Utah Legislative leadership has called 2023 the year of the tax cut, but Gov. Cox has another theme for the upcoming legislative session.
“I feel really confident that this is going to be the Year of the Teacher, that this will be a really, really positive year when it comes to funding education,” he said.
Gov. Spencer Cox says he’s confident he will be able to work with the legislature to accomplish goals across the board from tax cuts to teacher pay, working with incumbent legislators and getting to know newly elected officials.
“I want to hear from them what their goals are, what they want to get done. Then I want to use my bully pulpit to help them accomplish that. That's how we do this, we’ll work together. Hopefully, they'll give me an opportunity to listen to what's really important to me. Education funding is one of those.”
In addition to his optimism for the upcoming session, Cox said he is encouraged by the recent snow accumulation.
“Our statewide snowpack is at about 150% of normal. This is obviously very, very good news. As good as it's been, if you look at the charts, we're really in the early stages of the snowpack year and so while we're excited and grateful we still have a long ways to go to have enough snowpack to fill our reservoirs and to pull us out of this drought,” he said.
With the cold weather and snow, Cox urged Utahns to keep themselves safe on the road saying, “We are asking all drivers to please, please, please slow down. We have not had winter storms really like this for a couple of years. And over that time, we've added about 100,000 new Utahns, who maybe aren't used to driving in these conditions, and some of us may have forgotten how to drive in these conditions.”
He also advised people to stay up to date with their vaccinations and take appropriate precautions to avoid several respiratory diseases that have filled hospital ICUs in recent weeks.
