Governor Cox Addresses the Legislature

January 29, 2024 by Nicole Masson
Policy/Legislative

This is a snippet from Governor Cox’s Speech on January 18th. See the full speech in the Salt Lake Tribune Here.

“The most pressing challenges in our state today relate to growth. I was recently asked, “Is Utah growing too fast?” This question implies zero-sum thinking. I think the reporter was surprised by my response. “The only way to not grow is to suck at being a state. And I’m not interested in that. I want Utah to be the best place to live in the nation. I want Utah to be the best place to start a business. I want Utah to be the best place to have a family. And if that attracts people, well, we live in a free country and a free market.”

I would love to build a wall around our state — and get California to pay for it — but that is not going to happen. And so it is up to you and me and all of us to make sure that we grow in the right way.

To that end, I believe the single largest threat to our future prosperity is the price of housing. Period. Housing attainability is a crisis in Utah and every state in this country. But remember, we are weird. We aren’t like the rest of the country. No one has figured this out yet, and I truly believe that we can.

For more than a century, homeownership has been the cornerstone of the American dream. It is the key to financial independence and the ability to break away from government support. Homeownership is also the key to family and community. People who own homes care more about their mayor and school board. They care more about their neighbors. Homeowners have more financial capital and social capital.

And most importantly, homeowners have kids — which again, back to that weird thing — it turns out that all those late-night comedians who made fun of us for having so many kids, guess what, that’s the number one reason our state is No. 1.

That is why I have proposed the Utah First Homes program, with the audacious goal to build 35,000 starter homes in the next five years. While we need more of everything, my focus is on affordable, attainable, single-family, owner-occupied, detached housing. Most of us grew up in, or started our own families in a 1,300-square-foot home. Our kids and grandkids are desperate for this opportunity. The greatest generation did this after WWII and we can do it again.

The American dream is alive in Utah, but it will be dead soon if we don’t get this right. Utah must lead the nation with bold and innovative solutions.”

Cox also addressed homelessness saying “Now, there is another troubling trend happening across our country: the growing crisis of homelessness. Read more here.