Utah News

It’s one win, but last Saturday in an 83-62 victory over Oklahoma State, the Utah men’s basketball team best resembled the version that one could have expected when the Runnin’ Utes saw an overhaul of their roster this past offseason.

That was by necessity, as Utah added length and versatility when graduations and key transfer portal defections left coach Craig Smith needing to fill several holes.

In the dominant win over the Cowboys — a much-needed victory after Utah had lost four straight — the Utes were particularly effective on offense.

“I really liked how we played at that end of the floor. I thought it was our most complete game on the offensive end,” Smith said.

Utah’s coach had been critical of his team’s turnover issues and poor shot selection in its first three games in Big 12 play. Against Oklahoma State, the Utes shot 55.6%, including 66.7% in the second half, while turning the ball over 11 times — a notable reduction when compared to their first few league games.

The Cowboys only scored nine points off those takeaways, one game after collecting 31 points off turnovers in a win over Kansas State.

“We took care of the ball. That’s a team who most of their offense comes off turnovers,” Utah’s Jake Wahlin said. “I think we’ve been growing in that sense, and it translates to the half court and transition, where we can take care of the ball, trust each other. It’s beautiful.”

Could the win help set the identity for a Utah team that is still searching for some consistency midway through the season?

It might not always be easy to see the improvement, considering the Utes are competing in their first season in the ultra-competitive Big 12 — and their first three league opponents were all in the top 20 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.

Last Saturday, though, the Utes showed off a more balanced offense than they had all year.

“We were able to get to the rim, we had some pull up stuff, obviously made some 3s,” Smith said. “Our volume was good. Just thought we took a lot of really good shots, made simple basketball plays.”

Early in the season, when Utah was waiting for three post players who weren’t available — two due to injury — the team was more prone to shooting a heavy amount of 3-pointers.

“We were able to get to the rim, we had some pull up stuff, obviously made some 3s. Our volume was good. Just thought we took a lot of really good shots, made simple basketball plays.”

—  Utah coach Craig Smith, on his team’s offense against Oklahoma State

As a byproduct of that, when the Utes faced more challenging opponents (i.e. Quad 1 or Quad 2 teams), they were often playing quick and not in rhythm on offense, leading to poor shot selection, as Smith explained.

Against Oklahoma State, that improved dramatically.

The Utes scored 55% of their points in the paint, including 44 of them on either dunks or layups. Utah’s 55.6% shooting percentage was its third-highest of the season, trailing only slightly its shooting percentages in wins over Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State.

The Utes made 6 of 15 3-pointers, their fewest number of 3-point attempts this season.

Utah also made 17 of 24 free throws, including a perfect 7 of 7 in the first half, when it got off to a 12-0 start to the game and led 37-26 at halftime.

Smith was pleased with the balance his team showed offensively in the win over Oklahoma State.

“Having balance, I always say, is huge,” Smith said. “You’ve got to have some go-to guys, but you’ve got to make teams guard everything.”

This has been one of the top share-friendly offenses this season — the Utes are No. 2 nationally with an average of 20.5 assists per game.

Against Oklahoma State, though, it stood out how much Utah’s bigs sharing the ball in their free-flowing offense led to buckets. The Utes’ post players accounted for 14 of the team’s 23 assists (60.8%) in the win, including six from Lawson Lovering, three from Wahlin, two each for Keanu Dawes and Caleb Lohner, and one for Zach Keller.

Smith said Utah was able to use the Cowboys’ aggression against them, which led to Utah owning a 46-24 edge in points in the paint while consistently burning Oklahoma State with backdoor cuts.

“We felt like there’d be seams or openings in the defense as long as we didn’t turn it over,” Smith said. “A lot of these teams do load up, they come after you, and you’ve got to be able to make the right decision and the right play and then make them pay.”

It led to a big scoring night from several Utah frontcourt players.

Ezra Ausar led the Utes with a season-high 21 points, shooting 7 of 12 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Wahlin scored a career-high 16 points on 5 of 5 shooting, including three second-half 3-pointers as he found success working the perimeter.

Dawes, meanwhile, took advantage of a worn down Oklahoma State defense and scored a season-high 16 points, including 10 in the second half.

He also had nine rebounds, two assists and a block.

“I think we took a big step. I’m not gonna say that we’re 100% there, but we took a big step, taking it game by game, executing every week’s game plan,” Ausar said.

