- [Announcer] PBS Utah presents the Governor's Monthly News Conference, an exchange between Utah reporters and Governor Spencer Cox.

(bright music) - Good morning everyone.

It's great to see all of you again.

It's been a little while since we had an opportunity to be together, and I'm excited to take some questions from you.

But before we do that, just a couple updates that I think the people of Utah will find interesting, starting with water.

Just want to give a quick update on our state water situation right now.

The short answer is that we are in much better shape than last year.

The majority of the state is no longer in drought.

Utah has currently received 138% of normal precipitation, and even with the hotter July, the record snowpack kept soil moisture high, which is really good news as we head into the fall and we have more water in the forecast, that means very little runoff soaked into the soil and instead went into refilling our streams, lakes, and most importantly, our reservoirs.

Now critical number, our statewide reservoir storage right now is at 80%, which is awesome.

That means we have a leg up on next year, which we're very excited about.

Normal for this period for mid-August is around 64%, and this time last year, you'll remember we were right about 50%.

So much higher than normal and significantly higher than last year.

Those of you that follow the Great Salt Lake levels, we'll know that in June we peaked at about five and a half feet above our record low in November, and the lake salinity levels have risen as well.

We're certainly not out of the clear when it comes to the Great Salt Lake.

We would like to double that number.

It'd be another five and a half feet above where we were in June and we're working towards that, of course, with our new Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed, who started in July.

He's been on the job now for a little over a month and is working with partners all across the region to work on a plan to fill the Great Salt Lake.

We appreciate our state water managers who worked so hard to capture the water from this year's record-breaking snowpack and guiding it to our lakes and reservoirs, and especially thanks to Utahans who conserved so much, watering less, planting water-wise landscaping, fixing lakes, and this commitment is really making a difference.

I encourage our farmers especially, and we've been reaching out to them to look into our agriculture optimization program and residents to check out slowtheflow.org for water saving practices.

Working together, we know we can continue to become even more drought-resistant.

The next thing I want to touch on, just briefly, we do have an election coming up and it's a big one for our municipalities, it's a big one also for the second congressional district, unexpected, but we do have that race going with the recent announcement that Congressman Stewart is leaving.

So just a couple key dates.

Early in-person voting starts next Tuesday, August 22nd.

So check with your county clerk for hours.

And the last date you can register to vote and receive a mail-in ballot is August 25th.

The primary election day is September 5th, and of course, ballots are ready to be arriving in your mailboxes soon.

So be watching for your ballot and make sure you cast your ballot and get your voice heard.

I want to give a special thanks to all of our volunteers, just a special recognition to our county clerk, Lieutenant Governor Henderson and her office who worked so hard to administer our elections.

Last thing I just want to mention, our Department of Alcoholic and Beverage Services today is launching its new online system.

We're only about 20 years too late, but better now than later.

This is something that we've pushed really hard for when I took office and I'm grateful for the Director of Department of Alcohol Beverage Services, Tiffany Clayson, who has been working to modernize that system.

This was a real priority initiative for all restaurants, bars, hotels, gas stations, and grocery stores here in the state of Utah.

What that means is that they can apply and make payments completely online, getting rid of the very antiquated paper system.

It's a huge win for our hospitality businesses here across the state and for consumers.

And so thanks to to everyone at DABS, who's been working so hard to modernize.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

- Governor, right now, the environmental groups are rallying at the capitol calling for an end to plans for an inland port hub near the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Should the inland port be built so close to the Great Salt Lake, given the trouble that you just noted it's in?

- Yeah, so I feel great about the direction of the inland port, especially the changes and directions that have been made over the past year, feel very confident with the leadership there and that this is going to be the most environmentally friendly inland port anywhere in the country.

It's something that we're all committed to and working towards.

And you'll see the partnership with Salt Lake City now has greatly improved, has moved from an adversarial kind of relationship to a true partnership.

I appreciate the mayor and the city council.

We've been able to end the litigation portion of that and to move forward in a very positive way.

And so I don't have concerns about the location as long as we're building it the right way, and I feel confident that that is happening.

- And how do you balance the desire for a port versus saving the lake?

It seems like the development keeps encroaching upon the lake.

- I don't think those two have anything to do with each other, Ben, I don't.

They just don't.

