A few massive changes Utah could see from the 2025 legislative session

The Utah Legislature begins its 45-day marathon of lawmaking this week. If last year — and the several years before that — are any indication of lawmakers’ enthusiasm for political sausage-making, expect the Legislature to pass more than 500 bills.

Not all bills are created equally. Lawmakers refer to some of their legislative proposals as “clean-up bills,” or small adjustments made to existing law to overcome an administrative or legal hurdle.

But others can bring massive changes to the Beehive State. Here’s how some lawmakers want to reshape Utah’s elections, reform the judicial system and tackle the housing crisis.

Changes to Utah election

On the heels of a contentious election cycle for the Utah GOP, legislative Republicans are looking to make a series of changes to how political contests operate in the state.

In a tight congressional primary decided by fewer than 200 votes, some 2nd Congressional District residents’ votes were not counted due to postal delays. Now, two Republicans are pitching two bills meant to curb voting by mail.

Cedar City Republican Rep. Rex Shipp introduced a bill that would require voters to opt in to receive their ballot in the mail, and Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, wants county clerks to ensure 95% of registered voters in their county have a ballot drop box within an hour of their home.

Thurston’s bill would also change the deadline for mailed ballots — rather than a ballot simply having to be postmarked the day before Election Day, it would have to arrive before polls close.

Utah has allowed voters to use by-mail ballots without an excuse for over two decades, and since 2012 has allowed counties to conduct elections entirely by mail. An investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune found that among the counties that made voting data available, 96.7% of voters relied on the ballots they received in their mailbox to cast a vote in last year’s primary election.

A gubernatorial competition marked by lawsuits and unfounded accusations of fraud over how Gov. Spencer Cox qualified for the Republican primary ballot — via signature petition, rather than receiving party delegates’ approval at the convention — has Republican legislators looking for ways to bandage a deepening rift in their party.

One measure that lawmakers and the governor have found consensus on, although a bill containing the change has not yet been published, is making signatures on candidate petitions a public record that everyday citizens can access.

Another proposal from Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, would lower the signature threshold for candidates to qualify for the primary ballot.

Collecting signatures can be costly — especially in statewide races. According to campaign disclosures, Ward paid approximately $8,000 to gather signatures for his district’s Republican primary. Cox paid $147,000 in his reelection race.

Some lawmakers have weighed taking election oversight away from the office of the lieutenant governor, who runs on the governor’s ticket.

While such a proposal stalled after being introduced by Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, last year, it’s unclear whether one will come forward again this year. Wilcox has opened several election-related bill files, and met privately with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson last week.

When asked during his monthly news conference whether he would support such a move, Cox said, “I don’t think we need to completely remove oversight there,” but said he would welcome changes to statute establishing a protocol for how lieutenant governors should oversee races they are also candidates in.

“I personally have concerns with — it’s not specific to any person holding this title right now — but the perception out there to have the lieutenant governor in charge of their own elections,” House Speaker Mike Schultz told reporters last week. “I would like to see a way to move away from that, but … there’s no clear consensus on a way forward.”

A survey conducted late last year by the right-leaning Sutherland Institute found that approximately three-quarters of Utahns prefer that the top elections official remain elected, rather than the role shifting to one appointed by elected officials.

Also revived from previous years is an effort to raise the percentage of votes required to pass certain citizen-submitted ballot initiatives.

Under a constitutional amendment proposal from Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-Salt Lake City, and Rep. Jason Kyle, R-Hunstville, any initiative that would raise taxes would have to get 60% of voters’ approval, rather than a majority, to become law.

Over 50% of voters would have to sign off on the amendment if it makes it out of the Legislature. And under current law, Republican legislative leadership would get to write the language that appears on the ballot — a policy Democrats are looking to change.

After the Utah Supreme Court ordered a proposed amendment voided from November ballots in part because the language describing it would have misled voters, House Minority Leader Angela Romero has introduced a bill that would hand that responsibility to nonpartisan legislative lawyers.

Judicial reform

With frustrations among Republican legislators at a boil in 2024, this session could see efforts to enact sweeping changes in Utah’s judiciary.