“It’s just about taking it a game at a time and not looking ahead, so we just executed this week’s plan. We won, so now, it’s really going on to the next.”

Utah has turned the page since the Texas Tech game

Both Smith and his players noted a difference in the team after Utah’s humbling 28-point home loss to Texas Tech on Jan. 4.

While the Utes still lost by 23 at No. 3 Iowa State three days later, Utah was within six against the Cyclones with 13 minutes to play and showed a physicality that wasn’t evident in its two Big 12 losses the week before.

“After Texas Tech, we came back that next day and we moved on,” Wahlin said. “We moved on to Iowa State and obviously, like (Dawes) said, the box score — they beat us by quite a bit, but we felt like we played a really good game most of that game and they’re a really talented team.

“But all throughout this week, I’d say Thursday and yesterday were some of our two most physical, toughest practices we’ve had, and we saw that carry over, and we have to keep that rolling.”

Smith went as far as saying last Thursday’s practice may have been the best since he’s been at Utah.

“We really built off of Iowa State, even though we lost box score-wise, but we really did a lot of good things, and just took what we did from then and the two practices leading up to this, just in the game, you can see how it came out and kind of dominated right away,” Dawes said.

So, can Utah can that momentum going when it picks things back up over the next few days?

Scouting the TCU Horned Frogs

Week 3 of Big 12 play for Utah includes a road matchup at TCU on Wednesday night (6 p.m. MST, ESPN+) before hosting rival BYU at the Huntsman Center on Saturday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+) in the first of two regular-season meetings.

The Horned Frogs (9-6) are off to a 2-2 start in league play, including a 71-67 win over BYU last week at Schollmaier Arena. TCU is also 9-0 at home this season.

The Horned Frogs are fifth in the Big 12 in scoring defense, giving up 69.5 points per game. On the year, TCU is only allowing opponents to shoot 29.1% from 3-point range.

“Points are hard to come by. A lot of long possessions. They don’t make many mistakes defensively,” Smith said. “They make a mess out of the paint. They have great size. They have great physicality. You’ve got to earn everything with these guys.”

While Arizona State transfer guard Frankie Collins was lost for the season with a broken left foot, senior guard Noah Reynolds leads the Horned Frogs by averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game.

In the Horned Frogs’ win over the Cougars last week, Reynolds scored 21 points, including a go-ahead layup with 25.3 seconds to play.

“He plays at his pace. He just keeps you off balance,” Smith said of Reynolds. “He’s got every shot in the book. He’s just a really crafty guy, and he makes you pay when you make a mistake.”

In TCU’s victory over BYU, fellow guard Vasean Allette had 11 points and a season-high five assists. Reynolds and Allette had zero turnovers between them.

Center Ernest Udeh Jr. anchors the post for TCU by averaging 7.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

Smith has some familiarity with TCU and coach Jamie Dixon, as the Utes played the Horned Frogs in nonconference play each of Smith’s first two seasons at Utah.

Utah lost both of those matchups.

“Jamie Dixon’s teams are always really good on the glass, so you’ve got to neutralize them and hopefully win the rebounding battle,” Smith said. “They’re bringing three to four guys, and you’re gonna have to play with a lot of force.”

When Sandy Hunter retired from her job in the Social Security Administration, she knew she would receive none of the benefits on which she built her career.

As a federal employee, Hunter did not pay into Social Security — but her husband did. At 73 years old, Hunter says those Social Security benefits are an essential part of her family’s joint income.

And if Gov. Spencer Cox gets his way, that essential income for thousands of Utah’s seniors could mean a little bit more this year. But first, the Legislature will need to agree to the governor’s wish.

Eliminating income tax on Social Security benefits is a key pillar of the governor’s $30.6 billion fiscal 2026 budget proposal, and “easily the most popular proposal” he’s made in four years, Cox told the Utah Taxpayers Association Tuesday morning at its legislative outlook conference. It’s what Utah needs to do to prepare for the “silver tsunami,” he said.

Eliminating the state social security tax would save Hunter’s family, and roughly 150,000 other Utah households, close to $1,000 per year.

“It can really make a difference,” Hunter said. “We would be really happy about it.”

Close to 450,000 Utahns receive some Social Security benefits, according to U.S. Census Bureau data and the AARP, but senior citizens in lower-income households — those who earn $75,000 or less as a couple, or $37,000 or less as an individual — qualify for full tax credits.

