2026 Utah Legislature ends with feelings of one long ‘Groundhog Day’

The 2026 Utah Legislature’s general session came to end Friday at midnight, ending 45 days that felt like an extended case of deja vu. 

On many fronts, the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature retreaded familiar territory as they waded through a record 1,015 bills filed. In the end, though, far fewer — 541 — passed. 

“Again, again, again, again, again, again,” was Senate President Stuart Adams’ favorite refrain through the session, while he counted on his fingers how many years in a row Utah lawmakers have cut the state’s income tax rate. 

This year marked the sixth cut, with lawmakers dropping the state’s income tax rate from 4.5% to 4.45% with the passage of SB60. That cost about $101 million in ongoing funding, which Republican legislative leaders agreed to forgo when they put the finishing touches on the state’s more than $31.6 billion budget. Lawmakers also approved a temporary gas tax reduction while also raising taxes in some areas — including on nicotine products and for social media companies. 

It was the second session in a row with an intense focus on the courts, this time making sweeping changes that came with a big price tag. There was also another attempt at in-person ID requirements for voting as lawmakers revisited election law changes (which ultimately fell flat in the Senate). And there were plenty of other bills focused on perennial issues like water, elections, homelessness and more. The list goes on. 

It was also another session that included bills aimed at tightening laws for transgender people, including firming up the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. It marked the fifth year in a row some Republican lawmakers proposed anti-transgender legislation — but many of the most controversial proposals didn’t gain traction.

The same goes for legislation aimed at restricting access to resources for immigrants. But in many cases, while culture wars fueled no shortage of introduced bills, which legislation ultimately did or didn’t survive indicated those debates weren’t a focus or priority, particularly in the Senate. 

‘Could have been worse’

The House’s top Democrat, House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said she walked away from this year’s session with a sense of relief, grateful that the most controversial culture war bills fizzled — and lawmakers’ budget efficiency exercise didn’t result in deep, concerning cuts. 

“The session could have been worse,” she said. 

She said Democrats disagree with how Republican lawmakers continue to prioritize tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy — and they remain concerned about how GOP legislators focused on making changes to the courts amid their frustrations with recent rulings against them, including redistricting. 

But Romero credited the Senate — shouting out Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, by name — for helping stop what Democrats considered to be the worst bills from progressing, like legislation targeting transgender people or immigrants.  

“I give that credit to the Senate president and his relationship with (Senate Minority Leader Luz) Escamilla,” she said. “I think (Adams) has been key to blocking some of these bills that we, as Democrats (saw as) problematic.” 

To that, Adams told reporters Romero gave him “too much credit because I’m only one of 104” lawmakers, and bills “get a whole lot better when they’re vetted.”

“I think in Utah, we try to find common ground,” Adams said. “There’s no one person’s ideas that should carry the day. It should be a cumulative effort, and I think that’s what we’re trying to accomplish here, a balance.” 

While he said it’s “easy” for the Republican supermajority to “take control,” he prioritizes maintaining good working relationships with the minority party. Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, agreed, saying that even though Democrats disagree on issues, “we feel we’ve been treated with fairness in the Senate chamber.” 

“You know, as things get more divisive, this is when these relationships truly matter,” Escamilla said. 

Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, said while he may have agreed with some of those bills based on “philosophical ideas,” they were problematic when it came down to implementation. “They aren’t vetted out enough, and they need more work,” he said.  

“We didn’t kill anything, we made it better,” Adams said. “The good ones pass.” 

House Speaker Mike Schultz said the Utah Legislature’s willingness to work “collaboratively” with Democrats is what makes the state stand out from others. He said he’s “proud” of Utah for “being one of the only Legislatures in the (nation) to do it the right way.”

“Especially in a … political environment that is just set up for people to go like this,” Schultz said, bumping his fists together. “We try to do it differently here in the state of Utah.” 

Still, while many bills didn’t pass, Romero said the fact that they were even filed sends a message telling transgender people and immigrants “you don’t belong,” so they still do harm. 

Spending a session debating many “repeat issues,” Romero said, fueled a sense of frustration from Democrats who have felt like they’ve been debating the same things for years. 

“Again, it’s Groundhog Day,” she said. “It’s like, how many times do we talk about these bills?” 

Adams said lawmakers revisit issues because they’re focused on “just making the state better.” 

“To make a state better, you continue to make adjustments,” He said. “And that’s what we’ve done.”

To Gov. Spencer Cox, the fact that the House’s top Democrat said the session “could have been worse” means the session likely earned an “A-plus.” 

