Autumn Update | Marsha Judkins for Utah Legislative District 61

As I get closer to the end of my term, I feel more compelled to put even more information in my emails. I have mostly refrained, but this email is still pretty long. Happy Autumn and have fun reading and clicking!

(Included is a poll on firearms, September’s interim report (more interesting than it sounds), an explanation of the ballot amendments, some UVU Constitution Day links, the opportunity to volunteer with and/or donate to our local warming centers, and a few important, upcoming dates.

Firearm Legislation Poll

This past Saturday, I participated in Walk 4 Hope with families and individuals who have had someone they love die from suicide. In Utah, the average number of gun suicides per year is 351–almost one a day–and suicides account for 83% of all gun deaths in the state.

Data shows that policy can affect suicide rates. I would like to know your thoughts on some of these evidenced based policy choices, and would appreciate your filling out this anonymous survey that should only take 2 minutes. I will pass this information on to my successor. Thank you.

Click HERE to access the poll.

September Interim Report

Interim committee meetings were held on September 18th. Before my first meeting, I met with our local sewer facility operators for breakfast. They told me many interesting things, and when I asked what the most important thing to share with my constituents was, they said to ask you NOT to flush flushable wipes. That surprised me, but they said that even though the packaging may say these wipes are biodegradable and safe to flush, they catch on things in the pipes and clog up the system and give them a LOT of problems that are gross.

They also gave me some information on our sewer rates, which are increasing faster than inflation. There are four main reasons for this:

Increasingly more stringent regulatory requirements**
Increased capacity due to population growth
Inflation, specifically increased cost for chemicals and supplies, including energy
Increased need for replacement of aging infrastructure

I appreciated listening to and learning from these great public employees. If there is anything we want to work well, it is our sewer system!

**Utah’s water quality regulatory agency has focused on reducing nutrients that are harmful when present in excess, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, which has triggered large and expensive upgrades to wastewater treatment plants that discharge into Utah Lake and its tributaries. Reducing these nutrients, among other interventions, are vital to restoring Utah Lakes health and reducing the algae blooms prevalent on the lake.
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You can read about what each committee discussed during interim in the September 2024 OLRGC Interim Highlights newsletter. The newsletter provides access links for the table of contents, reports, presentations, legislation, and other information.

Ballot Amendments

Here is a brief (am I ever brief?) rundown on each of the amendments that will be on the ballot.

Amendment A–currently, state income tax is constitutionally mandated to only be used for K-12 public education, higher education (allowed in 1996), and kids and people with disabilities (allowed in 2022). This amendment, if passed, would open up income tax revenue to be used for anything, while keeping some school funding protections. In addition, two laws will be triggered if the amendment passes:

H.B. 394 will ensure school funding stays stable, even if fewer students enroll, by increasing per-student funding for five years.
H.B. 54 will remove the state’s sales tax on food starting in 2025. However, local food taxes will remain the same.

There is a high likelihood that any votes on this amendment will be declared void by the courts because the state did not do the constitutionally required noticing. The Kem C. Gardner Institute put out a policy brief that seems fairly unbiased, but is a difficult read. Pages 5-7 are especially helpful and answer some important questions.

Amendment B–would increase the cap for distributions from the State Land Trust Fund from 4% to 5%. Each year, Utah schoolchildren receive School LAND Trust Fund distributions from the Permanent State School Fund. When Utah became a state in 1896, Congress granted the state trust lands to support public schools, and the revenue from the sale or lease of the land is placed into a permanent endowment for public schools. The Permanent School Fund currently tops $3.3 billion. This perpetual endowment provides funding for critical academic needs identified by each school’s local Community Council, which is made up of parents and educators.

Some quick facts about this Amendment:

Raising the cap costs taxpayers nothing, it simply increases the percentage of LAND Trust distributions schools may receive from the Permanent State School Fund.
Amendment B aims to create more balanced distributions from the Permanent School Fund for current and future school children.
Established at statehood, the Permanent School Fund is perpetual endowment that provides funding for critical academic needs identified by each School Community Council.
Amendment B is NOT related to any other amendment on the ballot.

I strongly support this amendment and hope that the controversy overshadowing a couple of the other amendments on the ballot do not bleed into this one.

