SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Legislature has adjourned following a 45-day session dealing with taxes, housing, courts, immigration and a host of other issues.
Lawmakers wrapped up their business at midnight Friday, passing a $31 billion budget and capping off a busy few weeks at the Capitol. They introduced a record 1,021 bills this session — including one to limit the number of bills, which did not pass.
The final night wasn’t without some last-minute drama, as lawmakers introduced a late-night change to an election bill apparently geared toward slowing the removal of signatures from a ballot initiative that would repeal Proposition 4. That bill passed with less than an hour in the session.
Gov. Spencer Cox now has 20 days to review the hundreds of bills that passed and decide whether to sign them, issue a veto, or allow them to become law without his signature.
Here’s a look at what the Legislature did this session that will impact your life.
Taxes and affordability
The Capitol is pictured in Salt Lake City on Dec. 28, 2025. (Photo: Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News)
For the sixth straight year, the Legislature approved an income tax cut. The reduction from 4.5% to 4.45% is estimated to save a typical Utah family about $45 a year. The cut also applies to corporate taxes.
Lawmakers also approved expanding the child tax credit and funding a tax credit for businesses that offer child care benefits or build child care facilities.
A proposal to cut the state gas tax also passed. Besides slashing the tax, it also aims to make it easier to build pipelines in the state that would increase the supply of gasoline.
This session wasn’t just about cutting taxes. Lawmakers voted to raise the tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack, along with a $1 tax on alternative nicotine products, such as Zyn, that contain up to 20 pouches. For bigger products, an additional tax of 5 cents per pouch would be collected. They also voted to raise the state tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products.
Lawmakers also approved closing tax loopholes on video streaming services and adding a new tax on online content deemed “harmful to minors,” including online pornography and other adult content. The money raised will help address mental health for minors.
Homelessness and housing
A man experiencing homelessness pauses while organizing his belongings under an overpass in Salt Lake City on July 25, 2025. (Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
A GOP priority bill designed to unlock state money to help cities build infrastructure — like water, sewer, and roads — for new housing developments received final approval on Friday afternoon. Legislative leaders pitched this as a critical step toward addressing Utah’s stubbornly high housing prices by increasing supply.
House and Senate leaders also set aside an additional $10 million for the state’s first-time homebuyer program, which gives Utahns up to $20,000 for a down payment, closing costs or to buy down the interest rate.
The Legislature backed Cox’s priority of shifting homeless policy to target criminal recidivism among the chronically homeless and to strengthen the state’s network of long-term recovery resources. Lawmakers approved nearly $44 million, including $18 million in new ongoing money, to orient programs toward repeat offenders, with isolated shelter space for “high utilizers,” while the state awaits federal support for a central homelessness campus.
Lawmakers also passed a measure that simplifies reporting requirements, creates a loan program for businesses harmed by nearby shelters, lets shelters expand to 135% of capacity if needed and requires non-shelter cities to contribute more to help mitigate costs associated with homeless shelters. Proposals to increase housing options and to place guardrails around the central campus, if built in northwest Salt Lake City, did not advance.
Education
Gov. Spencer Cox, right, smiles as first lady Abby Cox reads to children at after a press conference discussing the fiscal year 2026-27 budget rollout at Kearns Library in Kearns on Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo: Tess Crowley, Deseret News)
The Legislature continued to crack down on cellphones during the school day, passing a bill that would enact a K-12 “bell to bell” cellphone ban, including during breaks and lunchtime. This follows a similar measure last year that barred students from using their phones during class.
However, like last year’s bill, this one also allows local districts to implement their own policy if they want. The governor is a big champion of the stricter ban and said he will sign it into law.
Responding to sobering reading proficiency scores, lawmakers passed a bill calling for early literacy strategies — including a provision requiring a student to repeat third grade if he or she isn’t meeting minimum standards.