“I guess I would concur because every session could be worse,” Cox quipped, before adding “I would flip it around and say, I don’t know that this session could have been much better.” 

In fact, the governor said it was “the best legislative session in the 14 years I’ve been doing this.” He credited lawmakers for prioritizing several issues that he had pushed, including more than $17.5 million in ongoing funding for homelessness, a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools, and $16 million for early student literacy.  

“The collaboration was better than it’s ever been. We didn’t get everything we wanted. We never do, and that’s OK,” he said. “But we accomplished so many things that I’m proud of this year.” 

A costly push to change the courts

The clashes between the judiciary and the Legislature this session were not as public as they were last year when Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant called a package of bills on the table at the time a “broad attack on the independence of the judiciary.” 

Still, the tension lingered. And while sorting through a flurry of bills that legal professionals again worried could “weaken” the judiciary’s independence, Republican lawmakers pushed through several major changes to the courts at the cost of millions of taxpayer dollars. 

Durrant, on the first day of this year’s session, urged lawmakers to prioritize funding at the overwhelmed district court level. Lawmakers did include money for three new district court judges — but they also expanded the Utah Supreme Court from five justices to seven, even though that wasn’t something judicial leaders said was needed. They also funded two more Court of Appeals justices. 

The governor and Republican legislative leaders have said the more than $6.5 million expansion isn’t aimed at “court packing” or changing the makeup of the state’s highest court to appoint justices that make decisions more in the Republican-controlled Legislature’s favor.

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But critics, including Democrats and some legal professionals, have argued that the timing of  the expansion is suspicious, coming at a moment when the Legislature continues to clash with the courts over several rulings, especially in the state’s redistricting lawsuit. 

Another controversial measure lawmakers approved through multiple pieces of legislation was the creation of a “constitutional court” meant to hear challenges to state laws.

Additionally, lawmakers passed HB540, a bill to require the judiciary to make recordings of court proceedings and records easier to access by creating a single website for all records. An earlier version would have required a “cooling off” period for judges before they could get hired by law firms after leaving the bench, but that provision was stripped out before it won final legislative approval Thursday. 

And in the House, Schultz and other legislators aired their grievances with 7th District Judge Don Torgerson by approving a resolution (a strongly worded message with no lawful impact) condemning him for comments he made during a sentencing hearing for a child pornography case.

Funding for homelessness, but not a controversial campus

The governor said the more than $17.5 million in ongoing funding and nearly $26 million in reappropriated one-time money lawmakers agreed to for homelessness was a “huge win.” 

“This is the biggest win we’ve had in homelessness in years,” he told Utah News Dispatch in an interview Friday. A significant infusion of ongoing cash has been proposed unsuccessfully for years — until now. 

Notably, lawmakers didn’t set aside any money specifically to build a controversial, 1,300-bed homeless campus proposed in Salt Lake City. Instead, Cox’s administration focused funding requests on “high utilizer” programs meant for people who are repeatedly arrested or spend the most nights in homeless shelters, along with expanding capacity for homeless shelters and mental and behavioral health. 

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State leaders say the campus idea hasn’t been abandoned — but rather they’re spending more time on formulating programs meant to inform the campus concept before funding the project’s construction. Based on the success of those programs, Cox said state leaders will determine whether to move forward with a campus. 

“I would love nothing more than to not have to build a campus if we can start to move things in the right direction,” he said. “Now that being said, it doesn’t mean that it’s off the table at all. We’re going to keep working … with the federal government to see what resources are available. We just want good policy, and we want to help people. That’s it.” 

However, the money comes with a catch. 

Lawmakers included in one of their final budget bills, HB2, intent language requiring that all of the funding may only be spent if it’s met with a one-to-one match from “local governments.” Further, they required the Office of Homeless Services to report to the Executive Appropriations Committee on the match and its proposed uses before spending it. 

Cox said he supported the “local matching concept, and we are having conversations right now” with Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County about next steps. He said they’re also “excited” about what’s to come.

But it’s not yet clear which cities or counties will come up with the match. Salt Lake City has long carried the lion’s share of homeless services, and Mayor Erin Mendenhall has for years urged other cities across the state to do more to help pay for homeless services. 

“This is new, and the city currently invests millions of dollars addressing homelessness, homeless-related issues, deeply affordable housing and public safety,” Mendenhall’s office said in a statement issued earlier this week. “Our contribution is clear and we’re happy to articulate that throughout this process with our legislative partners.”

