Highs and Lows: Supporting Local Communities

To my colleagues in the Senate from the East, it may be hard to grasp just how deeply federal overreach affects daily life in Utah. In some counties, more than 90% of the land is owned and controlled, not by local leaders or communities, but by a distant, federal government. I saw this again this week in Morgan County. Ninety percent of their land is federally owned. As a former mayor, I know what it means to try to balance a budget, build a tax base, and grow responsibly. But how do you grow a community, how do you create opportunity, when 90% of your land doesn’t generate property tax? How do you plan for the future when most of your land is off-limits by federal decree? Read Newsletter