The month of September has been filled with many wonderful and significant activities, initiatives, and events.

It was an honor to be invited to present at the annual Utah League of Cities and Towns conference in the Salt Palace Convention Center on September 5. I also learned a lot and appreciated the input of mayors, city council members, and city staff from throughout the state about how to make homeownership possible for our children and grandchildren. This is a challenging issue facing Utah and the nation, but I’m confident as we all work together, we can do it.

The annual Day of Caring on September 12 planned by United Way of Utah County resulted in more than 1,500 volunteers gathering for a kickoff breakfast in downtown Provo and then heading out to serve in 71 projects throughout Utah County. Painting playgrounds, reading books to children, conducting STEM activities in schools, beautifying parks and outdoor areas and partnering with nonprofits in the valuable work they do are just a few examples of how caring volunteers amplified the caring work of our communities. As we continue to come together in united service, great things will keep happening in our county.

Many significant things are also taking place on Capitol Hill. This newsletter provides some important updates and resources to help you be informed, involved, and to also help me know how you want me to represent you. Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to represent you and our great communities in the Legislature.

Back by popular demand, and in follow up to the previous Family Night at the Capitol I hosted earlier this year, it was a wonderful privilege to host our House District 63 at the Capitol for another Family Night at the Capitol. Roxane and I and our family loved being with the dozens and dozens of incredible people and families from our communities for a pizza dinner and behind-the-scenes private tour of the Capitol. Recognizing there were many people in our House District that wanted to attend, I’ll be hosting another Family Night at the Capitol during the 2025 Legislative Session and will let you know the details in January.

October 15th & 16th - October interim meetings

October 22nd - Early voting begins

October 25th - Last day to register to vote

Tuesday, November 5th - Election Day

November 19th & 20th - November interim meetings

I enjoyed meeting with legislators from throughout the state during the September interim meetings at the Capitol. These meetings are an opportunity for us to hear presentations from experts and stakeholders, as well as the public, all of which helps us prepare for the upcoming legislative session. Topics discussed and learned about include: housing, water, transportation, taxes, economic development and workforce services, education, agriculture, health and human services, small businesses, crime, and many, many more topics.

The next interim meetings will be held on October 15-16 at the Capitol. You can participate in person or online at le.utah.gov.

A summary of all the September interim committee meetings can be found here.

Here are just a couple of things of particular note that impact Mapleton, Springville and Spanish Fork:

In the Business and Labor Committee, we received a presentation from the Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, established in the 2024 Legislative Session (SB149 Artificial Intelligence Amendments). Because this is a brand new office, we discussed the purpose of the office, its efforts to date, and its study of the role of generative AI in mental health treatment.

The topic of school fees was discussed in preparation for the 2025 General Session draft legislation, “School Fees Amendments.” The proposal would prohibit a local education agency (e.g. school) from charging a student a fee for an activity that is required as part of a course grade.

We received presentations from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) on passenger rail connecting Utah to Las Vegas and Boise and corridor preservation (planning ahead and purchasing land now for future highways as Utah’s population increases) and a presentation from the Mountainland Association of Governments on a grid study project to plan for future population growth and needs.

Great news! Construction on the new I-15 Interchange for Springville and Spanish Fork is moving forward to help relieve congestion to and from I-15 to Mapleton, Springville, and Spanish Fork. Securing legislative funding and planning with UDOT has been in the works for many years and it’s great to see progress.

Updates:

Constructing the new I-15 Interchange at 1600 S / 2700 N and widening the road from Main Street in Spanish Fork to the to the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) Tintic Line in Springville is anticipated to be completed late 2026 and will include:

· New I-15 interchange

· Road widened to two lanes in both directions from Main Street in Spanish Fork to the UPRR Tintic Line in Springville

· Shared-use path on the north side of the widened road

· Bridge over the UPRR Sharp Line

· Utility relocations east of the UPRR Tintic Line

To create continuity through cities and enhance wayfinding, 1600 S / 2700 N between Main Street in Spanish Fork and State Route 51 in Springville will now be known as Dry Creek Parkway. Roadway signage with the new name will be installed in late 2026.

For more information, visit the project website or contact a project representative:

Website: https://publicinput.com/i15springvillespanishfork

Email: i15springvillespanishfork@utah.gov

Phone: 801-704-0899

The Utah economy is still looking good, and the workforce is still growing. During the past year, Utah added about 40,300 new jobs (a 2.3% increase year over year). Unemployment did tick up a bit to 3.3%, but Utah is still almost a full percentage point lower than the national average.

More young people are entering the workforce and many people who had left the workforce are reentering the labor market. This is contributing to the slight rise in unemployment. But overall, the Utah economy is still going strong and seeing job growth in areas like healthcare, construction and business services.

Six of the ten major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains. The overall gains are led by education and health services (14,500) jobs), construction (8,900 jobs), and professional and business services (6,900 jobs). Leisure and hospitality (-100 jobs), financial services (-300 jobs), and trade, transportation and utilities (-2,000 jobs) experience year-over-year job losses.

Listen to Chief Economist Ben Crabb’s analysis of the August 2024 employment report here: https://soundcloud.com/utahdws/utah-employment-report-august-2024

During this past month we all witnessed and experienced the very bad air quality resulting from the out of state fires whose smoke traveled to Utah. Salt Lake City even ranked as the fifth worst air in the world on September 11.

I thought you would be interested in the work that is being done to help improve Utah’s air quality. The work in Salt Lake City started before Utah even became a state. In 1891 Salt Lake City passed its first air quality ordinance. Fines were imposed for the emission of ‘dense smoke’ from chimneys and furnaces. Five years later in 1896, Utah became the 45th state. Utah has had air quality regulations in place for the entire history of the state.

Interestingly, as the population of Utah has increased since 2002 until now, the annual human air emissions have decreased (see chart below). So why does Utah have such bad air quality on certain days and timeframes of the year and what is the source of these emissions? (see chart below)

• 65.6% of emissions are from other states that come into Utah: non-Utah natural (vegetation, fires, volcanoes, decomposition, etc.) + non-Utah US transported man-made emissions)
• 6.4% of emission are from other countries that come into Utah (international manmade)
• 17.3% of emissions are man-made from inside Utah
• 6.2% of emissions are from natural causes inside Utah
• 0.4% of emissions are from Utah wildfires

During the 2024 Legislative Session, Union Pacific Railroad agreed to move to much more environmentally friendly “railroad switchers” which are a big source of pollution. The Legislature and state of Utah will continue to work to reduce the 17% of man-made emissions from inside Utah so we can have better air quality.

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