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The 2025 legislative session has come to an end. Here's how lawmakers will change Utahns' lives this year.
After 45 days and nearly 600 bills passed — including cutting taxes, revamping elections, reshaping housing policy, passing a $30.8 billion budget, prohibiting cell phones in schools and banning pride flags on government property — Republican leaders declared the 2025 session a success.
“We’ve done a lot of things that I think are positive. We’re pretty proud of what we’ve done,” said Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton. “It’s pretty amazing to be in Utah where we can cut taxes and fund education at a high level.”“It’s messy. It’s called sausage-making for a reason. It’s ugly, but it works. And I love that we have this process,” Cox said late Friday. “We’re really proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.” Others were less complimentary, arguing that the GOP supermajority did not listen to the concerns of people whose lives were impacted by the laws being passed. West Valley City Sen. Daniel Thatcher reached his breaking point at the end of the session, announcing midway through the final day of lawmaking that“There is a growing disconnect between the public we are supposed to represent and your representatives,” he said. “You’re not imagining it. We’re not listening to you.” One veteran lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid damaging relationships with the Legislature, said this session was the “worst I’ve ever been in.” “A number of the issues that we’ve had to deal with are issues that aren’t nearly as important as how the state needs to be run in terms of balancing the budget, in terms of public safety, in terms of education,” the lobbyist said. “So to spend so much time on bills has just been frivolous and mean-spirited.”constitutional right to change their government through the ballot initiative process Republican legislators were alarmed, fearing it would lead to a flood of citizen initiatives fueled by money pouring in from outside the state and responded by making the already-challenging initiative process even harder. One bill would require initiative backers to publish the text of their initiative in newspapers statewide for 60 days before the election — at an estimated expense of $1.4 million. Lawmakers also approved putting two constitutional amendments to voters in 2026 — one that would require an initiative that would raise taxes to get 60% support from voters and another that would have the effect of removing the newspaper publication requirement, both for amendments to the Constitution that legislators want and initiatives run by the public.After a presidential election preceded by largely false claims of voter fraud, and election-related disputes that deepened rifts in the Utah GOP, lawmakers set out to make a series of changes to how Utahns choose their leaders.the ballot they get in their mailbox. The most significant election bill brought by lawmakers initially would have effectively eliminated voting by mail in the state. The bill changed significantly as it moved through the Legislature, but will still eventually transition the state away from sending a ballot to every active voter’s mailbox. If Utahns want to vote by mail, they will have to opt in to do so. At a news conference Friday night, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Utah’s top elections official, said it was a “big deal” that vote-by-mail was not eliminated and that she felt the bill, HB300, had landed in a “really good place.”Starting in 2029, ballots will only be sent to active voters who at some point prior indicated they wanted to vote by mail. County election officials throughout the state started out opposing the bill, but through negotiations were neutral when it passed. Democrats and voting rights advocates remained against the bill, though, raising concerns about how some measures would affect turnout, especially among the state’s marginalized communities, like The bill also includes guidance for cleaning up the state’s voter rolls after a bill to withdraw Utah from the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, was rejected.An independent commission of representatives from media outlets, higher education institutions and former politicians has organized debates between candidates in Utah elections for over a decade. But after multiple public tiffs between the Utah Debate Commission and Republicans, lawmakers at one point weighed The bill stalled in a committee, and the state will instead split $600,000 between Utah Valley University and the University of Utah to “collaborate on a proposal to host nonpartisan candidate debates and on establishing a statewide, nonpartisan debate organization.”and others by banning public employee unions from negotiating contracts with their government employers on the employees' behalf. Sponsors of the bill argued that when unions win concessions from the government, taxpayers lose.“They’re pushing back on us. That’s part of the process,” Adams said. “We welcome that. Even though we may not like it, we welcome it as part of the process. We’ll see how successful they are.” A union supporter holds a sign 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., the courts were in legislator’s crosshairs. A suite of bills was proposed that would have given the Legislature more influence over judges,Lawmakers did pass SB296, though, that would let the governor appoint the chief justice of the Supreme Court — with Senate confirmation — every four years. Cox said he would have vetoed both the bill letting the Legislature recommend which judges should be retained and the bill requiring a supermajority. He said he would look at SB296, but it doesn’t “rise to the level” as the others. “I have no interest in appointing the chief justice,” he said. “I didn’t ask for it. It was not something I wanted.” Changes were also made that would make it harder for organizations — like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU or others — to bring lawsuits on behalf of a group’s members.on the membership of over a dozen state boards and commissions — including the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which compiles information to help voters decide whether to retain judges. Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant speaks at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.For the fifth year in a row, the Legislature OK’ed significant tax cuts, including a reduction to the state income tax rate, bringing it down to 4.5% from 4.55%. The Legislature also expanded the child tax credit, allowing parents with children up to five years old to claim the benefit, as well as eliminating the“We worked hard to get some relief for our seniors,” Cox said during his Friday night news conference. “We didn’t get all we wanted with the Social Security cut but we got a significant portion of that… and that will make a big deal for our seniors. We’re grateful for the work that was done there with that.”, sponsored by Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden. The bill originally included a $1 million cap on medical malpractice payouts, which attracted significant pushback from patients, families and attorneys. The bill was later amended and the cap was removed, but the legislation still gives doctors personal immunity in malpractice cases as long as they have malpractice insurance. The bill was divisive for both parties, as a number of Republicans broke with their party in both chambers to vote against the bill, and two Democrats in the Senate voted in favor. The day after the bill passed the Senate, The Salt Lake Tribune first reported that Katy Hall’s husband, Michael Hall, an orthopedist,, that will regulate needle exchanges, allow for mobile medication-assisted treatment centers and ban supervised consumption sites passed both the Senate and House without a single vote against. Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.Lawmakers voted this session to expand an infertility treatment coverage pilot program, which allows public workers to access a $4,000 benefit toward assisted reproductive technologies. Once the bill receives the governor’s expected signature,Five years ago, the Utah Legislature passed a bill to limit the maximum jail sentence for a class A misdemeanor to 364 days in an effort to avoid federal deportation proceedings, which are triggered after a one-year sentence in jail.The bill has been narrowed in recent weeks and no longer applies to all class A misdemeanors, instead focusing on some violent crimes, though it still would apply in some cases to some people in the country legally. Despite the changes, Republican leaders in the Legislature have said theyanother barring gender transition care for people incarcerated The proposal came nearly one year after the Justice Department sued Utah alleging the state discriminated against a transgender woman incarcerated at the state prison by providing inadequate and delayed medical care. Under the Trump administration, the department has since withdrawn the lawsuit.After two failed attempts last year to ban pride flags in schools, lawmakers succeeded in passing a bill that would do exactly that and more — going so far as toin all public schools and government buildings. The allowed flags, if the bill is signed into law, would include Utah and U.S. flags, military flags, flags for other countries or Native American tribes, Olympic flags and the official flags for colleges and universities. The bill also includes a carveout for flags displayed temporarily as part of an approved school curriculum. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, has said explicitly that his aim is to ban pride flags, and heover the bill after he said in a House hearing that it would allow teachers to hang Nazi or Confederate flags in some instances.to strip the bill of its provisions related to government buildings in an effort to avoid lawsuits over the legislation, but the amendment failed on the Senate floor. Asked Friday night at a news conference if he planned to veto the bill, Gov. Spencer Cox said, ”I’m not going to talk about vetoing any bills tonight. I don’t know if I’m going to sign that one. I’ll probably sign that one. I need to look at it.” In an interview later Friday, Cox said he wished the bill had not been expanded to government buildings. “I wish we would have kept it at schools and let adults make those decisions,” he said. “That would be really cool if I could just strike out half a bill and keep the other half of a bill,” he said, “but I don’t get to do that.” The Utah Pride Center sponsors a protest at the Utah Capitol over HB77, a bill that bans pride flags from Utah schools and government property, on the last day of the Legislative session, Friday, March 7, 2025.making changes to how and when officials with the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District — the state-created entity overseeing the development of a proposed Major League Baseball stadium in Salt Lake City — can spend public dollars. SB336, now awaiting Cox’s signature, allows officials to spend sales tax revenue on building the stadium and related infrastructure before a ball club is awarded to the Beehive State.The bill also allows the district to spend public dollars on “cleanup or security relating to outdoor recreation infrastructure,” likely a nod toUtahns buying groceries online and picking them up in the parking lot would be able to add beer to the order, under one of the provisions of the annual liquor bill that passed both houses late in the session. SB328 also would clarify the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services’ commission’s authority to deny liquor licenses to businesses with a history of violations and permit bartenders to perform a “straw test” to taste tiny amounts of the drinks they’re making. The Legislature also passed HB414, which, if signed, will provide a protocol for what would happen to producers when raw milk is suspected as the source of a foodborne illness outbreak. Another bill that passed both houses, HB138, requires specific labeling for so-called “cultivated” meat — or edible tissue grown in a lab — and also mandates labeling for plant-based meat substitutes. Lawmakers also passed HB84, which would require labeling if vaccines are put in food. A spokesperson for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food said that at present, the bill “doesn’t do much as there are not any vaccines for food authorized by the FDA.”Utah’s school voucher overhaul: Homeschoolers could get less money next year, and more changes Everything we know about Utah’s massive higher education cut and ‘reinvestment’ bill, which passed its final hurdleThe Triple Team: Walker Kessler makes Utah Jazz, NBA history with incredible night vs. Raptors
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