I love Utah politics

[USUC]

I'd love to see how this would work in practice, without a substantially larger tax burden.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/02/...d-be-split-up/

Salt Lake Valley suburbs could secede from Salt Lake County and form their own county under a new proposal in front of the Utah Legislature.
HB533, sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, would allow Salt Lake County municipalities with a combined population of at least 330,000 to pursue a special election for the creation of a new county. The election could be triggered by resolutions from the municipalities’ city councils themselves, or through a petition signed by at least a quarter of registered voters in the potential new county, according to the bill.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I'd love to see how this would work in practice, without a substantially larger tax burden.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/02/...d-be-split-up/

I don't have much to say about this another than I really really don't like Jordan Teuscher. It is annoying as hell how they chopped up Daybreak to ensure that there isn't a Democrat representative. It is absolutely absurd that Daybreak is represented by someone who lives outside of the community.

[frank ryan]

So the legislature wants to have an official say encouraging whether or not we retain a specific judge. I could do with with hearing less about the Utah legislature's opinions.

The Utah State Bar is sounding the alarm over a bill that would let the Legislature investigate judges’ rulings and recommend – on Utahns’ ballots — which judges lawmakers think should be voted off the bench.

The Utah Judicial Council’s Liaison Committee — which reviews legislation and makes recommendations to the council governing Utah’s courts — also took a position this week opposing the bill. The council will discuss the bill when it meets Monday.

HB512, sponsored by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, creates a Joint Legislative Committee on Judicial Performance — appointed by the House Speaker and Senate President — that would be able to conduct inquisitions into the judge’s conduct on the bench.

The committee could solicit public input, hold a public meeting and recommend whether or not the committee believes Utahns should vote to retain the judge. That recommendation would appear next to the judge’s name on the ballot.

[Pelado]

So the legislature wants to an official say encouraging whether or not we retain a specific judge. I could with with hearing less about the Utah legislature's opinions.

Who hurt you, Karianne?

[MartyFunkhouser]

https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/i...-fluoride-ban/

Utah is dumb.

[wally]

https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/i...-fluoride-ban/

Utah is dumb.

This one is pretty dumb. Many cities already don't fluoridate and local control is supposed to be a conservative value. I think that this would be better administered as a local municipal ballot referendum.

[BigFatMeanie]

This one is pretty dumb. Many cities already don't fluoridate and local control is supposed to be a conservative value. I think that this would be better administered as a local municipal ballot referendum.

I generally agree with you. .

I will say that there is a slight complication with doing it at a “municipal level” in that many municipalities in Utah don’t exclusively fund or control their own culinary water supply. The different municipalities often are wholesale members of larger organizations and collectives such as the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District or the Central Utah Water Conservancy District. So it’s not just as simple as City X votes for fluoride and City Y votes against it when both those cities are served off the same system.

But as a matter of principle I agree there is no need for a statewide law to either mandate or outlaw fluoride in Utah.

[wally]

While I would agree that there are a few real "pieces of work" at the legislature, my experience, on balance, is that the Utah legislature on a whole is pretty decent. Utah is very fiscally sound, and seems to maintain pragmatism on important issues. I have seen republican legislators reach across the aisle even when they don't need to, in order to make a bi-partisan effort. Many legislators work hard to compromise on legislation with stakeholders to avoid divisiveness. Sure, there are the headliner bills like fluoride that make the legislature look really dumb, but there are hundreds of others that are compromised solutions to problems that you don't hear about. Maybe i am too pollyanna-ish here, but whatevs. I am just an optimist, I guess.

[wally]

I generally agree with you. .

I will say that there is a slight complication with doing it at a “municipal level” in that many municipalities in Utah don’t exclusively fund or control their own culinary water supply. The different municipalities often are wholesale members of larger organizations and collectives such as the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District or the Central Utah Water Conservancy District. So it’s not just as simple as City X votes for fluoride and City Y votes against it when both those cities are served off the same system.

But as a matter of principle I agree there is no need for a statewide law to either mandate or outlaw fluoride in Utah.

You are correct that it isn't that simple, but with capital investment you can change the point of fluoridation fairly easily, and a voter referendum is excellent political cover for adjusting the user rates to account for the Capex/Opex, and potential debt service financing of new infrastructure if necessary.

Alternatively, those referenda could be geographically tied to the service provider: all customers directly served by JVWCD could be grouped together on the ballot based on member entities or some other criteria if there is too much complexity to segregate them via system improvements.

[Bo Diddley]

While I would agree that there are a few real "pieces of work" at the legislature, my experience, on balance, is that the Utah legislature on a whole is pretty decent. Utah is very fiscally sound, and seems to maintain pragmatism on important issues. I have seen republican legislators reach across the aisle even when they don't need to, in order to make a bi-partisan effort. Many legislators work hard to compromise on legislation with stakeholders to avoid divisiveness. Sure, there are the headliner bills like fluoride that make the legislature look really dumb, but there are hundreds of others that are compromised solutions to problems that you don't hear about. Maybe i am too pollyanna-ish here, but whatevs. I am just an optimist, I guess.

I have seen the same. But there seems to be plenty of crazy coming out of the Utah Legislature that probably correlates with the rise of MAGA.

[Moliere]

Does anyone have a stance on fluorinating water? I honestly know nothing about it. I thought it was a good thing to drink fluorine as opposed to washing your teeth with it as it's supposed to keep teeth healthy, right? Am I supposed to be for or against fluorinating water?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Does anyone have a stance on fluorinating water? I honestly know nothing about it. I thought it was a good thing to drink fluorine as opposed to washing your teeth with it as it's supposed to keep teeth healthy, right? Am I supposed to be for or against fluorinating water?

When I was a kid my mother told me that once you let them put flouride in the water, the communists will put mind control drugs in the water to control us.

[Bo Diddley]

When I was a kid my mother told me that once you let them put flouride in the water, the communists will put mind control drugs in the water to control us.

I mean, that might explain what we're seeing today...

[BigFatMeanie]

Does anyone have a stance on fluorinating water? I honestly know nothing about it. I thought it was a good thing to drink fluorine as opposed to washing your teeth with it as it's supposed to keep teeth healthy, right? Am I supposed to be for or against fluorinating water?

I think you might be thinking of the fluoride ion rather than fluorine gas?

I always understood fluoridating water helps prevent tooth decay while fluorinating water helps to kill you as elemental fluorine gas is highly toxic

[Copelius]

I have had two cavities in my whole life and my dentist attributes 80% to genetics and 20% to flouride in the water in the city in which I grew up. I will take that 20%. I don't think I'm too messed up in the head.