Cox said “you’ll know soon” when asked where that local government funding will actually come from. And his administration has said more details about the new homeless programs lawmakers funded are forthcoming. 

GOP lawmakers keep a bullseye on vote by mail

For the second year in a row, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Rep. Jefferson Burton tried to enact in-person identification requirements for voting with by-mail ballots. But again, that effort hit a roadblock in the Senate, where GOP leaders argued the “logistics” of requiring staffed dropboxes in urban and rural areas were far from being sorted out. 

So while Burton’s HB479 stalled, Senate Assistant Majority Whip Mike McKell added a requirement in another election bill, HB311, to use $100,000 to commission an “elections study” from the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy at Utah Valley University focused on “the security of in-person voting versus voting by mail” and “best practices” for ID requirements. 

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Schultz told reporters “we’ll see what that study looks like” before lawmakers will decide what to do next. But he said he was “happy” with other election bills that passed, including SB153, which required more voter records to be made public, and Rep. Cory Maloy’s HB209, which would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens if election officers lack confirmation and get in touch seeking documentation.

If a voter doesn’t provide proof of citizenship, they would only be able to vote in races for federal office, not any state or local offices. Federal law does not require proof of citizenship to vote for members of Congress or the president.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sent a letter to Cox urging him to veto HB209, saying it could potentially disenfranchise “thousands of eligible voters in Utah who lack easy access to required documents, such as a U.S. passport or a birth certificate.”

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“This bill will have a heightened impact on eligible senior, youth, female, low-income, and rural voters across Utah,” the ACLU of Utah said in a statement on its website. 

Lawmakers also passed an omnibus election bill SB194 that would do a long list of things, including a requirement that the lieutenant governor create a “conflict of interest avoidance plan.” It would also clarify a law passed last year by requiring clerks to verify both signatures and the last four digits of voter identification numbers on returned by-mail ballots.

Another effort to ask voters to change the Utah Constitution to take election duties away from the lieutenant governor and instead create a new Secretary of State position to fill the role of the state’s top election official failed to gain traction.

6 years of tax cuts — plus some tax hikes

In addition to reducing income taxes for a sixth year in a row — on top of more than $300 million already taken from this year’s state budget by federal tax cuts — lawmakers also enacted several smaller tax cuts including:

• HB290, which expands eligibility for the state’s child tax credit by increasing income thresholds for families with young children. The tax reduction will reduce state revenue by about $7.1 million, and result in an average of $388 in tax savings for about 18,300 Utah parents. 
• HB190, which expands the nonrefundable corporate and individual income tax credit for employer-provided child care to apply to off-site child care facilities. That will reduce the state’s income tax revenue by about $2.6 million next year.
  

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However, lawmakers didn’t just cut taxes. They also raised taxes on some industries. 

With HB337, lawmakers levied higher taxes on certain tobacco products, including nicotine pouches like the popular ZYN brand. A previous version of the bill would have generated an estimated $40 million in new money, but the Senate reduced the tax before it won final passage. It’s now expected to bring in about $17 million a year for the state’s general fund. 

Lawmakers also raised taxes on social media companies who use targeted advertising on Utahns with SB287. That’s expected to generate about $15.3 million in 2028 and $21.3 million in 2029, according to the bill’s fiscal note. Lawmakers assigned the money to a restricted account meant to be used to improve child literacy, youth recreation, and an awareness campaign aimed at highlighting the “adverse” effects of targeted advertising on children, families and adults. 

Interstate gas tax standoff

The state is also poised to temporarily reduce gas taxes by 15% this year — from July 1 to Dec. 31 — which would result in a nearly $12 million cut from the general fund in 2027.

“The gas tax is meant as a temporary measure to ease pain right now, but in the long term, things that will be set in moving forward will reduce the gas prices in the state of Utah,” Schultz said about the bill on Friday. “I think it has the potential to reduce it 20 to 30 cents a gallon.”

It’s part of a gas tax restructure proposal backed by the House Speaker since last summer that turned into an interstate conflict when Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle introduced a resolution in his statehouse opposing it and suggested Idaho stop sending water from the Bear River system to feed the Great Salt Lake to put pressure on Utah.

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Initially, the Utah proposal was meant to lower prices at the pump by eliminating a longstanding tax break for refineries exporting fuel out of state and using that expected revenue to fund a local gas tax cut. However, amid the Idaho drama, the bill substantially changed and transformed into a proposal to lower gas prices by increasing supply and fast tracking permits for pipelines. 

