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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is optimistic his $1 billion in proposed tax cuts for Utahns will help ease inflationary pressures.
During his monthly PBS Utah news conference on Thursday, Cox said unlike tax rebates or incentives from the federal government, state tax cuts will put more money back in peoples' wallets without driving up the prices of goods and services.
"When the federal government was sending those checks to people, that is inflationary, because the federal government is printing money to do that," he said. "We don't do that as a state. This money that we've brought in from taxpayers is going to be spent in the state of Utah. The question is whether the state of Utah spends it or whether we let families spend that money. ... I would rather let families have that money back."
Cox said the tax cuts will still need to be fine-tuned throughout the legislative session that begins next month, but he isn't concerned that a legislative committee didn't set aside money for increased teacher salaries in its initial budget recommendation.
The governor's recommended budget includes what would be a record increase in compensation for teachers, but the Utah Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee earlier this week opted instead to set aside $400 million in ongoing funds for tax cuts.
When asked if he believes lawmakers will try to tie a teacher salary increase to a school voucher program — after a vouchers bill stalled during the last legislative session — Cox said he doesn't think that's why teacher salaries weren't included in the appropriation committee's recommendation. He said it would be unusual for a committee to make such a major recommendation given that several new lawmakers were elected only last month.
"They haven't even had a chance to talk about my budget with their new caucus members. It would be a dereliction of duty for them to include something that big," he said.
The governor has also suggested increasing Utah's per pupil funding for schools by 5% next year, and is optimistic that lawmakers will be able to work something out.
"I don't think there's anything that says the Legislature is not going for that," Cox said. "In fact, all of the conversations I have had have been incredibly positive that they are willing to support at that level and maybe even higher."
Tech layoffs and economy
Cox also addressed the recent string of high-profile layoffs at tech companies in Utah and around the country, and said he wouldn't be surprised to see downsizing continue after the holidays.
"It's a hard time of year, obviously, to lay people off, and that's a really tough time," he said. "What I can tell you is what is happening in the tech sector is something that a lot of us thought would happen at some point."
He went on to say that there has been a looming "reshuffling" in the tech sector thanks to extremely low interest rates over the past few years. Now, with the Federal Reserve continuing to raise interest rates, it makes it more expensive for growing companies and investors to get loans.
Still, Cox said Utah is in a good position to recover from job losses because of the "cushion" of jobs that are available.
"There are going to be places for many of these tech employees to land," he said. "And what we're working on now — just starting this week — is having a conversation with those companies that need talent and those that are being laid off and seeing if we can do some matchmaking early, even before layoffs are announced to help ease the pain."
Banning TikTok
The governor also addressed his decision earlier this week to ban the social media app TikTok on all state-owned devices in the executive branch, saying his biggest concern is that the Chinese Communist Party may be able to access private user data under China's national security law.
"We know that that's deeply problematic," Cox said. "It's problematic for national security, it's deeply problematic for personal security and, of course, state security. We cannot in good faith allow that app on state devices, knowing that there is direct access to any data that may be stored there or inputted there. And so that was a pretty easy decision for us."
Cox said he doesn't plan to enact similar bans against other platforms or social media sites, but said, "If there is evidence of similar activity amongst platforms, we would certainly consider that."