Cox’s proposal would impact around 152,000 taxpayers, according to the tax commission.

Cox, in his pitch to the Utah Taxpayers Association Tuesday, said the proposal is “one of those rare” ones “where people who don’t get any benefits are also excited” about it. The Legislature, which creates and passes Utah’s annual budget, will decide this session whether or not to grant Cox’s wish in the fiscal 2026 budget.

But while the idea may be “politically popular,” some lawmakers, like Riverton Republican Sen. Dan McCay, said they are skeptical of the proposal. McCay told the tax association that he’s wary of proposals that “carve aside” savings for “special groups” and those that potentially increase the tax burden for other Utahns.

“I’ve always believed in a broader base and a lower rate,” McCay said during Tuesday’s conference. “It’s better for the economy and better for taxpayers, and it’s more transparent … that’s why I’m a little bit concerned about the push to completely withdraw the tax on Social Security.”

Instead, some lawmakers have proposed tax rate reductions and income threshold expansions for tax credits.

One proposal for the upcoming 2025 general legislative session, HB130, looks to change the income threshold to qualify for a full income tax credit on Social Security from $45,000 to $54,000 for single people, and from $75,000 to $90,000 for couples. Another bill, HB106, wants to cut the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.45%, which would cost roughly $160 million, said Utah State Tax Commission Chair John Valentine.

Cox told the crowd Tuesday he supports additional tax cuts “if we can fit it in the budget,” and reminded attendees that his administration approved the largest tax cuts in the state’s history — a total of around $1.2 billion in four years.

“We got to do that because of the decisions that were made by previous administrations and previous legislatures,” Cox, a former lieutenant governor, said, “and, more importantly, by the private sector who have invested in our state and by the people who work here and work so hard.”

The 2025 legislative session begins Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.

Local officials in Utah have issued permits for hundreds of thousands of new, non-apartment units in the past 30 years.

The Salt Lake Tribune analyzed a database maintained by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and the Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Center containing permits issued by location, date, construction type and building type going back to 1994.

Here’s a summary of three major trends:

1. Salt Lake and Utah counties top the list

About 46% of all the new permits have been issued in the two largest Wasatch Front counties, with 23.84% in Salt Lake County and 23.74% in Utah County.

Washington County was third with 12.98% of permits, followed by Davis and Weber Counties with 11.91% and 6.08% respectively.

The state’s 24 other counties — mostly Cache and Tooele — accounted for a combined 21.44%, though there’s no data for Daggett County since 2011.

2. A big boom in a smaller city

Though Washington County doesn’t have the most permits when compared to other counties, its largest municipality, St. George, was the single town to receive the most permits in Utah.

Between 1994 and September 2024, officials issued 25,280 permits for 28,152 units in duplexes, single-family detached homes, condos and townhomes, according to the Ivory-Boyer Construction Database.

That’s about 8,000 more than the next-highest city, South Jordan.

A builder in the area credited that to southern Utah’s weather.

3. The suburbs are growing

Most of the construction in the state has been in the suburbs of the major metropolitan areas of Salt Lake City and Provo-Orem. Besides the state’s biggest southern city, the most permits in the past three decades have been near those population hubs.

Leading cities include South Jordan, Lehi, Washington, Herriman, Saratoga Springs and West Valley City.

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for Redfin, said that’s common because the suburbs are where there’s land available.

It’s harder to get infill buildings approved in places like Salt Lake City that are mostly developed, she said, and “easier to come in and build cookie cutter on a big plot of land.”

Use the searchable database below to see the total number of permits from 1994 to last September and by year for the past decade.

Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

The Baylor Bears (14-3) will try to build on a three-game win streak when they host the No. 23 Utah Utes (13-3) at 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at Foster Pavilion. The matchup airs on ESPN+.

Catch tons of live women’s college basketball, plus original programming, with ESPN+ or the Disney Bundle.

In its previous game, Baylor beat Arizona State, 78-59, away. Its leading performers were Sarah Andrews (16 PTS, 45.45 FG%, 4-6 from 3PT) and Aliyah Matharu (14 PTS, 60 FG%, 2-3 from 3PT). In its previous game, Utah defeated Houston 69-42 at home, with Maye Toure (22 PTS, 12 REB, 66.67 FG%) and Gianna Kneepkens (15 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST, 46.15 FG%, 3-6 from 3PT) leading the way.