The bill passed the full Legislature and it is awaiting for the governor’s signature. Legislative leaders also signed an agreement with the Utah Petroleum Association committing to the plan. 

But, the conflict between Utah and Idaho may not be over as Idaho hasn’t made any pledges to Utah and a memorandum of understanding reaffirming both states’ commitment to honor the existing Bear River Compact, a governing framework for Bear River waters between Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, is still pending.

Attempts to regulate new industries

On some fronts, the Legislature’s attempts to break new ground was met with pushback from Washington, D.C., most notably on artificial intelligence regulations.

Utah leaders had celebrated in recent years being pioneers in unprecedented regulations for social media and AI platforms. But, progress on AI bills aiming to regulate chatbots stalled this year after the White House sent a letter to legislative leaders calling one particular proposal “unfixable.”

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That was Herriman Republican Rep. Doug Fiefia’s bill, requiring AI developers to write and publish public safety and child protection plans for certain AI systems. In essence, if there are incidents that affect Utah children, AI companies would have to report them to the state. 

The proposal started off strong, winning unanimous support from a House panel and the 

endorsement of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but ended up failing with legislative leaders arguing the state risked pushing away innovation if it overregulated the space. That, despite Fiefia assuring his proposals would not touch on development.

While leadership supported another Fiefia bill specific to chatbots that simulate ongoing relationships with users, the bill ended up dying in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, said on Friday that lawmakers were unable to resolve some last-minute concerns from the industry.

The Legislature did pass protections against deepfakes and approved a bill to clarify that defamation law applies to content created through AI or other technologies.

Another little-regulated industry legislators weighed in on was kratom, an herb that in different adulterated forms can become highly addictive, but in its natural form has been credited with treating chronic pain.

Multiple kratom bills were introduced but ultimately a proposal by McKell prevailed. Now only pure kratom leaf will be available and only in specialty smoke shops for people over 21 years old. Manufacturers can still produce synthetic kratom products for a year, but won’t be able to sell them within state lines. Kratom drinks, tablets and other items that use kratom extracts will also be disappearing from shelves in gas stations and other stores.

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The debate around the substance “got a little weird,” McKell said, when West Valley City Republican Rep. Matt MacPherson suggested replacing the entire bill with the Word of Wisdom, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ health code. But that idea didn’t make it far.

However, the Legislature did succeed in one full ban — on prediction markets, which is already being challenged in federal court. During his final night press conference, Cox said he plans on signing the bill, meaning proposition bets are poised to be explicitly defined as gambling in Utah, which is prohibited by the state constitution. 

A sustained focus on immigration and transgender Utahns 

Lawmakers’ focus on hot-button issues of immigration and transgender rights made headlines again this session, but the ones grabbing the most attention failed to pass.

One of the state’s most conservative lawmakers, Rep. Trevor Lee, was behind measures stirring up emotion on those topics at the Capitol this year, with some who attended debates on the bills leaving in tears. Ultimately, though, Lee’s most controversial bills never passed. 

Lee, R-Layton, condemned diversity as a drain on society, denied the existence of transgender people and sought to push undocumented immigrants to leave the state. 

He pitched a plan to close off public assistance to unauthorized immigrants, and while his bill didn’t advance, parts of it made their way into another proposal, HB386, repealing a guest worker program that has never actually taken effect in the state. The combined measure failed without a sponsor in the Senate.

 The bill would have banned unauthorized immigrants from receiving in-state college tuition, about three times lower at the University of Utah than for students from out of state. It drew criticism from Republicans who said the state would lose money if Utah immigrants don’t apply to college because they can’t afford out-of-state tuition. 

In an emotional speech on the House floor in February, Rep. Hoang Nguyen, the first refugee elected to the Legislature, said she worries about the possible effects on children whose parents came to Utah for a better life but unlike hers, “did not have the privilege to come into this country the legal way.”

“I fear that what we’re doing here in Utah is we are eroding what truly makes Utah special,” said Nguyen, a Democrat from Salt Lake City. 

Speaking to reporters Friday, Schultz said the Biden administration’s border policies were too lenient but took a different stance than Lee on diversity. 

“Trying to find that balance is what I think is important,” Schultz said. “We want to be a diverse state. We want to be a diverse economy. We want to have all those things. And I think if you look at our track record, it shows that, and we’re going to continue in that direction.”

Two immigration-related measures that failed would have required companies of more than 125 employees (though the original version of the bill started at 50) to verify their workers are lawfully in the country and imposed a tax on money wired abroad by anyone without papers. But a bill allowing police to impound vehicles of drivers who don’t have licenses or driving privilege cards won approval from both chambers.

