CAPITOL HILL—After making their way through wet winter weather from the four (six?) corners of the state on Tuesday, Utah lawmakers were reminded by their chamber leaders that a generational drought continues to lurk under the deep Wasatch snowpack.

“This has been a wet winter so far—and that is great. But one winter alone won’t wash away two decades of drought,” House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said. “The ongoing drought, our management of state water, increased resources for water in Southern Utah and preservation of the Great Salt Lake are top priorities for this House.”

The water dynamic was one of several state-level contradictions highlighted by both Wilson and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, in their opening remarks kicking off the 2023 Utah legislative session. Utah is facing dry years, they said, despite a few wet months; businesses are reaping the rewards of a best-in-the-nation economy, they said, but residents are being squeezed out by a dearth of housing and skyrocketing costs; renewable energy and electrification show promise, they said, but it’s unrealistic to abandon fossil fuels; teachers deserve higher pay and better resources, they said, but an unprecedented budget surplus will be used for a “historic” tax cut—likely translating to a few dollars per month for most families—and a new voucher push to divert public dollars to private schooling; transit and active transportation are critical for managing population growth and maintaining quality of life, they said, but the state is simultaneously building three urban freeways while work on the double-tracking of FrontRunner has crept along with little progress for more than 20 years.

“Coming into this session, it has become crystal clear to me that as a state, and by extension, as elected representatives, we stand at one of those rare moments when our choices will ripple for generations,” Wilson said. “If we fail to lead courageously, representatives, our state will not continue its growth, future generations will have to find somewhere else to live and the cherished lifestyle we enjoy will be at risk.”

In the Senate, Adams spoke of the need for “innovative” ways to conserve water, highlighting agricultural optimization and more divisive methods like desalination (or the treating of saline water for various uses) and cloud seeding (which releases elements into the air in an attempt to make it rain over here instead of over there, with no net change in water volume). Those comments follow recent reports that Utah has as little as five years to alter its environmental trajectory before the Great Salt Lake is irreversibly damaged.

“Our climate is dry and has always been—our pioneer ancestors knew this, and it was among the first challenges they addressed.” Adams said. “This session, we will have the foresight to find lasting solutions to Utah’s and the West’s water crisis.”

Adams said Utah “must” provide the option for parents to use taxpayer dollars for private tuition and home-schooling costs. Research on voucher programs—which have existed in some states for roughly two decades—is mixed at best, with little indication that it improves educational outcomes generally or correlates with a significant broadening of schooling opportunities.

“Parents want choice,” Adams said. “They want more control over their children’s education.”

On transportation, Adams said Utah will “provide the necessary infrastructure for the wheels of commerce to turn unfettered,” seemingly in reference to Utah’s ongoing prioritization of highway projects. But he also touched on the need for transit investment and car alternatives, going so far as to say there is insufficient room in Farmington and at Point of the Mountain for additional freeways (despite plans to expand Interstate 15 through Davis and Salt Lake Counties, likely through displacement). But he notably referred only to improvement of existing transit services, with neither he nor Wilson suggesting that any new rail or other transit routes are forthcoming in the near future, like a long-discussed-but-never-formal plan for a second FrontRunner line running east-west from Tooele to, potentially, Park City.

“It is time we fix FrontRunner,” Adams said. “We need to double-track the FrontRunner so we can run express trains. It needs electrification. Utah’s public transportation needs to be competitive with driving an automobile.”

But Wilson and Adams did suggest an appetite for new programs and efforts around incentivizing home ownership. Wilson thanked the mayors of Ogden, South Jordan and Clearfield for their leadership in building new housing in their cities and suggested that reluctant municipalities could be pushed by the state to loosen their regulations around zoning and land use.

The state’s housing stock has failed to keep up with the anthropological churn of new generations of Utahns, with existing homes becoming more valuable and many attempts at building new, affordable housing falling to NIMBY-style (“Not in My Backyard”) opposition from neighboring residents and community groups. That dynamic has pushed most new housing developments outward, exacerbating the suburban sprawl of the 20th century that wreaked havoc on resource management and cemented the private vehicle as Utah’s primary—and in many cases only—mode of transportation.

Adams said he worries about the state losing its middle class and suggested it is time for the Utah to resume assistance financing for first-time home buyers.

“We need to help individuals just starting out to build equity for their future, have the opportunity for greater upward mobility and experience the pride of home ownership.” Adams said.

The 2023 legislative session concludes on March 3. Visit cityweekly.net for ongoing coverage.