SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox vetoed seven bills passed by the Utah State Legislature and allowed two to go into effect without his signature, including one to allow Utahns to try psilocybin.
During his monthly news conference on PBS Utah, the governor signaled he would issue vetoes on the final day for him to legally sign them, noting there were several bills that he intended to veto (while declining to name them at the time). Late Thursday, he vetoed seven of them.
The bills are:
- HB 152 Residential Construction Amendments, which the governor said requires Utah's Division of Professional Licensing to create a sample contract for residential construction and remodels. He argued the division can do this without a bill.
- HB 239 State Employee Cybersecurity Training Requirements, which requires the Division of Technology Services to create a cybersecurity training program for executive branch employees, and requires employees to complete the training program each year. It already exists.
- HB 412 Legislative Auditor General Amendments, seeks to add additional items for an agency to report on as part of the accountable budget process. The governor said they do not need a bill to do it.
- SB 244 Professional Licensing Modifications, created criminal history guidelines for Utah's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing and placed the guidelines on its website to increase transparency and help potential licensees. DOPL did this without being directed to do so by statute, he said.
- SB 274 Administrative Law Judge Amendments, started as an effort to move all ALJs in the state into the Attorney General's Office and was quickly substituted to require state agencies to report information to the Legislature regarding ALJs. "Our agencies can provide this information without a bill," he wrote to lawmakers.
- HB144 Vehicle Accident Liability Amendments, "started as an effort to clarify liability involving left turns by vehicles in certain circumstances. In response to concerns, some of the language was removed. The language that remains has raised concerns and may not bring the clarity that the original goal intended," he wrote.
- SB 190 Higher Education Development Areas Study, didn't accomplish what it set out to do, the governor said.
In a statement to FOX 13 News, Speaker Schultz said lawmakers would explore whether to override some of the vetoes.
"This session, the Legislature passed and the governor signed, several significant pieces of legislation that will greatly benefit the people of Utah. We will work with our members and the Senate to determine if any vetoed bills warrant a veto override session. I respect the policy-making process and appreciate the governor’s collaboration and commitment to working with us to tackle some of the most important and pressing issues facing our state," he said.
While the most consequential bills of the 2024 legislative session have already been signed, the governor did complain about the sheer volume of bills introduced and passed by lawmakers.
LINK: Here's what the 2024 Utah legislature did to your life
This year, the legislature broke its previous records and passed 591 bills which the governor said is "a big number."
"I know everybody thinks their bill is the most important," he told reporters, suggesting they ought to dial it down.
"There are just several bills that maybe started out as something substantive but then they didn’t have the support so they removed the substantive part and we end up with something that doesn’t do anything," he said. "We also have bills that easily could have been implemented with a phone call that didn’t need to be a bill. We joke we have a meeting that could have been an email? We often get bills that could have been a phone call."
House and Senate Republican leaders have countered in the past that nothing can stop a lawmaker from introducing a bill. They do throttle many of them through the powerful Rules Committees, which determine what bills get a hearing.
Overall, Gov. Cox defended the legislature's work and insists he has a good relationship with them. He did acknowledge to reporters he signed some bills he didn't necessarily like to ensure his own administration's priorities get passed. If he vetoed too many bills, lawmakers would simply reject them, but he said he would not sign something he believed was "harmful" to to the state.
