2015 legislative preview: what will lawmakers be discussing during this year's session?

• Author: Coon, John
• Position: Special Report

It isn't too dramatic to characterize Utah as a state standing at a crossroads. Important issues ranging from education to healthcare are on the agenda for the 2015 session of the Utah Legislature, and decisions made on these big-ticket items will play a major role in charting the path Utah travels as a state over the next 10 to 20 years.

What are the key issues influencing the legislative agenda in 2015? And how will they impact the business community and Utah citizens alike? Here, we take a look at what will be on the minds of state legislators in late January.

Healthcare

There's no question that healthcare will top the legislative agenda after Gov. Gary Herbert unveiled his Healthy Utah program this year.

Healthy Utah is a three-year pilot program designed to assist Utahns who earn under $15,500 per year in purchasing private health insurance--currently around 65,000 state residents. The amount of available assistance will depend on a person's ability to work, household income, access to employer or family health insurance plans, and individual healthcare needs. All Healthy Utah participants would be expected to make co-payments to help pay for the cost of their healthcare.

Herbert proposed the Healthy Utah program as an alternative to expansion of the federal Medicaid program. The main debate facing the Legislature is deciding if the program has long-term sustainability as a solution for providing affordable healthcare to all Utahns.

"When you talk Medicaid expansion, one of the guiding principles for the state and its lawmakers will be: can we sustain it?" says Greg Hughes, speaker of the Utah House of Representatives. "We don't want to yo-yo benefits and yet promise people comprehensive coverage. When we think things will work and as we see potentially the numbers of those that would enroll and the cost of healthcare increase--if it starts to eat away from other critical areas of state government like public education, that would be problematic."

Hughes does not see expanding access to affordable healthcare as a yes-or-no proposition. He believes something must be done about the issue, and Healthy Utah may provide a starting point for the plan state lawmakers put together.

Education

Education funding grabbed the spotlight in Herbert's proposed budget for the 2016 fiscal year. He proposed eliminating about $94 million in earmarks tying up state funding in transportation projects and instead funneling that money back into higher...