NFIB hosts a Virtual Legislative Roundtable with three influential lawmakers to get a sneak peek

With Election Day 2024 nearing an end, NFIB invited three lawmakers to give us their thoughts on the issues expected to come up in the State Capitol when a new Legislature sits down for business in 2025.

Because the election was still on the top of everyone’s mind, the three legislators opened NFIB’s October 17 Virtual Legislative Roundtable with their observations on select state and federal campaigns. State Rep. Matt MacPherson had possibly the most interesting and troubling response.

“When I’m out and I talk to people, generally speaking, there’s a low engagement in my area,” said MacPherson. “Most people, when I ask if they’re planning to vote, I get 50/50 planning to vote. If I ask them if they are going to vote in a particular race, like who they’re going to vote for governor, honestly and sadly, many of them can’t tell me who the current governor is, and I think that’s a reflection of their disengagement in the process.”

The engaged, whatever percentage they may be, will elect a new Legislature on November 5, which will gather in Salt Lake City on January 21 to kick off the 2025 session, and it’s some the top issues they are preparing to grapple with that NFIB wanted to know more about.

For MacPherson, law enforcement will be a top issues. For Rep. Cory Maloy, “there’s going to be a lot of things related to the election … and hopefully some of the loud rhetoric and the divisions were seeing in our election process will start calming down.”

For Sen. Evan Vickers, the third guest, energy and water will be among the top issues. “The pendulum is kind of swinging. Everybody swung to that side [solar and wind], now, I think people are starting to wake up and recognize that it’s just not a steady and reliable source … that baseload hour is just not there. It creates lots of issues for the grid as well … at the end of the day, getting to a cleaner energy source, the bridge between here and there is still fossil fuels.”

Click here or on the arrow below to listen to the discussion, the legislative part of which starts at the 23-minute mark.

Other issues the three guests talked about included reform of the state’s rules for occupational licensure, a shortage of professional expertise, nuclear and geothermal power, insurance costs, and lawsuit reform.