Situational Analysis | December 8, 2021

It's Wednesday and National Brownie Day. It's just a party waiting to happen.

Be in the Know

1. Governor Cox and Lt. Governor Henderson have released their 2023 budget that includes a grocery tax credit and major investments in education, infrastructure, affordable housing, water and the Great Salt Lake. The Cox/Henderson administration proposes almost a billion dollars for education, $100 million for developing affordable housing, $128 million for housing targeting the homeless and $45 million to preserve the Great Salt Lake. Senate President Stuart Adams says the Senate will evaluate the administration's proposal in the coming months.

2. State legislators at last week's conservative American Legislative Exchange Council's policy conference are preparing a new push for an Article V constitutional convention. Once at least two-thirds of states have approved a call to a convention, Congress gets to set the initial rules. Article V says any proposed amendments would have to be ratified by three-quarters of the states to take effect. Utah Senate president Stuart Adams who is also ALEC's chairman says it's a very high bar and difficult to do. Supporters say they're not worried about a "runaway" convention for that very reason - state legislatures would not give approval to divisive issues.

3. Taking beauty pageants a bit too far? Dozens of camels have been barred from Saudi beauty contest over Botox usage and other artificial enhancements. ðŸªBreeders compete for some $66 million in prize money. 

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Utah Headlines

General

• Hill’s functional 5G network the first of its kind on a US military installation (Standard-Examiner)
• Morgan County files court documents opposing ski resort referendum (Standard-Examiner)
• Woah. Slow down! Over 3500 drivers stopped for going over 100 MPH on Utah roads this year (KUTV)

Politics

• Utah governor’s new budget focuses on ‘investing in our people,’ with money for infrastructure and education (KUER)
• Cox's $25 billion budget includes food tax credit, water conservation measures (Fox13)
• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reveals how he wants to spend state taxpayer money next year — and give $160M back (Deseret News)
• ‘Not gerrymandering’: Lawmakers defend Utah’s new congressional borders (Standard-Examiner)
• Legislative audit of Utah prison system healthcare called 'troubling' (KUTV)
• Utah legislators call for election integrity audit. State’s governor and lieutenant governor have said there is no evidence of election fraud in Utah. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• A Utah group is going door to door looking for election fraud. But they don’t want you to know about it (Salt Lake Tribune)

COVID Corner

• 1122 new cases, 11 new deaths
• Omicron reported in 57 countries, hospitalizations set to rise, WHO says (Reuters)
• A COVID vaccine grown in plants measures up (NPR)
• Pfizer, BioNTech vaccine neutralises Omicron with three shots (Reuters)
• ‘It’s a sore spot for a lot of people’: Despite promises to distribute shots based on need alone, U.S. negotiations with Myanmar and Taiwan have fanned fears that the administration is mixing politics and public health. (Politico)

Environment

• We must protect the Great Salt Lake, says Gov. Cox during field trip to Antelope Island. The Cox administration has proposed spending $45 million in the next fiscal year to being efforts to save the Great Salt Lake. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Iron County officials look to pipe water from elsewhere to solve area’s water woes (KUER)
• EPA plan to restore Utah Lake met with resistance from Utah County conservation groups (Daily Herald)

Education

• Following backlash over library books, state school board looks to write new rules on library policy (KUER)
• Utah has high 'new teacher turnover' but salaries aren't below some surrounding states, audit claims (Fox13)

National Headlines

General

• Major outage at Amazon disrupts businesses across the US (AP)
• Amazon unsettles labor markets (Wall Street Journal)
• Two years into this pandemic, the world is dangerously unprepared for the next one, report says (Washington Post)
• Three myths of the "Great Resignation" (The Atlantic)
• Surgeon general: Youth mental health challenges, COVID-19 pandemic ‘dual crises’ (Deseret News)

Politics

• Biden-Putin talks yield no breakthrough in Ukraine tensions (AP)
• Instagram head faces Senate hearing on potential dangers for young people (Wall Street Journal)
• House approves $768 billion defense bill with strong support, despite some discord among Democrats (Washington Post)
• House passes legislation to pave way for debt ceiling increase. The bill would provide a one-time pathway for the Senate to raise the debt ceiling on a simple majority vote, skirting Republican obstruction. (New York Times)
• Senate backs Biden admin weapons sale to Saudi Arabia (Politico)
• Trump war with GOP seeps into midterms (The Hill)
• More voters would pick Trump over Biden if election were held today: poll (The Hill)

International

• India’s military chief, 12 others killed in helicopter crash (AP)
• USSR’s death blow was struck 30 years ago in a hunting lodge (AP)
• Scholz takes over as German chancellor, ending Merkel era (Reuters)
• Chile's Congress approves same-sex marriage by an overwhelming majority (NPR) 
• They fled hundreds of miles to escape war in Ethiopia. But they fear it wasn’t far enough. (Washington Post)

News Releases

Gov. Cox and Lt. Gov. Henderson unveil FY2023 budget

Gov. Spencer J. Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson unveiled their budget recommendations and priorities for Fiscal Year 2023. Their proposal highlights historic investments in education and infrastructure (including water and affordable housing) while also providing $160 million in tax relief to Utahns through a grocery tax credit.