How to Watch Baylor vs. Utah

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Baylor vs. Utah Statistics and Rankings

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Baylor Leaders

• Darianna Littlepage-Buggs: 14.3 PTS, 10.3 REB, 1.2 STL, 52.2 FG%, 23.8 3PT% (5-for-21)
• Andrews: 12.2 PTS, 5.3 AST, 1.4 STL, 37.5 FG%, 37.3 3PT% (44-for-118)
• Jada Walker: 12.1 PTS, 5.5 AST, 1.4 STL, 45.6 FG%, 45.2 3PT% (14-for-31)
• Aaronette Vonleh: 13.7 PTS, 59.6 FG%, 33.3 3PT% (2-for-6)
• Yaya Felder: 11.7 PTS, 1.2 STL, 49.6 FG%, 42.2 3PT% (27-for-64)

Utah Leaders

• Kneepkens: 16.9 PTS, 1.1 STL, 49.4 FG%, 44.0 3PT% (44-for-100)
• Toure: 13.8 PTS, 1.2 BLK, 47.8 FG%, 36.1 3PT% (13-for-36)
• Ines Vieira: 6.3 PTS, 5.6 AST, 1.8 STL, 41.9 FG%, 27.8 3PT% (10-for-36)
• Reese Ross: 8.9 PTS, 1.2 STL, 56.2 FG%, 39.1 3PT% (9-for-23)
• Kennady McQueen: 11.2 PTS, 50.4 FG%, 42.9 3PT% (33-for-77)

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Twenty years ago today, I watched TV coverage of a probe descending toward the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn, while outside my home in Utah snow dusted a rocky mountain outcrop I’d nicknamed Titan — both after the moon and a painting of it.

When the probe — named Huygens, for the 17th century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens who discovered that world — transmitted its first pictures, the painted moonscape clashed with the real one. The artwork, from the 1940s, was shown to be utterly wrong.

Chesley Bonestell’s “Saturn as Seen From Titan,” appeared with other planetary scenes in Life magazine, showing what were then considered to be astronomically accurate views of the solar system for the first time. An architectural illustrator and Hollywood matte painter, Bonestell would make a career of space art. His work inspired the very scientists whose research would render many of his paintings factually obsolete.

The Titan illustration is his most famous space scene. In it, Saturn hangs over windswept snow and brown cliffs and outcroppings. The crags frame a glowing Saturn, floating huge, rings nearly edge-on, like a giant’s belt-buckle. Part of the planet is shadowed, blending into the cobalt-turquoise sky. The whole of it is weirdly grand.

What the Huygens probe revealed — a hazy, frigid, dusky-orange world — and what the ethereal painting promised could not be more different.

The first color view of Titan’s surface, which was returned on Jan. 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency Huygens probe, following processing to add reflection spectra data.

(NASA)

Released from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, the Huygens probe descended by parachute for some 2.5 hours before surviving its landing. The European Space Agency craft remains humans’ farthest footfall, some 750 million miles away from Earth.

With a thick nitrogen-methane atmosphere, Titan’s sky is choked with organic compounds, dust and aerosols. This is a world of hydrocarbon seas and vistas of sand and icy rocks. The cold — minus-274 degrees Farenheit — is perhaps the only commonality with Bonestell’s view. (The real Titan may not be as romantic as Bonestell’s, but it is promising: In three years NASA’s Dragonfly mission will send a helicopter to explore Titan’s habitability for life.)

The Huygens-Bonestell discrepancy wasn’t the first time that our visions of the solar system were upended by data. Space exploration is, after all, a form of “ground-truthing.”

When spacecraft first reached Mars in the 1960s, the notion of canals built by Martians had to be discarded, though later images would show clear evidence of surface water. The sci-fi jungles of Venus pictured in pulp magazines? Probes showed instead a dense atmosphere and hellish-hot surface. Our own moon’s mountains, long portrayed as sharp and alpine, are instead muscular and rounded.

Yet our obsolete visions retain value.

In 1944, Bonestell’s illustration offered a compelling answer to the question, “Why explore space?” And even now, knowing it’s far from accurate, the painting’s faint path of light leads us between the cliffs and toward Saturn with this message: If we stay only where we are, then knowledge does too, in or near the frigid lavender of shadows.

Bonestell’s informed-but-imagined solar system evokes the sublime, the sense of being small then empowered in the face of the grand. The scientists who built the Huygens probe that made Titan real were, in their way, doing the same. Both endeavors are examples of the rigors of curiosity born from awe.