For higher education, research funding was a focus. That was timely, considering traditional funding for research efforts face uncertainties with the National Institute of Health cutting billions of dollars in research projects under the Trump administration.
A measure establishing a pilot grant program providing matching or seed funding for research at Utah’s eight degree granting institutions received bipartisan support. The cash would come from a state-funded performance account — and lawmakers would be charged with approving research proposals while working with the Utah System of Higher Education and the recently launched Nucleus Institute, an initiative designed to function as an innovation hub in Utah.
Another bill would allow teachers to address the role that religion played in American history, without promoting or denying any particular faith. The bill sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said it’s not a mandate but more of an amendment to allow the role of religion in historical and constitutional contexts to be presented in Utah schools.
Weiler also said the bill reinforces students’ ability to express their beliefs “without facing discrimination based on the religious perspective of their work.”
Courts and judges
Chief Justice Matthew Durrant exits the House after delivering the State of the Judiciary address on the first day of the 2026 legislative session in Salt Lake City on Jan. 20. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
Tensions between lawmakers and the courts were on full display from the start of the session, following several rulings on redistricting that angered many Republicans. The Legislature continued to lose in court in the middle of the session, as the state Supreme Court and then a federal district court declined to block the implementation of a new congressional map.
Lawmakers moved ahead with plans to expand the Supreme Court early in the session, after accusing justices of moving too slowly to resolve cases. They ended up also adding judges to the lower courts after the judiciary said that’s where additional help was needed.
Another controversial proposal initially would have created a three-judge panel to hear constitutional cases. After concerns that the panel would let lawmakers pick friendly judges to hear cases involving challenges to state law, the bill was changed to make it so that judges would be selected randomly on a case-by-case basis. It passed and was signed quickly.
The law was swiftly put into use as the Legislature moved to transfer several cases on abortion, redistricting and the environment to the new constitutional panel. But some of the plaintiffs involved in those cases challenged the new law, saying it was unfair because only the government was given the ability to move cases to the panel.
On the penultimate day of the session, lawmakers revisited the law, creating a trigger provision that would reinstate the controversial original court proposal if the existing panel is struck down.
The Legislature also approved a bill requiring the court system to revamp its website to add transparency. The House also took the rare step to censure a judge for controversial comments he made during a sentencing hearing last year.
Water and outdoors
The Stansbury Mountains are reflected in a patch of water along the Great Salt Lake on Jan. 6. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
It’s not often that bills are introduced on the last day of the session, but the Utah Legislature capped off a water-heavy session with a bang. A resolution introduced and passed on Friday settles a long-standing dispute over Great Salt Lake land, giving over 22,000 acres to the federal government in exchange for $60 million for future projects.
Most other Great Salt Lake bills tackled ways to improve water-sharing processes to help direct water to the lake, or opened new ways to fund water leasing or projects that support the Great Salt Lake.
With Utah stuck in drought and potentially facing a rough spring runoff, there were several other bills that tackled other water challenges. One requires more transparency over how much water data centers use, while another calls on public water systems to meet a modified adjusted gross income before being able to qualify for state funding on projects.
Some bills tackled recreation, such as one allowing for outdoor recreation infrastructure grants to help restore bodies of water dealing with water quality issues, like algal blooms.
Utah leaders addressed a handful of inland recreation issues through the regular hunting rules adjustment bill, too. It also directs Utah wildlife officials to immediately relocate any grizzly bears found in the state, similar to how the state handles wolves.
Utah lawmakers also repealed a requirement for a hunting or fishing license to enter wildlife management areas along the Wasatch Front, which was approved last year. People without a license will soon be required to watch an educational video about the areas before entering, and they can make donations to a new fund to benefit the lands.
Social issues
Republicans in the Legislature moved to make permanent a ban on minors receiving gender transition treatments. This week the House gave final approval to a bill blocking the use of hormones and puberty blockers for children under 16 beginning Jan. 28, 2027, unless those children have already begun treatment prior to that date.