The charts below show how much each school in Alpine and Provo School Districts received for the current school year and how much they would have received if the cap was increased to 5%. You can watch a video to find out more about Utah’s Trustlands and distribution of funds by clicking HERE.

Provo School District

Alpine School District

Amendment C–amends the Constitution to say that County Sheriffs are to be elected. This is already in statute and is current practice. I am not sure why passing (or not) this amendment is important–it does not seem to change anything.

Amendment D–would take away the rights of Utah citizens that are given and guaranteed in the Utah Constitution to reform and amend our government, and would give them to the legislature. I wrote about this in my last email and told why I strongly oppose this amendment. Additionally, I wrote an opinion piece that was published in the Deseret News (you can read it by clicking HERE) about the safeguards that were bypassed or ignored by the legislature in the process (or lack thereof) of getting this amendment on the ballot. You can also learn more about the idea of direct vs representative power in the UVU Constitution Day section below. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation and scare tactics being pushed by proponents of this amendment.

In any case, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that because legislative leadership put misleading language on the ballot and because the proposed changes were not publicly noticed as the Utah Constitution requires, the votes on this amendment will not count, but I am worried that the legislature will try this again in the future.

If all this has not been enough of a read, you can also read a a short article about each of the proposed amendments from KSL by clicking here.

Constitution Day at UVU

The Center for Constitutional Studies held its annual Constitution Day conference Sept. 17, 2024, in the Clarke Building. The theme of the conference was “Parties in the USA: Does Partisanship Undermine the Constitution?” I was able to listen in to both the morning and afternoon sessions and found them both so interesting.

In the morning keynote address, Verlan Lewis and Hyrum Lewis, co-authors of The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America, discussed how a healthy two-party system contributes to the American constitutional tradition.

Here is bit of what Verlan Lewis said.

“The meanings of ‘left’ and ‘right’ are constantly evolving, along with our two major parties. Words have consequences. There is no coherent, enduring, historical philosophy binding together [‘left’ and ‘right’] issue positions. Instead, let’s talk about ‘Democrats’ and ‘Republicans.’ That implies groups of people who have decided to work together to achieve certain common ends. That’s healthy for our politics. And it’s a false idea that one party must be correct about everything, and the other party is wrong about everything.”

You can watch the morning session HERE.

In the afternoon session of the conference, a panel discussed the Utah Legislature’s ongoing effort to roll back the Utah Supreme Court’s recent decision on Amendment A, altering the initiative process and the proper role of direct democracy in constitutional self-government.

I found the following statement by Savannah Johnston, assistant professor of Political Science at Salt Lake Community College, enlightening.

“There has been a tension in American political development between a Founding era that is deeply suspicious of the direct-democratic process and the Progressive era, which sees exclusively representative functions as inadequate to getting the will of the people passed. Having been ratified during the Progressive era, it’s fundamental to Utah’s Constitution to have a direct democratic method. And the idea is that the people can be trusted to be good-enough citizens to understand difficult questions.”

You can watch the afternoon session HERE.

Local Warming Center Program Needs Volunteers, Blankets, and Supplies for Upcoming Winter Season

Beginning October 15th, warming centers for individuals who are homeless and seeking warmth and a place to stay for the night will be open nightly from 9pm to 8am through April 30, 2025, and will be in Provo and unincorporated Utah County. Volunteers (18 years and older) are needed to help at the warming centers during the evening, late night, and early morning. Those serving will be assisting experienced staff with set up, clean-up, safety, and security and will be providing our homeless friends with care and fellowship. Training is required. To sign up and/or find out more information, go to https://app.vomo.org/opportunity/warming-center.

The warming centers are also in need of tons of blankets and other supplies. To find out what is needed and for drop off instructions, look online at https://www.justserve.org/projects/470c399c-fabd-44a2-b43e-2418b152a41a/help-provide-emergency-supplies-for-area-homeless-at-warming-centers!-?shiftId=28132325-dcb9-48a9-9ef9-acb32c9f0e2a.

For questions or additional information, please contact Kena Mathews at Community Action Services and Food Bank at kenam@casfb.org. Thank you!

Remember to Vote

Your voice matters! Make yours heard by exercising your right to vote. Elections will take place Tuesday, November 5th and ballots will be mailed out starting Tuesday, October 15th. Click here to register to vote, learn more about the issues, and find polling places and ballot drop boxes near you.