“Grounded in our One Utah Roadmap, this is a budget that reflects our conservative values by investing in our people, expanding education opportunities and supporting families,” Gov. Cox said. “This is a budget that improves state government and builds infrastructure that will last for decades. This is a budget that works for Utah today and tomorrow.”

Federal stimulus funds along with a robust economy are bringing an additional $1.16 billion to the ongoing state general fund and education fund budget with another $1.87 billion of one-time general fund and education funds available. While 40% of these funds are earmarked for education, social services and reserve funds, Gov. Cox supports making generational investments to benefit future Utahns while providing tax relief to residents now. (Read/Watch More)

Senate President Adams’ statement on the Cox administration’s budget proposal

President J. Stuart Adams issues the following statement regarding the Cox administration’s budget proposal:

“As we plan Utah’s budget, it’s essential we take steps to address the state’s long-term needs. Our priority remains investing in Utah’s future. While many other states are still recovering from initial shutdowns in 2020, Utah is flourishing. Over the next few months, we will evaluate the governor’s budget proposal as we look at ways to replenish rainy day funds for future emergencies, provide tax relief and fund infrastructure projects. As elected officials, we are committed to working on behalf of Utahns to make sound fiscal decisions that will positively affect generations to come.”

Number of the Day

Commentary: Should Utah experiment with no-fare public transit?

By LaVarr Webb

A big issue for Utah Transit Authority (UTA) and other transit agencies across the country is how much to charge for fares. It’s especially important coming out of a pandemic when public transit essentially shut down and ridership has been slow to recover.

The sweet spot with fares is to keep them low enough so the cost doesn’t discourage ridership, but high enough to provide needed revenue to help maintain and operate the system.

A big question is whether an extremely low fare, or no fare at all, would encourage so much ridership that it would be worth additional taxpayer dollar investment from federal, state or local governments to make up for the lost fare revenue.

A recent article in Route Fifty, an on-line publication for state and local governments, notes that some agencies across the country are considering making public transit free for all. The new mayor of Boston, for example, campaigned on making transit free in the city and is now working to eliminate fares....

It’s important to acknowledge that free public transit isn’t really free. Taxpayers are paying the costs. Of course, highways aren’t free, either. Taxpayers pay for the cost of building and maintaining roads through fuel taxes and other general fund taxes...

It’s important to acknowledge that free public transit isn’t really free. Taxpayers are paying the costs. Of course, highways aren’t free, either. Taxpayers pay for the cost of building and maintaining roads through fuel taxes and other general fund taxes. (Read More)

Upcoming

• 2022 Congressional Policy Forecast Webinar - Hatch Center – Dec 8, 10:30 am - 11:30 am Register here
• Utah Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit 2022 - SLC Chamber – Jan 13, 2022, 8:30 am - 1:30 pm. Register here
• Utah legislative session begins – Jan 18, 2022, 10:00 am
• Utah legislative session ends – Mar 4, 2022, midnight

On This Day In History

From History.com

• 1765 - Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, is born.
• 1776 - George Washington's retreating army crosses the Delaware River from NJ
• 1863 - President Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
• 1915 - John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" appears anonymously in "Punch" magazine
• 1919 - Julia Robinson is born. She is best known for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory. She solved Hilbert’s 10th problem and developed the most important theorem in elementary game theory.
• 1927 - Robert S. Brookings joined with other government reformers to create the Brookings Institute. The private organization was the first of its kind devoted to independently researching policy on a broad variety of topics and concerns.
• 1941 - The US declares war on Japan. Jeannette Rankin casts the sole vote against.
• 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations in New York
• 1967 - Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., the first African-American astronaut and U.S. Air Force major, dies in a crash of an F-104 Starfighter while training at 32
• 1978 -  Golda Meir, 4th Prime Minister of Israel and the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, dies of lymphatic cancer at 80
• 1980 - John Lennon shot and killed outside his Manhattan apartment
• 1987 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals
• 1993 - NAFTA signed into law
• 2010 - SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft upon the return of the unmanned space capsule Dragon.
• 2016 - John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth and politician (Senator D-Ohio), dies at 95

Wise Words

“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”

-Golda Meir

Lighter Side

"President Biden held a big one-on-one video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that lasted two hours. And like most two-hour meetings over Zoom, Putin was like, [imitating Putin] â€˜This could have been email.’” 

— JIMMY FALLON

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