In the final weeks of the session, Lee abandoned an effort to strip antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in state housing law and block them from adjusting gender markers on their birth certificates to correspond with their identity. The remaining bill sought to change some references in state law from “gender” to “sex,” a move that supporters said would clarify the law and opponents criticized as an attempt to erase recognition of trans people. 

Lee handed off the watered-down HB183 to a new sponsor, Rep. Mark Strong, but it failed to advance out of a Senate committee.

The Legislature approved some bills aimed at transgender Utahns, sending them to the governor’s desk. Among them is HB174, phasing out hormone therapy for minors, including those who were already receiving treatment and had been allowed to continue when a previous moratorium took effect. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah is urging the governor to veto the bill. 

HB404 would allow private landlords to reject transgender renters from group housing (like off-campus student housing) consistent with their gender identity. Lawmakers last year passed a bill banning transgender students from on-campus housing at public institutions.

Democrats opposed the measures, frustrated that lawmakers zeroed in on Utah’s small transgender community for a fifth year in a row. 

“How much more can we regulate what somebody can do with their personal autonomy?” Romero wondered aloud while speaking with Utah News Dispatch. “And what message are we sending these young people about belonging and being part of a community?”

Water issues take priority 

When it comes to securing water for Utah’s future, lawmakers’ attention flowed to a program paying farmers in the state to leave some of their fields dry. They passed HB410 to entice more farmers to the program with a streamlined sign-up process, the option to participate for just part of a growing season and $2.75 million in yearly funding. 

Cox said he’s encouraged by lawmakers’ action and growing attention to the lake, including from President Donald Trump. 

“I’ve never been more hopeful or optimistic about filling the lake,” Cox said. 

In a last-minute boost for the lake, lawmakers announced a long-running legal battle with the federal government is ending in a $60 million payout to the state in exchange for wetlands bordering the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. A resolution greenlighting the land transfer passed Friday. 

“We’re going to take all the proceeds from this settlement and pump it right back into the Great Salt Lake,” said House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise.

As Utah’s talks with six other states along the Colorado River fell apart, the Legislature socked away $5 million to cover legal costs in potential lawsuits over who has to cut water and by how much. They also made clear in HB473 that the state agency handling negotiations can take on a direct role in that litigation. 

The lake’s tiny brine shrimp could help in a big way under HB247, rerouting brine shrimp industry tax revenue to an account benefitting the lake. 

President Donald Trump’s promise to make the lake “great again” inspired a resolution urging federal agencies to help fund restoration efforts and hammer out an agreement with the state on how the work will be done and paid for. 

Lawmakers approved a bill allowing water utilities and conservancy districts to direct conserved water to the Great Salt Lake and include the lake in their already-required conservation plans. 

Higher education and campus safety

Utah lawmakers passed several higher education bills aimed at increasing research, providing more funding and mandating collaboration between different institutions. Other policies sparked debate — including a bill to reshape university administrations, changes in gun policy, and coursework accommodation requirements.

The legislature passed two bills — HB373 and HB352 — with a focus on research.

The first appropriates $50 million dollars from Utah’s income tax fund to create a research grant program, awarding funding to higher education research that relates to industry needs, economic development, or programs with commercialization potential. HB373 also requires an annual legislative audit on the outcomes of any research grant. 

“I don’t think it’s ever been done in the state of Utah, that much money for university research,” Adams said, referencing the bill. “We know the future of America, the future of the world, is going to be on research.”

The second directs higher education institutions across Utah to become more closely aligned by requiring colleges and universities to share programs and enter into more research collaborations. HB352 also aims to streamline transfer processes for Utah students looking to move between different schools in the state. 

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One bill sparked debate over institutional oversight. SB240 will restructure how university administrations operate, reorganizing the responsibilities of presidents, boards of trustees, and other faculty members in higher ed administration.

Another was even more attention-getting. HB204 will require colleges and universities to provide coursework accommodations for students when curriculum comes into conflict with their deeply held beliefs — including religion or conscience — as long the assignment they object to is not considered necessary material for the curriculum or track.

And in the first legislative session following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, the legislature advanced HB84, a bill to ban open carry on campuses but remove permit requirements for concealed carrying.

The bill makes it easier to carry a gun on campus by removing restrictions — changing current law that allows both open and concealed carry on college campuses, but requires the carrier to have a concealed carry permit to do so.