The

Environment

Utah is uniquely endowed with transcendent landscapes, world-renowned recreation, and bountiful natural resources. The people of Utah, therefore, have a special responsibility to treat God’s creation within our state with due reverence and to preserve its blessings for future generations. This requires not only action on the part of Utah’s households, businesses, and governments, but also our productive partnerships with federal agencies and popular movements from around the world. The people of Utah must continuously embrace evidence-based solutions to local air pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, and watershed depletion. Together, Utahns can cultivate a thriving environment, destined to support a densely populated and prosperous state community for all future generations.

The transition away from fossil fuels that cause local PM2.5 pollution and global climate change must occur as quickly as possible. Coal, gasoline, and natural gas must be replaced with alternative sources of energy such as advanced, modern nuclear power without delay. We advocate for increased funding for nuclear research, and we call for a carbon fee on all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to accelerate the energy transition while building the Utah economy. We support aggressively building generation 3 nuclear plants as quickly as possible along with increased funding to improve battery capacity for renewables.

All public investment should be made with a goal toward a sustainable economy in mind. We must abandon a culture of waste which reflexively disposes of the goods of the earth, but instead embrace both new and traditional means of re-using material and energy.

We support more local government input in the administration of federal lands and more democratic decision making as to their use, via voter referenda in areas most affected by proposed transfers of use or ownership or changes in zoning.

We support tax credits and infrastructure investments for Utahns who opt for electric vehicles.

We must all take personal and familial responsibility for stewardship of the environment, teaching habits of conservation to our children in our homes, schools, and places of worship, and practicing them ourselves.

Family-Centered Work Policy

We want to develop a system of paid parental and family leave to support pregnant women, new parents, and family caregivers.

Utah legislatures should reduce workplace risks and health disparities for pregnant women and improve maternal and child health research.

As a state that emphasizes families, we need to ensure that every family has access to affordable, quality childcare and early education. We need to urgently assess the impacts of COVID on children’s education in underserved communities and develop strategies to close already persistent gaps.

We also need robust federal or state support for family engagement in education, such as funding family-directed education pathways.

Pro Capitalism & Anti Monopoly

Free enterprise is the foundation of a healthy, happy economy. A healthy economy begins with free markets and protections for small businesses and workers from unfair practices. A healthy economy depends upon local job growth, new and growing businesses, entrepreneurs, and valued workers who are treated fairly. In a truly free market, there is vigorous competition and no firm is big enough to dominate the market and keep competition out. Too often, free markets are hindered either by Big Government intervention or Big Business monopolization. In either case, wealth ends up in the hands of an elite few instead of the common worker or struggling entrepreneur. While Democrats are often guilty of over-regulation of the free market, Republicans too often cater to the whims of large corporations. In this way, both parties are equally responsible for pushing out small businesses, keeping prices high and wages low, and overall strangling the economy and the working class. Our goal is to allow single-income families and individuals to support themselves with dignity. 

We support policies that emphasize family-owned businesses, private property, local production, and greater personal ownership. We do this by empowering local governments with greater decision-making regarding their own lands, and businesses. Giving local communities greater flexibility will allow for more diverse and innovative solutions to local problems rather than imposing them from some central authority (i.e. the Federal Government). We keep checks and balances on large corporations with common sense anti-trust laws to break up the oligarchies that use their private power to lobby for influence. 

Over 99 percent of America’s 28.7 million firms are small businesses, which also accounts for 43.5 percent of the United States’ GDP. The fact is, small businesses drive innovation, jobs, and economic growth. They bring jobs and revenue to the local economies by offering jobs, local products, paying sales and property tax, and using local vendors and supporting services. We could provide small businesses with the same tax breaks that are provided for large corporations. Small businesses could get similar local and state incentives like is given to large production facilities, or research and development firms. Small businesses are the unsung heroes of the United States economy, and it is time they get the attention they deserve.

Pro Fiscal Sanity & Social Safety Nets

Self-reliance and industry are cornerstones of Utah living. Self-Sufficiency means maintaining a decent standard of living and not having to choose between basic necessities.  At the same time, we know that many in Utah struggle to meet those basic needs, often perpetuated from generation to generation because of a chronic lack of infrastructures to support education, transportation, and health. Divisive Republicans and Democrats would have us falsely choose between a hand-out economy that offers little incentive to work and a sink-or-swim economy in which millions drown. We think Utah can do better. Less than 20 percent of the U.S. workforce has access to paid family and medical leave through their workplace.

The government should work to eliminate debt, protect against financial hardship, and invest in our future as wise stewards of the people. While we can’t expect the government to fix everything, it can be a tool that provides a safety net for those in need while encouraging accountability and self-sufficiency. We advocate for social safety nets that adequately provide for the material needs of the most vulnerable in society. These programs should help Utahns to find a path out of poverty and unemployment by providing them with the tools they need in order to fully participate in the workforce again with dignity, and not trap them under the thumb of a welfare state. 

This will allow families and individuals to escape poverty on their own terms, encouraging potential workers to go to work, rather than discouraging them with welfare payments. Funding and services should also be provided to encourage families to care for elderly and disabled family members at home without being impoverished by lost income. No family should have to choose between meeting one’s need for child care but not for nutrition, or housing but not health care. Our goal is to work to secure an economy in which Utah families can continue to flourish. 

Whole Life Affirming Policy

As a proudly Pro-Life party we are sickened by the state of many citizens in our country. rates of child and maternal mortality are higher in the United States than they are in countries of similar population size and wealth. Black women in the United States are at least three times more likely to die due to circumstances connected to childbearing and birth than white women. Employee access to paid sick days is correlated with reduced spread and incidence of contagious illnesses. New parents with young children, entrepreneurs, and self-employed workers juggling work and family are less likely to have ample paid time off and almost half of workers in the lowest-wage occupations have no access to paid sick leave.

We need to change the current abortion narrative that is hyper-polarized and threatens the health of our democracy. Recognize the importance of protecting the life of the unborn child while valuing the life of the mother. We support addressing issues like maternal mortality, poverty wages and expanding access to healthcare, affordable housing, and affordable high-quality childcare.

We Love Our Cops & Black Lives Matter

There are political partisans who want us to believe that supporting “Black Lives Matter” is a sign of disrespect for law enforcement officials. They want us to believe we must choose a side. Instead of choosing “a side”, we are advocating for racial equity, the fair dispensation of justice, and police accountability. Law enforcement officers should be supported and held to the highest standards of professionalism. We support strict accountability for the use of lethal force. The increased rates of conflict between police and communities should motivate us to do and be better. We are calling for our state and local governments to institute measures that will increase transparency and trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, including the use of body cameras, civilian review boards, and the expansion of community policing. Police departments provide valuable and often dangerous services to our communities. Most are hardworking, caring, and responsible.   

Black and Hispanic children disproportionately grow up in an environment with poorly funded schools, inferior health care, inadequate diets, and dangerous living conditions. Utah is no exception. Pretending otherwise propagates the same failed system that breeds hate, or just as bad, indifference to the plight of minorities in our society. Black Lives Matter" is not rejecting that all lives are important. By that same token advocating for the police does not mean one shouldn’t see the value in wanting fair treatment for people of all backgrounds.