As a bill banning Utah governments from bargaining with public employee unions sits on Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk awaiting his signature or veto, union leaders are exploring the possibility of a citizen referendum to repeal the measure — should Cox sign it.
No decision has been made, and union officials are still holding out hope that Cox might veto the bill in favor of a less-onerous version that didn’t make it through the Senate.
If he signs it, labor leaders acknowledge even getting an initiative on the ballot is a heavy lift — and has an expected price tag of about $1.5 million. But there have been discussions among union leadership about what the process would entail and they say the option remains on the table.
Asked last week after the Senate passed the bill banning collective bargaining if a referendum is being considered, AFL-CIO of Utah President Jeff Worthington said bluntly: “It is.”
“That would be very, very much in our scope,” he said. “I would be in favor of that. Let the people of Utah decide.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Union supporters gather during a protest against HB267, a bill that limits collective bargaining for public unions, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.
Renée Pinkney, president of the Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union with more than 18,000 members, said that a referendum “would require a lot of looking into to see if it’s something that is even feasible.”
But, she added, “very much like our voucher lawsuit, we’re exploring all of our options.”
The governor has until Feb. 19 to decide whether to sign or veto the bill.
If Cox signs it, a referendum would be possible because the bill did not get a 2/3 majority vote in either the House or Senate.
In order to put the question before voters, opponents of HB267 would have to file their referendum with the lieutenant governor’s office within five days of the end of the legislative session and then have to gather 140,748 signatures within 40 days of the end of the session (or 30 days after the first signature is collected). The signatures also have to be geographically dispersed, meeting specific thresholds in 15 of the 29 state Senate districts.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Union supporters gather during a protest against HB267 at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.
If the signature threshold is met, the law is put on hold and the question would be added to the 2026 ballot. If a majority vote in favor of the referendum the law would be void.
It is a difficult process on a tight timeframe and has only been successfully deployed a few times.
In 2020, citizens from across the political spectrum, with the backing of a major grocery store chain, launched a referendum to repeal a legislative tax reform package that included an increase in the sales tax on food.
After they gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot — at the time 117,154 — the Legislature relented and agreed to repeal the tax legislation.
And in 2007, the UEA and its backers spent millions of dollars on a referendum to repeal a school voucher program. Utahns supported the repeal with 62% of voters wanting the voucher program rescinded.
It wasn’t until 2023 that Republican lawmakers took another swing at vouchers, creating the Utah Fits All scholarship and allocating $42 million to the program granting up to $8,000 vouchers to qualifying students. It grew to $84 million last year and this year supporters want to push the funding to $164 million.
