Utah is a red state that loves the idea of small government — to a point. While state lawmakers like to push back against the federal government, they are sometimes ready and willing to step into the business of cities and towns. In this episode of State Street, we take a look at where this tension comes from and how it’s showing up this legislative session.
Voices:
- Erin Mendenhall, Salt Lake City Mayor (archival audio)
- Wayne Harper, Republican State Senator (archival audio)
- Gov. Spencer Cox (archival audio)
- Ray Ward, Republican State Rep. (archival audio)
- Kate Bradshaw, Bountiful Mayor (archival audio)
- Cameron Diehl, executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns
- Damon Cann, head of the political science department at Utah State University
Recommended Reading and Listening:
- Utah Legislature weighs homebuyer aid, zoning changes to tackle housing crunch
- Are factory-built homes a Utah-ready solution? Zoning might stand in the way
- Lawmakers want to flex Utah’s muscle on housing, but the real power is all local
- Utah lawmakers’ appetite to ‘control’ SLC grew to new ‘punitive’ level, mayor says
- ‘We must build’ and seize Utah’s future Cox says in his 5th State of the State
- Gov. Cox wants 35,000 new starter homes. The first 12 are underway in Weber County
- Ogden zoning change could derail a deeply affordable housing project
- Policy, not funding, is the way out of Utah’s housing crisis, says Speaker Schultz
