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AN UNCERTAIN LEGISLATIVE SESSION FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES We Must Be Flexible Going Into a New Year
By David peterson, Ryan peterson and Craig peterson
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the journal entry | january 2021
s 2020 has ended (It’s about time!), we set our sights on 2021 with a new president in the White House (maybe), a new governor (definitely), a 17% turnover in the legislative body, and the general legislative session in the midst of a pandemic. At the writing of this article, the United Kingdom has approved Pfizer’s vaccine, which means one of three things as you read this: 1) It is working and vaccines are proliferating around the world and the pandemic is finally coming to an end, 2) It didn’t work and it is back to the drawing board so put your mask back on but look at the bright side, you still get to do your virtual meetings in your pajama pants, or 3) It worked for a time. And then there was a terrible side effect of the vaccine and the zombie apocalypse that many of us have been preparing for has finally happened and all of the research I conducted in my basement (playing Xbox) is finally going to pay off! Needless to say, this year has brought us challenges we could not have imagined but, as Clint Eastwood says in “Heartbreak Ridge,” “You Improvise. You adapt. You overcome.” Excellent advice for a recon platoon of Marines and excellent advice for every business, community, family, and individual on the planet. The general election saw statewide voter turnout topping 90% with more than 1.5 million of the state’s 1.7 million registered voters casting their ballot; breaking a record that has stood since 1960 when the state first started keeping records. Utahns sent two incumbent Congressman back to Washington (Rep. John Curtis and Rep. Chris Stewart) and two freshmen (Blake Moore from the 1st district and Burgess Owens from the 4th district), which flipped Republican after Ben McAdams held the seat for the last two years. While the legalization of marijuana wasn’t on this year’s ballot, you did vote to make seven amendments to the state’s constitution. Some of the more noteworthy amendments included Constitutional Amendment C, which removed the ability for slavery or involuntary servitude to be used as a punishment for a crime from the state constitution. Constitutional Amendment E preserves the individual right to hunt and fish subject to regulation and establishes hunting and fishing as the preferred way to manage wildlife. Finally, Constitutional Amendment G amends the constitution to expand the use of money from income tax and intangible property tax to support children and people with a disability. This final amendment gives the legislature a bit of flexibility to use income tax revenue,
