Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- The Salt Lake City business community urges Utah legislators to prioritize affordable housing, child care and balanced immigration policies.
- Legislators express support for these priorities, emphasizing energy production and higher education reforms.
- Key proposals include streamlining housing policies, enhancing child care options and boosting energy production.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City business community asked Utah legislative leaders at a summit on Friday to prioritize affordable housing for young families, child care for working parents and to take a balanced approach on immigration.
To set the state up for continued economic success, Utah lawmakers should pass policies to help them attract, train and retain Utah workers, business advocates said at the event hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber and Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
"When housing becomes prohibitively expensive, workers are forced to relocate far away, even leaving the region altogether," said Mary Catherine Perry, the vice president of public policy and government affairs at the Salt Lake Chamber.
Since 2020, the median monthly mortgage payment for a single-family home along the Wasatch Front has increased from $1,500 to $3,500, a Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute analysis found.
Perry asked lawmakers to build on the last few years' wave of housing policy in the 2025 legislative session by further streamlining the real estate development process, offering more tax incentives for starter home construction and continuing to reform "outdated" zoning restrictions.
These regulatory changes should be paired with investments in infrastructure and housing near employment hubs to "reduce commutes and improve quality of life," Perry said.
Immigration to grow the workforce
To grow the workforce, Perry called on lawmakers to boost "returnship programs," which provide training to individuals after a career break; expand access to affordable child care through tax incentives and business partnerships; and welcome more "legal immigrants who contribute to our economy."
"With declining birth rates across the nation, we need their contributions for continued economic growth, but that system must be rooted in legal immigration," Perry said, referring to the principles outlined by the Utah Compact.
Over a decade ago the Salt Lake Chamber partnered with hundreds of government officials, community leaders and faith representatives in signing the Utah Compact. The statement put forward Utah's commitment to approach immigration with a focus on enforcing the rule of law, integrating migrants into the economy and avoiding the separation of families.
The statement was followed a year later by a historic package of state laws under the same name that included a guest worker program for migrants, in-state college tuition for undocumented migrants and a requirement for law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of a class A misdemeanor or felony.
On Jan. 6, Utah Republican lawmakers announced a slate of immigration bills increasing penalties for migrant-related crimes and reversing previous policies that prevented deportations by relaxing E-Verify standards and reducing sentencing standards for certain misdemeanors.
Legislators signal support for business community
A high-powered panel of state legislators told the room of executives and entrepreneurs gathered at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City that they were committed to supporting most, if not all, of these priorities.
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, heaped praise on Utah business leaders, saying they were responsible for much of the state's nationwide recognition of economic indicators.
"You are doing all the great work, and we get to take credit for all the great things you're doing," Adams said.
But the two top leaders in the state Capitol framed the most fundamental issues to Utah's economy slightly differently.
Adams argued that without serious advances in energy production, Utah would fail to keep up with the impending explosion of artificial intelligence. Schultz said a rethinking of higher education is a prerequisite to meeting the state's workforce needs.
Both lawmakers have signaled that reform is coming to Utah's 16 institutions of higher education to cut seats in low-performing majors and align programs with the state's industry demands and values.
The panel of mostly Republican lawmakers, including House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper, also emphasized the importance of private sector innovation and light-handed regulation to promote growth ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics.
House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, recommended more careful approaches to renewable energy and family support, while the panel remained noticeably quiet on the topic of immigration, which is one of the issues set to divide the two sides of the aisle this legislative session .
Building for the future
On housing, Schultz, himself a former homebuilder, said government inspection and zoning processes account for 25% to 30% of housing costs. He stressed the importance of collaborating with municipalities, saying that cities' efforts to increase high-density apartments in recent years have led to falling rents.
"If we don't do that with housing, it's what's going to force our kids and grandkids into apartments and they will not have the opportunity to live the American dream," Schultz said. "So it's really about home ownership."
To address the scarcity of affordable child care options, Lisonbee said she has introduced a bill that will offer large tax credits for companies that provide child care options onsite or close to the parent's place of work.
There is also room for deregulation, such as removing the requirement for child care facilities to have a full kitchen, as opposed to a warming kitchen, Lisonbee said.
One of the issues of most concern to the legislative panel was energy.
Adams said increasing energy production is No. 1 on his list for 2025. As the United States competes with China, artificial intelligence will soon become ubiquitous in the workplace and this will require large data centers, including in Utah, which in some cases use as much energy as the entire state of Wyoming, Adams said.
"If we don't solve our energy crisis and the energy production, we're not going to be able to develop AI," Adams said. "The key to that arms race is energy production."
The state must maintain sufficient base-load power with natural gas and coal while it explores renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal, with the goal of making "Utah the nuclear capital of the world, as far as energy production," Adams said.
