CAPITOL HILL—Over the past two years, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams said Tuesday, the Beehive State has met the challenge of COVID head on and on all fronts.

In his opening remarks of the 2022 legislative session, the Layton Republican stressed the importance of a “balanced approach” to the ongoing—and currently raging—pandemic, saying that the protection of life must be weighed against the impact to businesses, schools and personal freedoms.

“Though some people have struggled, loved ones have been lost and livelihoods have been threatened,” he said, “we have never lost hope.”

Adams and his counterpart in the House—Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville—have opposed vaccine and mask mandates, overseeing legislation last year that curtailed the governor’s emergency powers and strictly limiting the circumstances under which health orders can be imposed on the public. Adams himself had only recently recovered from a Coronavirus infection when he gaveled in the Senate on Tuesday, telling the chamber he had tested positive just that morning before correcting himself to explain that he had received negative results instead. His office later clarified that he had received both positive and negative test results.

The Senate moved quickly on Tuesday to introduce, consider and pass legislation (along party lines) that would overturn mask mandates in Salt Lake and Summit Counties, despite those counties following the process established last year for issuing such an order. But because the Legislature has the authority to overturn mandates, Adams said, it would be “complicit” if it allowed such an order to stand.

“We are not sitting back, we are not doing nothing,” Adams said. “We are doing everything we can.”

In the House, Wilson was similarly critical of COVID-related mandates and other public orders. After describing “the Utah way” as visionary and forward thinking, he said what Utah does not do is allow government overreach.

“[The Utah way] is not a nanny state,” Wilson said, “and it surely is not high taxes or burdensome regulation that saps the energy of our industrious people.”

Wilson said that recent events had conspired to force the Utah Legislature into a management role, rather than one of state leadership. He highlighted steps taken in the past—like investment in transit around the 2002 Olympics and decades-old economic plans—that put Utah on its present footing, and encouraged lawmakers to consider the future they’re now building together.

“Utah can not afford for us to forget our leadership role,” Wilson said. “The people of our state did not send us to jump from crisis to crisis on an ongoing basis.” In addition to the pandemic, both chamber leaders’ opening remarks focused on the need to address the state’s shrinking water supplies and deteriorating lake ecosystems. Legislative leaders have signalled that investing in the protection and the preservation of the Great Salt Lake will be a priority this year, along with the expansion of secondary water metering. But Adams also suggested that Utah remains committed to the construction of new—and controversial—water access projects like the Lake Powell Pipeline and a new diversion dam on the Bear River, the primary tributary for the Great Salt Lake.

“We need to make every effort possible to make sure we have adequate water supplies,” he said.

In the House, Wilson opened the session by listing challenges facing the state—depleted hospital capacity and exhausted health care professionals, supply chain interruptions and workforce shortages, high inflation and housing costs and a shrinking Great Salt Lake and ongoing drought that has “turned lawns brown and shortened our ski season.”

“The list goes on and on and to top it all off, it’s an election year,” Wilson said. “I think we can all feel a real sense of fatigue set in.”

The Great Salt Lake fell to a record-low level in 2021, and Wilson said leaders simply must work to protect the “vital” natural resource.

“It’s almost impossible to overstate the devastation to this state that losing the Great Salt Lake could bring,” he said.

Transportation projects were also teased by Adams, who said that UTA’s FrontRunner commuter rail line needs to be double-tracked, electrified and streamlined so that public transit can be faster and more convenient than driving a car. But he criticized federal policies that have contributed to inflation and high gas prices, saying the transition to green energy should not come at the expense of existing business interests.

“We can and will make the move to renewables—it’s inevitable—but we can make that move without increasing gas prices and ruining our economy,” Adams said.

He also urged out-of-work Utahns to enter the labor force, despite the state having one of the lowest unemployment rates in recent history.

“I would ask you today, if you’re not working and if you can, get a job, go to work, go back to work,” Adams said. “We need your help.”

Both leaders emphasized their desire to implement a large tax cut during the 2022 session. Wilson said the state is dealing with a large surplus, due to both “wreckless, money-printing policies” in Washington and the growth of “stable” revenue streams locally. He suggested it is better for that money to end up in Utahns’ pockets rather than state coffers.

Taxation is a perennial topic at the Utah Legislature, but has been a particular sticking point in recent years after multiple botched attempts at reforming the state’s tax code. Lawmakers approved an income tax cut in 2021, and Adams said to expect more of the same this year.

“2022 is the year of the tax cut—again,” he said. “But it will be larger this time.”

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