This is not, as critics of space exploration suggest, a form of belittling or ignoring our terrestrial challenges. Quite the opposite. The sublime strengthens our bonds with the cosmos and all it signifies: beauty and dread, imagination and fact, the thrill of discovery and fear of the unknown. Painted or transmitted, other worlds can fire the imagination and at the same time underline the value of the one we inhabit. That mountain outcrop I still think of as Titan reminds me of the painting, the probe, space “out there” and the space I occupy right here on Earth.

Christopher Cokinos is the author of “Still as Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon from Antiquity to Tomorrow.” He lives in northern Utah.

Utah lawmakers are just days away from commencing the annual legislative session on Capitol Hill — and education is again slated to be a defining element of this year’s iteration.

But veteran school teacher Chelsie Acosta said legislators would be well served to also spend a day or two in a public school classroom.

“I would welcome any legislator to just come and spend a day in a (Salt Lake City) west side school and see the language issues, the trauma issues and the poverty issues,” said Acosta, a teacher at Glendale Middle School.

“Those are issues that are not being talked about enough.”

Acosta and fellow members of the Utah Education Association (UEA) gathered for a Monday afternoon press conference to announce its 2025 legislative priorities, share findings from its latest pre-legislative survey and discuss the challenges facing many of the state’s K-12 educators.

The UEA is the state’s major teaching union, representing approximately 18,000 public educators. The union recently surveyed 1,400 teachers to garner their members’ highest concerns and priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

“The results are clear,” said UEA President Renée Pinkney. “Educators are calling on lawmakers to prioritize funding for long-term staffing solutions; reduce stress and burnout and provide behavioral health resources.”

UEA’s pre-legislative survey: Key findings

During the press conference, Pinkney stood with several fellow educators and highlighted key findings and priorities gleaned from the UEA’s pre-legislative survey:

• Oppose private religious vouchers. Nearly all respondents — 93% — oppose private religious vouchers which, according to Pinkney, “divert essential resources from public schools.”

• Smaller class sizes “to ensure that every student receives the attention they deserve.”

• Provide 3% on the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) above the required inflation adjustment and enrollment growth.

• Increased professional paid hours for licensed educators — and continued funding for Future Educators pilot programs to support student teaching experiences.

• Support for the Healthy School Meals initiative enabling more families to access no-cost meals.

• Establish a sustainable long-term revenue source for K-12 public education.

• Increased resources for school safety and student well-being — including counselors, social workers and school psychologists.

“Together with lawmakers and fellow advocates, we can create policies that enhance student achievement, support public educators and provide the resources necessary for every child to thrive,” said Pinkney.

Making meaningful investments in Utah’s public schools, she added, will “ensure a brighter future for our students.”

UEA’s decades-old opposition to vouchers continues

When asked to elaborate more on the survey’s broad opposition to private religious school vouchers, Pinkney noted that the UEA has opposed vouchers for decades.

“We know that vouchers harm students,” she said. “Any time you are siphoning off funds from public education, you are harming students in public schools.”

There are variable costs that decrease when a student withdraws from public school and, say, attends a private school. But the fixed costs — including maintenance and utility fees — remain, said Pinkney.

“It’s very disingenuous to say that you can have a voucher program simultaneously running at the same time that you’re funding public education, because we know that our students in public schools have needs that aren’t being met — and we are protectors of the promise of public education.”

Stress and burnout inside the teaching ranks

When asked Monday about the UEA’s calls for the Utah Legislature to prioritize reducing stress and burnout in the teaching ranks, several teachers participating in the press conference shared their experiences.

Colette Memmott, a teacher at West Jordan’s Sunset Ridge Middle School, spoke out about the stress caused by large class sizes.

“We have an abundance of extra things we have to do based on what kind of kids are in our class. It’s exhausting to grade all the work and to remediate the students that need to be remediated and to give extensions to students that need it.”

Pinkney added that the hours many public teachers are working “are way beyond contract hours.”

Janet Sanders, a teacher at Herriman’s Mountain Ridge High School, said many of her fellow teachers are also burdened by increased student behavior issues in the classroom.

Additionally, said Sanders, many teachers feel they need to be overly careful about what they say during their classroom instruction.

“I think there’s a feeling among teachers that there’s an anti-public ed sentiment out there,” she said. “There’s a movement towards privatization. We just feel threatened — and we feel for our students because we know that they will not be well served.”

