The 2025 Utah Legislative session started last week with a flurry of activity, with both good and bad bills presented. With hundreds of bills already file,d we can’t share each and everyone of them, but here are some highlights:
HB 101 Ballot Proposition Amendments - Rep Romero
HB 10
1 is a bill that would require the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel to prepare an impartial ballot title and analysis for proposed constitutional amendments or other ballot questions submitted by the Legislature and an impartial analysis of any statewide initiative or referendum. This bill would stop the trend of the Republicans in the legislature making constitutional amendments purposefully misleading like they did last year with Amendment D.
SB 122 Sales Tax on Food Amendments - Sen Blouin
After years of Republican legislators attempting to couple repealing the food tax with other tax changes that would hurt Utahns, SB 122 is a clean bill that will remove the tax on food with no strings attached. This bill is a win for working families by decreasing the cost of groceries and making our tax system fairer for those struggling the most.
SB 173 School Meal Amendments - Sen Escamilla
SB 173 would make school lunches free for all Utah children. A long overdue measure, no child should go hungry in our schools when we have the resources and ability to feed them. Thank you to Sen Escamilla for working to end child hunger and support Utah families.
And some lowlights:
HB 269 - Privacy Protections in Sex-designated Areas - Rep Gricius and Sen Brammer
This is another in a long list of attacks by Utah Republicans against LGBTQ+ Utahns. HB 269 would prevent trans students from living in the dorm room of their choice at public universities. This bill has also already passed the House and must not pass the Senate.
SB 73 - Statewide Initiatives Amendments; and SJR 2 - Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution - Statewide Initiatives - Sen Fillmore and Rep Kyle
SB 73 requires sponsors of ballot initiatives to publish the full fiscal impact of their initiative before collecting signatures, which, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, would cost an estimated 1.4 million dollars per initiative. SJR 2 requires ballot initiatives that would raise or create new taxes to receive a 60% supermajority of the vote instead of the current 50% requirement. In direct retaliation to Utah voters passing Prop 4 in 2018 to end gerrymandering, these two bills together effectively eliminate our right-to-pass ballot initiatives.
HB 267 Public Sector Labor Union Amendments - Rep Teuscher and Sen Cullimore
Fast tracked through in order to avoid public scrutiny (and failing miserably) the original HB 267 would take away the right of public employees to collectively bargain through a union. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of Utahns who signed the UEA Petition, wrote their representatives and showed up to the committee hearings, HB 267 has now been circled and is likely dead. There are reports of a replacement bill that would require unions representing public employees to be recertified every 5 years to act as a collective bargaining agent. We will see how the replacement goes, but for now, thank you to everyone who showed up to protect public employee unions!
