SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox and Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson are launching their second term in office with an ambitious series of policy goals and a strict deadline.
The governor and other executive branch officeholders took the oath of office on Wednesday in an inauguration ceremony at the Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City that featured a mariachi band and the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. In his remarks to the crowd, Gov. Cox touted accomplishments during his first term in office before pivoting to some emotional remarks about his childhood in Fairview.
The governor spoke about a difficult childhood and members of the community who stepped up and helped to raise him. He urged Utahns to reach out to their neighbors.
"Faith, family and community. Utah has it. And the rest of the world is desperately yearning to find it again," he said.
Gov. Cox has previously said his second term will be his last in office. On Wednesday, his office released a lengthy list of policy objectives the Cox-Henderson administration wants to accomplish by 2029.
"We don’t have to choose between saving our precious resources that make Utah great and being one of the fastest growing states in the nation. We believe that we can raise the quality," he told reporters following his inauguration. "My focus, our focus will continue to be on affordability. Energy affordability, housing affordability. Things that are hurting a large majority of Utahns."
Some of the policy goals include:
- Improve child well-being in families experiencing intergenerational poverty by 10%
- Reduce the percentage of rural counties experiencing health care shortages from 79% to 66%
- Reduce the number of individuals in custody or on government services who experience homelessness by 25%
- Reduce Utah drug deaths by 25%
- Double-track FrontRunner trains across the Wasatch Front
- 150,000 new housing units being built statewide, including 35,000 new starter homes
- Double Utah's power production
- 90% of cities adopting water efficiency standards
- Water-optimizing and water quality improvement on 120,000 acres of agricultural lands
- Increase the share of graduating high school students with a postsecondary credential from 4% to 15%
- Increase the number of employers that assess technical skills of a high school graduate for workforce entry to 95%
- A "transformative" infrastructure project in each region of Utah
Pressed on how he can accomplish all of these goals by 2029, the governor said it would take many things.
"Some of these things are things that we’ll be able to do in our administration. We already have the authority and the funding to accomplish those things," Gov. Cox said. "But like everything else, government is, our constitution requires us to work across branches of government. It really is going to take the legislature, it’s going to take local help, it’s going to take the bully pulpit and a lot of persuasion."
Read the Cox-Henderson administration's second term policy goals here:
