Utah is in the midst of an ongoing child care crisis. However a state commission tasked with identifying policy solutions got axed during the 2025 legislative session.
On the last night of the session, lawmakers approved HB542. It repealed the Unified Economic Opportunity Commission under the governor’s office, including the Women in the Economy Commission.
The late Becky Lockhart, the first female Speaker of the Utah House, championed the commission. Back in 2014, it received strong bipartisan support from the Legislature.
“It recognizes that women in the economy, women in government, women in leadership, that there was a lack, and it was intended to provide some resources in that direction,” said former Republican Sen. Curt Bramble who sponsored the bill that created the commission.
In recent years, the 15-member commission of women in the public and private sectors focused a lot of its attention on child care.
They hired a policy group to compile a report on the state of child care in Utah and make policy recommendations to address the problem. It showed there is a lack of child care throughout the state and the cost is often out of reach for many parents. As a result, parents often stay home instead of entering the workforce because it’s more cost-effective.
But there are big economic consequences to that.
In 2022, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found the Utah economy misses out on $1.36 billion annually because of child care challenges while losing $258 million in tax revenue. It’s also estimated that it costs Utah employers $1.1 billion annually.
Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, co-chair of the Women in the Economy Commission, presented the findings of the commissioned report to the Unified Economic Opportunity Commission in November 2024. The hope was the Legislature would prioritize some of its 33 recommendations during the legislative session.
Advocacy group Voices for Utah Children heralded the report when it came out. Policy Ddirector Anna Thomas said some suggestions were technical and administrative, what she called “easy” steps the state could take. Overall, she said lawmakers did not take heed of those recommendations during the session.
Thomas said lawmakers did pass two child care tax credits, but they were restrictive and didn’t match the recommendations in the report. Lawmakers killed another idea that would have turned unused state buildings into day care spaces. By the end of the 45-day session, none of the big policy recommendations garnered support from the Republican supermajority.
During a March 4 committee hearing, Republican Rep. Jon Hawkins, the sponsor of the bill that eliminated the commission, said that the governor’s office requested the Unified Economic Opportunity Commission be dissolved. Since the Women in the Economy Commission was underneath that office, it would also be eliminated but Hawkins said that “the efforts there will continue with partners such as A Bolder Way Forward in the Women's Business Center” at Utah State University.
When Democratic Sen. Karen Kwan pushed back, Ryan Starks, head of the Governor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, said he wouldn’t call the commission “dormant” but added that it “wasn’t very active.”
As a former lawmaker, Bramble knows it’s tough to form policy. Still, he resisted the idea that the commission wasn’t effective.
“Take a look at the report on child care and what some of the impediments are for the stereotypical woman in Utah entering the marketplace or succeeding in careers or leadership or whatever,” he said. “I think that's proof that it was providing a valuable service, shining a light on some of the challenges.”
Gov. Spencer Cox’s Office did not return KUER’s request for comment on why he wanted to disband the commission.
Utah consistently ranks as one of the worst states for women.
Susan Madsen, the founder of A Bolder Way Forward, said the commission played a different role in Utah. A Bolder Way Forward, Madsen said, “is not coming up with new kinds of things.” The initiative is bringing different stakeholders together “to make decisions and work in more assistance to a partnered leadership model.”
“I always felt like the Women in the Economy Commission had a unique opportunity with legislators to really have a deeper understanding of public policy and the bigger scope of what issues were involved,” she said. “There'll be a gap now.”
Republican Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, a co-chair of the commission, didn’t vote on the bill when it came up on the House floor. In a statement to KUER, she said that even though the commission is gone, HB542 created the Economic Opportunity Agency.
“I’m certain that this new agency will also seek and receive input from women in the economy and continue to make meaningful progress in advancing their interests,” Lisonbee said. “I’m certain Utah will continue prioritizing real, tangible support for women's economic success in Utah.”
Despite its intent, Thomas said she’s disappointed with the commission’s lack of meaningful engagement with child care issues over the years. In her view, they were not making bold policy suggestions, engaging stakeholders or strongly advocating for child care solutions. To her, the commission had the potential to be more effective than it was.
Even then, she doesn’t believe lawmakers eliminated it because they thought the group was ineffective. Thomas thinks lawmakers don’t take the issue of child care seriously and the elimination of the commission signals a shift.
“It was eliminated because people don't see the need for it,” Thomas said. “Ten years ago, they were at least pretending that this stuff mattered to them because they knew it mattered to the public. They're just not pretending anymore. They just don't care, and they don't care what people think about it.”
Thomas said Utah leaders have talked about child care problems more in the past few years, but have done little to solve them.
“My most generous interpretation is that the needle is not moving because there is not much you can do to address the child care crisis without spending significant public funding,” Thomas said.
“You run out of options really fast if you're not willing to spend any money.”