The Utah Legislature’s 2025 general session starts in eight days, and the Utah House Republicans say they plan on changing the way the state’s colleges and universities deliver education.

House Republican leadership announced their policy priorities for the 2025 session, which starts Jan. 21, at a press conference Monday.

“Caucus members have been working on these issues all year long,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said. “These priorities are a reflection of the thoughts and feedback that we have heard all across the state.”

Their priorities were in five main areas: education, affordability, infrastructure, safe communities and accountable government.

How the House majority will prioritize education this year

“Education is critical, even crucial, for improving lives and developing a skilled workforce and fostering innovation,” Rep. Candice B. Pierucci, R-Herriman, said.

The House Majority Caucus plans to focus on investing in career and technical education programs, reducing burdens for student teachers and parents and expanding individualized learning opportunities.

The goals for higher education include maximizing the value of education, streamlining and aligning degree programs with Utah’s workforce needs and increasing investments in technical education.

Schultz said they want to bring higher education “back to the basics” by focusing on providing educations that will give students strong opportunities in the workforce. This includes promoting degrees and certificates that will provide opportunities for economic success.

“It’s not fair or right to tell a student to come to one of our institutions and get a degree in a program that we know does not lead to a workforce outcome for them, does not give them a broad range of experience,” Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, said.

The representatives are also working on expanding the Utah Fits All Scholarship program which helped 10,000 families last year. There were 27,000 families who applied to receive the scholarship.

“In terms of funding we’ll see on the budget, of course, we’d love to see more money for customized learning for families and our students, but we’re looking at this year’s budget,” Peterson said.

How Utah plans to embrace nuclear power

In line with what Gov. Spencer Cox has said, Utah lawmakers say they want to increase energy production in the state.

“We have to plan where we’re going to get our power from, how we’re going to keep the lights on, a plan that must include future technologies such as nuclear as we move forward,” said Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise.

As part of the House GOP focus on infrastructure, Schultz said there have been many conversations about nuclear power, “we want more of it.”

The lawmakers said expanding nuclear power output will help keep Utah’s energy costs among the lowest in the country.

The state government has worked with the Idaho National Lab and funded the San Rafael Center, looking at ways to utilize nuclear power.

There are other focuses to help improve infrastructure, like making sure the state isn’t limited by gridlock and that there is enough water for everything the state requires, from agriculture to the Great Salt Lake.

Potential changes coming to Utah’s elections

The House will be looking into the recent audit on Utah’s elections to see what concerns should be addressed, Schultz said, adding there are no firm plans on changes yet.

These potential changes to Utah’s elections processes are a part of the group’s focus on increasing government accountability.

Schultz also spoke about the debate on who should be running the state’s elections.

“I think that’s a fair debate to have. I personally have concerns with — again, it’s not specific to any title, any person holding this title — but the perception out there to have the lieutenant governor in charge of their own elections, I would like to see a way and move away from that,” Schultz said.

There will also be an effort to bring more transparency to Utah elections and to address the other major concerns found in the audit such as management of the state’s voter rolls.

Schultz said this is the second audit in a row that has highlighted concerns with voter rolls.

Utah House Republicans plan to focus on illegal immigration

House Republicans said they will also focus on preserving the safety of Utah’s communities amid an increase in challenges like gang violence and fentanyl trafficking.

Part of this focus will include “cracking down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the Beehive state,” said Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield.

Lisonbee emphasized that this is not about making Utah a threatening place for immigrants but rather holding people accountable for committing crimes in the state.

“Whether they’re from Colorado, from Utah or from South America, it doesn’t matter. If you’re here and you’re committing crimes, you will be held accountable,” Lisonbee said. “That is the message that we are sending this year with our legal immigration package.”

This will include focusing on dealing with problems of human and drug trafficking from cartels and other groups.

The House Majority Caucus plans to lower taxes to help increase affordability

House Republicans say they’re also focused on making Utah more affordable.

“Utah tops almost every list of successful states, no matter the metric, we’re No. 1 in private sector job growth, for entrepreneurship, for upward mobility and more,” said Peterson.

Part of this priority is a focus on lowering taxes, but it is currently unclear how big these tax cuts could be or what they will ultimately look like.

Other policies they say they’ll pursue include increasing affordable home ownership, strengthening business friendly policies and protecting taxpayer dollars.