Hello friends,

Thank you Mapleton City for the week-long celebration honoring the Pioneer history and legacy of our town, and thank you Spanish Fork City for another great Fiesta Days. My family and I absolutely loved being with neighbors, meeting new people who have moved in, reuniting with friends coming back to these annual celebrations, and remembering our forebears’ faith, courage and perseverance.

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo Utah Symphony and Utah Opera for your free community concert in Springville’s Hobble Creek Canyon to celebrate the 4th of July. With funding provided by the Legislature and many other generous organizations and individuals, this concert series has traveled throughout the state to celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary. Thank you for coming to our area where thousands attended to listen to beautiful music in an inspiring setting.

Exciting news! For the fourth year in a row, U.S. News has named Utah the Best State in America. Utah was built on a pioneering spirit of hard work, service to our neighbors, and family values. Whether it is leading the nation in upward mobility, fostering family-friendly communities, or managing resources with long-term foresight, 71 areas of criteria were used to determine this ranking. However, the real foundation for this ranking is each of you and what you do in our local neighborhoods. The proven principles of service, hard work, creativity, commitment to family and community, faith, sacrifice and love is Utah’s secret to success.

With costs on the rise, keeping your energy bill low is a top priority. That’s why when major energy companies proposed price increases across the board, Utah pushed back, and it paid off in a big way. Instead of the originally proposed massive rate hikes, a new settlement is bringing immediate relief to Utah households. 

Thanks to this agreement, there will be no general rate hikes until 2029. $2 billion has also been committed to strengthening Utah’s electric grid against outages and wildfires. This is a major win for all Utahns, ensuring that our energy remains reliable, dispatchable, and, most importantly, affordable.

Utah has once again proven itself a national leader in fiscal responsibility, ranking as one of just nine states to maintain a low SNAP payment error rate below the 6% threshold. Thanks to our state's rigorous management and commitment to accountability, Utah taxpayers are fully protected from costly federal penalties. Under new federal legislation, states with high error rates could soon be forced to hand over tens or even hundreds of millions of state tax dollars to cover food aid costs – funds that would otherwise have to be drawn from our public schools, law enforcement, or health services. By keeping our error rate low, Utah has secured a complete exemption from these cost-sharing requirements, ensuring our state budget remains protected while critical support continues reaching the families who truly need it.

As a parent, I understand that when it comes to budgeting for your family, every penny counts. This past session, we passed a 15% reduction on the state portion of the gas tax, saving Utah drivers an estimated $40 million. This builds on Utah’s commitment to smart tax policy: small, sustained cuts over time that add up to major savings for Utah families. 

The bill also streamlined permitting for fuel pipelines and included industry commitments to increase Utah fuel production by 12.5% over five years, pairing immediate price relief with a long-term supply strategy.

Exciting local news this month. The new Dry Creek Parkway exit on I-15 between Springville and Spanish Fork is now open. I’ve been using it on my commute home, and it is great. Planning has been in the works for many, many years and now we have a new East-West corridor to help ease congestion in Springville and Spanish Fork. A big shout out of thanks to former Representative Francis Gibson who started this project and secured millions of state funding many years ago. This has been a collaborative project between UDOT, Springville, Mapleton, Spanish Fork cities and Utah County leaders with the Legislature providing additional millions of dollars and support the past few years. Read more here.

Utah has incredible teachers and in July thousands and thousands joined together at the annual Show Up For Teachers conference. I’m grateful for the teachers who have helped me, my children, and our local communities. Thank you to Utah’s First Lady Abby Cox for your leadership in convening this wonderful annual gathering.

Our official state legislative platform, le.utah.gov, has been named the national recipient of the 2026 NCSL Online Democracy Award! Presented annually by the National Conference of State Legislatures, this prestigious award recognizes state legislative websites that excel at making democracy open, transparent, and easy to navigate for citizens. This site allows you to track bills, view agendas, stream committee meetings, read audits, explore the state budget, and much more. Transparency in government is essential to a healthy republic. Our interim meetings will resume this month on August 18th and 19th. Le.utah.gov is great resource for you to follow along and get involved with issues you care most about.

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