Opposition by Utah Citizens’ Counsel to Ballot Amendment A. October, 2024.

Utah government has no more important function than to promote and protect a quality education for Utah’s children—its future workforce. The 93-year old constitutional mandate to spend income tax revenue on public education is designed to ensure success in that endeavor. Yet the mandate has been eroded in recent decades by expanding it to include higher education and to “support children” and individuals with disabilities, arguably to give the Legislature more flexibility about its budget priorities. Now the Legislature is going a step too far, making a power grab to amend the constitution to permit income tax revenue to be used for “all state needs.” Read more

UCC Update on 2024 Utah Legislature: Issues Concerning Imbalance in Utah Governance. May 1, 2024.

UCC followed several specific issues of concern during the 2024 legislative session. We are providing updates on those we mentioned in our “Growing Concern About Imbalance in Utah Governance” distributed just prior to the beginning of the 2024 session. Click on the links below for the updates:

  1. 2024 legislative activity affecting “career service” employment
  2. 2024 legislative activity affecting citizen initiative rights
  3. 2024 legislative activity affecting state v. municipal authority
  4. 2024 legislative activity affecting the role of the judiciary
  5. 2024 legislation affecting proposed removal of the constitutional income-tax earmark

If you missed seeing our earlier document on “Growing Concern About Imbalance in Utah Governance” and would like to read it, here is a link to that document and its accompanying briefs.

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To view our previous briefs and reports, click the Policy Briefs/Positions tab above.