constitutionally required to balance the budget and will do so as we focus on ensuring Utah’s continued prosperity through responsible investments in key areas,” Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said in a joint statement. “In the past six years, we’ve reduced taxes by over $1.3 billion while making historic investments in education, water, transportation and other critical needs. During the 2025 session, we will continue prioritizing tax relief to foster economic growth and keep Utah competitive, strengthen education, expand energy and other critical infrastructure and address water needs while maintaining fiscal stability, ensuring that all Utahns have the opportunity to thrive.”
Here are other highlights from Cox’s spending plan:
Child care and school safety
The 2026 budget proposes a combined $257.9 million for family and child care services and school safety. The lion’s share, $245.1 million, is directed at school safety, cellphone management in schools and student nutrition.
Cox, reelected last month to a second term, also wants to expand the child tax credit to infants in their first year, designate $3 million toward child care infrastructure and provide an extra $5.6 million for foster care.
“Here in Utah, we value strong families,” Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said. “Our administration for the past four years has worked really hard to make sure that we are helping to strengthen Utah families. This coming budget year, we are hoping to continue that trend.”
Energy and environment
Cox aims to invest $24.7 million in nuclear and geothermal energy.
As proposed, “Operation Gigawatt” would commit $20.4 million to help “lay the groundwork” for nuclear power generation — figuring out where Utah could operate nuclear plants and developing the infrastructure to bring them on line.
Another $4.3 million would pay for “practical, on-the-ground research” of geothermal energy, which Utah has started researching in Beaver County.
It’s all part of the goal to double Utah’s energy production in the next decade.
“We know that Utah can lead the nation in energy production,” Cox said. “We should not only have plenty of low-cost energy for the people who live here in Utah, but we should be able to export that low-cost energy to other states and other nations as well, because that’s who we are. That’s the abundance mentality that we must be thinking with.”
There’s money set aside for environmental conservation, too. Cox wants $34.3 million to fund watershed management and conservation, including $16 million to buy up water leases on the Great Salt Lake.
His proposal includes $651,000 for air quality research and monitoring. Cox unveiled his budget on a day when Salt Lake City’s air quality index was 97, or “moderate,” and smog blanketed the city downhill from the veterans home. The funds would focus specifically on “critical dust,” which is carried in the wind and “poses an emerging risk to Utah’s health and air quality.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox answers questions after unveiling the budget recommendations and priorities for 2026 at the William E. Christoffersen Salt Lake Veterans Home on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024.
Schools and rural success
Education and rural Utahns are other pillars of Cox’s 2026 budget proposal.
The plan includes nearly $300 million in new money for targeted investments in public education and career development.
One proposed program, First Credential for All, would give all Utah public school students the option to graduate high school with “industry-recognized” skills they could take immediately into the workforce. It’s budgeted at $3 million.
Cox also has proposed $178.3 million in higher education funding, which includes $22 million in “performance-based” money for schools that “promote students’ success and align higher education with today’s workforce needs.”
His plan includes $3.4 million for rural emergency medical services and aims to shorten response times.
State employees and efficiencies
State employees will get a slight pay bump if the GOP-dominated Legislature signs off. The proposed 2.5% cost-of-living increase is on par with inflation, Cox said, and recognizes the “best employees anywhere in the nation.”
The Republican governor also wants to invest more in Utah’s “customer experience” initiative and is seeking $2.8 million to do it. The program lets anyone who interacts with a state agency provide feedback in real time.
“This is a specific and intentional opportunity to help Utahns tell us when we’re doing a bad job,” Cox said. “Most people don’t like to hear when they’re doing something wrong. It’s easier not to take that feedback. We’ve taken the exact opposite approach.”