Lawmakers also voted to allow private landlords to restrict who can live in all-male or all-female off-campus housing — where residents share a bedroom or bathroom — based on their sex at birth. This followed a similar move by the Legislature last year in on-campus housing.
A bill also passed specifying that health care providers have a “right of religious belief or conscience” allowing them to refuse to provide certain services, including abortion or disposing of fetal remains after a pregnancy has been terminated.
Technology and AI
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, left, listens as Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a press conference on the last day of the legislative session in the Capitol’s Gold Room in Salt Lake City on Friday. (Photo: Tess Crowley, Deseret News)
Lawmakers have gone after Big Tech in several recent sessions. They began this year with big plans to regulate artificial intelligence platforms in part to ensure child safety. Golden Globe-nominated actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt even visited the Capitol in January to advocate for a bill requiring that AI developers create plans to protect children on their platforms.
But that bill stalled after opposition from the White House, and another bill putting guardrails around AI chatbots failed on a close vote in the Senate after some expressed concerns about stifling innovation.
Lawmakers did approve a bill imposing a tax on large companies that collect user data for targeted advertising, that would likely impact social media platforms. They also approved a bill cracking down on proposition betting, prompting a lawsuit from a company that operates a popular prediction market. The governor said Friday night he planned to sign that bill.
Immigration
With illegal immigration a big focus of Trump, Utah leaders tried, with limited success, to do what they can at the state level. Several proposals emerged to variously force more employers to make sure their employees are in the country legally, prevent immigrants in the country illegally from tapping into government benefits, and to add a 2% tax to international remittances for certain immigrants.
Those stalled with just two others passing, garnering both House and Senate support.
One was a measure meant to make sure Utah voters are U.S. citizens. The bill creates new provisions requiring those registering to vote in Utah elections to present proof of citizenship. It’s already illegal for noncitizens to register to vote, but as is, those registering typically just sign a sworn statement attesting to their status, and county election officials don’t necessarily see physical proof.
Another passed both chambers that’s meant to keep unlicensed drivers off the roads. The measure would give law enforcement officials authority to impound cars driven by people without licenses or driver’s privilege cards. During House debate, lawmakers put particular focus on its impact on immigrant drivers, though the measure would apply to any unlicensed driver.
A proposal prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from tapping into state-funded benefits like immunizations, food at food pantries, space at homeless shelters, crisis counseling and more sparked plenty of debate, but stalled. Some of the provisions were inserted into another measure, notably language prohibiting those immigrants from being able to tap into in-state tuition at Utah’s universities. It stalled as well.
A proposal to end the state’s driver privilege program, which allows undocumented immigrants to legally drive, never got consideration.
Utah’s capital city
The skyline of downtown Salt Lake City is pictured on April 14, 2025. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
Salt Lake City found itself at the center of a few more bills this year, but it didn’t appear to be a target quite as much as last year.
One of the biggest bills that affected Utah’s capital city this year prohibits Salt Lake City from conducting lane reduction projects on major corridors. It also gives the Utah Department of Transportation more say in whether the city can create similar projects on bigger city roads.
It also calls for the mitigation of impacts on parts of recently completed traffic calming projects along sections of 200 South, 300 West and 400 South, among other things.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall called it an improvement to a bill from last year, which paused several road projects in the city and called for a study of the impacts of recently completed ones. Still, many residents showed up to meetings to disapprove of the bill, and that’s why the bill was rejected by many legislative Democrats.
But another proposal to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in Salt Lake City after the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, didn’t go anywhere in the session.
There weren’t too many public safety measures focusing on Salt Lake City this year, either. Mendenhall credits that to the city’s new public safety plan and improvements implemented by Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd, who celebrated his first anniversary on the job this week.
“(He’s been) transformational for the department, for public safety in the city and for our relationship up here on the hill,” Mendenhall told KSL. “He’s done a great job.”
Contributing: Brigham Tomco, Jason Swenson
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