Last year saw Utah judges rebuff several parts of the Republican agenda — blocking the Legislature’s reversal of an anti-gerrymandering initiative, disqualifying a constitutional amendment to undo that ruling from the ballot, and maintaining injunctions against a bill banning almost all abortion and barring transgender girls from playing high school sports.

The string of judicial setbacks has some Republicans looking at sweeping reforms. Those include potential term limits for Supreme Court justices, making the retention process more rigorous and even having voters elect judges, House Speaker Mike Schultz told Utah News Dispatch last year.

Cox said last month that the judicial review process attached to retention elections could be improved and he would like to see judges deciding cases more quickly, which he said would improve trust in the judiciary.

But when it came to the public potentially electing judges, the governor took a hard line — although since it would require a constitutional amendment to make such a change, the governor would not be able to veto such a proposal.

“I cannot support the election of judges. I will never support the election of judges,” Cox said. “I think the most corrupt systems on earth involve the election of judges, and I think that would be a huge mistake.”

Currently, applicants for judgeships in Utah are screened by a nomination committee that sends candidates to the governor, who then picks one. That nominee is then reviewed and confirmed by the Senate. After that, judges are required to receive a majority vote in retention elections every six years.

So far, bills to enact those proposals have not been released.

The housing and homelessness crisis

As Utah’s housing crisis continues amid high interest rates and a lag in construction, lawmakers want to tweak land use rules and improve existing programs to make it easier for people to buy a home.

One bill would make it easier to build accessory dwelling units and modular homes.

Ward, the Bountiful Republican, is proposing HB88, which would require cities in the first- and second-class counties of Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Washington and Weber to allow:

Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, on lots with detached, single-family homes. These smaller units often are touted as a way to increase the state’s rental housing stock.

Modular units in residential zones. Modular homes are houses built off-site in sections and transported to a location. Builders then assemble them and install them on foundations. The process is often faster than building a home on location.

Another bill, HB37, would create an optional overlay tool for cities to provide a density bonus in exchange for units being affordable and owner-occupied.

That legislation, from Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, also aims to improve data collection about housing, zoning, development, and infrastructure and would require the creation of regional plans around housing by next summer.

A pair of bills from Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville aim to expand the definition of affordability and make other changes to existing programs that let local governments use tax increment financing — or TIF, which is tax revenue beyond an established base in a given area – to support development and infrastructure. SB23 would make changes to First Home Investment Zones, and SB26 would modify rules for Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zones.

And two lawmakers – Republican Tyler Clancy and Democrat Gay Lynn Bennion – want to add language to state law clarifying who can buy a single-family home in Utah.

Clancy, a Provo police detective, has proposed HB149 to add language prohibiting institutional investors like hedge funds from buying homes.

Investors have been buying more single-family homes since the coronavirus pandemic and often buy cheaper homes available on the market, according to a study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Bennion, of Cottonwood Heights, is sponsoring HB151, which would require most people purchasing a home within the first month it’s on the market to sign a legal document saying they intend to live in the house.

Experts say the real “meat and potatoes” housing bills weren’t filed as of Thursday afternoon.

Other bills would help those without a consistent roof over their heads.

After asking for over $193 million in funding for homeless services last year, the governor has only requested $18.8 million for new shelter projects in advance of the general session this time around.

But big changes to how the state grapples with an expanding homelessness crisis remain on the table. Clancy hopes to establish a more comprehensive data collection and case management system for those experiencing homelessness. He also wants to see tighter security in and around the state’s homeless shelters.

Legislators, and other homelessness leaders, have sharply criticized law enforcement efforts in Utah’s capital in the run up to the session. Cox, Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, requested Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall submit a plan “to restore public safety” in Utah’s capital prior to session.

That document, which was released Thursday, offered city land for a large temporary shelter and promised more police patrols in problem areas like downtown. It also contained recommendations for legislators, including finding a dedicated funding source for homelessness efforts and adding a requirement that all counties develop some form of year-round shelter. It’s unclear how seriously lawmakers will take the proposals.