Much credit to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for the priorities shown in his proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2025.
The thread that runs through his $30.6 billion wish list is that government has a responsibility to help its people. Not to dominate their existence or do everything for them, but to provide a physical and financial infrastructure with which they can build decent and humane lives.
Given the proclivities of the Republican supermajority of the Utah Legislature, which puts nothing above its goals of cutting taxes for the rich and diverting our attention with culture war witch hunts, chances are that much of what the GOP governor has proposed won’t become reality.
That doesn’t mean voters shouldn’t let their state senators and representatives know that they agree with the governor’s concern for the common good.
In announcing his budget recently, Cox chose to focus everyone’s attention on his proposal to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits. The governor figures that will save taxpayers some $143.8 million a year overall, or an average of just short of $1,000 per each of the 150,000 affected taxpayers.
It is, predictably, the traditional Republican focus on cutting taxes and making it just a little more difficult to fund necessary services such as education. But the focus of this particular cut is properly aimed.
Cox realizes that the older residents of our state have done their part to support the state and the economy and that, as our elderly population grows, we owe it to them to make it easier for them to enjoy the comfortable retirement they have earned. Utah is one of only nine states that still tax Social Security benefits and one of them, West Virginia, will phase it out come 2026.
His plans also include funding for programs that help the elderly remain in their homes rather than have to move to more expensive, less personal facilities. To protect seniors from physical abuse and financial fraud. To help them get enough to eat.
For the other end of the age spectrum, the governor has money set aside for such things as expanding the child tax credit, programs to keep children safe and fed and able to get the health care they need, and to boost support for Utah’s foster care system, where the monthly rate paid to foster parents is the lowest in the nation. And boosting funding for education, from pre-K to Ph.D.
Of particular note is his $5.2 million proposal to expand the benefit of free school lunches to all of those who now qualify for just the reduced-price benefit. (Actually, as important as nutrition is to student success, all school lunches and breakfasts should be offered free. But this plan is an improvement,)
There are also funds proposed for new services for the homeless and otherwise vulnerable, including nearly $19 million for new shelters and services.
There’s money — if not nearly enough — for projects to study Utah’s air quality. (As if it isn’t speaking for itself.) And the budget recognizes the need to conserve water and develop more clean energy sources.
The governor wants to put $24 million toward what he’s calling Operation Gigawatt, a plan to boost the development of nuclear and geothermal energy production for a state, and a region, that will not only need a lot more power in years to come but also needs to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
The governor also puts funds toward the care of the state’s parks and other public lands. And if he is still eager to waste our tax money on head-bashing lawsuits aimed at seizing for the state land that properly belongs to the people of the United States of America, at least his budget doesn’t brag about it.
There’s a lot more, and plenty of opportunity for people of good will to complain that the budget includes too much there and too little here.
And, if anyone doesn’t like the way the state provides these services, Cox has a $2.8 million “customer service initiative” plan to make it easier for Utahns to let their government know when it is falling short.
The stated focus of Cox’s FY ‘26 budget is that government has a role to play in helping people live decent lives in Utah. That’s something that the Legislature, and the people, can build upon.
