Governor Gary Herbert delivered his State of the State address Wednesday night from the Utah State Capitol.
Governor Herbert began his speech by taking credit for the success of his jobs creation program that exceeded its goal by more than 10 percent. He outlined his plans to increase education funding by 500 million dollars and then talked about what could be his biggest challenge this year: passing his Healthy Utah plan. Touting his disapproval of the Affordable Care Act, Hebert said that federal money offered to Utah must be used to more residents access to insurance.
“We can either watch our hard earned tax dollars remain on table in Washington, DC, primarily benefitting other states, or we can bring back a significant amount of our own money to Utah to be spent on Utahns. When it comes to expanding health coverage for uninsured Utahns, accepting the benefits is optional, but paying the taxes is mandatory,” said Herbert.
The Governor went on to push for more transportation funding, stronger state control of public lands and stronger initiatives to improve air quality. He also talked about working with Attorney General Sean Reyes to create a new office of Inspector General.
“Ensuring the highest standards of open honest government must always be our top priority,” said Herbert.
In the Democratic response, Representative Brian King noted his party’s plan to help more underserved residents in the state.
“Democrats have better ideas than the policies that have created larger and larger gaps between the haves and the have-nots over the past few decades. Approaching our problems with a ‘we’re all in this together’ commitment is much more productive than trying to solve them by saying you’re on your own,” said King.
Governor Herbert ended his speech by declaring the state of the state is exceptionally strong and called on Utahns to continue meeting challenges together.