By Lisa Riley Roche, Brigham Tomco

Utah lawmakers kicked off the 2024 Legislature by passing a pair of controversial “culture war” bills that were quickly signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox, and before the 45-day session ended Friday, they’d also come up with billions of dollars in stadium funding plans intended to attract major league baseball and hockey teams to Utah.

The unusually intense session also dealt with plenty of other issues, with lawmakers giving the green light to a record 591 bills that cut taxes, encouraged the development of affordable housing, funded homelessness programs, managed energy and water supplies, censured a state school board member, delayed the start of social media age restrictions, and more.

“This will be a capstone,” Gov. Spencer Cox said of the session, which will be the last of his first term in office. “Because we’re doing the big things and that’s what I’ve always said — I’m not interested in the small stuff. We have big issues that we need to solve.”

Cox, who’s running for reelection this year, said he was especially excited about the progress on housing affordability and homelessness in what has been a tight budget year. Lawmakers ultimately approved a $29.4 billion budget, $100 million less than the governor proposed spending in the budget year that begins July 1.

“This has been a complicated session,” Cox told reporters Friday night. “But I feel with a couple hours left that I can say it’s been a successful session.”

Both House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, were also upbeat about the session that ended at midnight. “We think we’ve had just a really great 45 days,” Adams told reporters after ticking off a list of accomplishments.

In the waning minutes of the session, the Senate defeated a motion to reconsider its earlier 9-20 vote against passing HB477, which prescribed specific flags that could be displayed in a classroom. Shortly thereafter, the Senate abruptly adjourned nearly 15 minutes before the midnight deadline.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2024/03/01/utah-legislature-ends-2024-session/