We're we're gonna fill the salt lake and we're building in places where the lake doesn't go, or the bird refuge.

These are places where trains have been before and where trains will continue to go.

- Governor, I would like to know your reaction or opinion regarding the Ron Gibson case about the assault, because if this is happening in the farm of the president of the Utah Farm Bureau, this can be happening in other farms across the state, where the majority workers are Hispanic.

So what's your government doing about this?

- Yeah, yeah, thank you.

So obviously very concerned about the allegations that we've seen.

There's always a presumption of innocence and we'll allow that to take place, that legal proceeding to take place.

I do understand that there's a video out there that is very troubling as well.

What I can see is this, we are involved in that investigation, in fact, Weber County asked that the state take over that investigation.

And so I know that that is happening right now.

Our Department of Public Safety is directly involved in the investigation.

So I haven't gotten any reports back from that, so I can't speak to that, but I can speak generally to the allegations, and that is that I sincerely hope that we treat everyone with the dignity and respect that they deserve, and that includes, especially those who are here, are migrant workers who come here and work here and are so important in our agriculture industry.

As you know, I have an agriculture background and I care deeply about our farmers and ranchers and the people that work on those farms and ranches, people who grew up here, and people who have come from other countries to work here to do the labor that maybe some others don't want to do.

And it is critical that they get paid and that they get paid on time, that they get paid what they're promised to get paid, and that they are again, treated with dignity and respect.

So when there are allegations that that is not happening, we take that very seriously.

I don't care what their background is, I don't care where they come from.

We do take that very seriously.

And so we will, again, we'll be continuing those investigations, and if there is criminal wrongdoing, we'll make sure that the people responsible are held accountable.

- We do have some remote reporters joining us.

So we're gonna go ahead to Chris Reed with St. George News.

Chris, go ahead with your question.

- Good morning, Governor.

About a week ago, a national monument was declared in the northern part of the Grand Canyon right where the Arizona-Utah border is, and you've expressed your opposition to that.

How does this jive with what tribal leaders say is their culture to protect the land versus the needs of mining and industry?

- Sure, sure.

Thank you for the question.

Important to note, and I need to note that that that monument does not come into Utah, so that monument is on the Arizona side, but does impact Utahans.

And that's why we've taken such an interest in it.

We have Utahans in the southern part of our state who have grazing interests, other economic interests in that area.

And so it definitely impacts Utahans.

I wrote a letter to the president, had a conversation directly with the president about my concerns about that monument and other large landscape-size monuments.

Anytime we're talking hundreds of thousands, millions in this case of acres, I believe very strongly that it is a direct violation of the Antiquities Act.

And again, we have a lawsuit, not on that monument, but on monuments in our state that is now on appeal to the 10th Circuit that we ultimately believe will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

We do have an entry in another case that was dismissed from the Chief Justice expressing some concern that that these large land scale monuments do not match up with the language of the Antiquities Act statute.

And so that's very important.

And that's where all of this hinges, and again, the language is very clear that the monument must be the smallest size necessary to protect the artifacts or the antiquities that are at risk.

And I don't believe millions of acres does that at all.

I think just the average person would agree that just a clear plain reading of the statute does not match up with that.

Now to that direct question though, with our Native American citizens who are concerned about protecting the land, I share their desire to protect the land.

Sadly, this does not do that.

I can tell you as I toured Bears Ears with members of the Navajo nation and other nations, what I heard over and over again is "We're so grateful for this monument designation because we want to protect our sacred lands.

And then in the same breath, they said, "But you know what?

I hate that all of these people are coming here."

Do you know why all of these people are coming there?

Because of the monument designations, it has the exact opposite effect of what the president is intending to do, while the heart may be in the right place, that is not what happens.

There is no additional funding that comes.

And what I was told was more artifacts are being destroyed because of this monument designation.

And I was told this by Native Americans who wanted the monument designation that more of the artifacts are being destroyed, more of the landscapes are being trampled on because people are coming from all over the country and all over the world to see this new monument, people who would never would've come there before.

There are other ways to protect those things.

And in fact, on the lands that we're talking about, those land use designations were already in place to protect those artifacts and the lands that are so important to our native tribes.

Now specifically when it comes to the mining issue, there are parts of those lands that absolutely need to be completely protected and others that look just like random sagebrush with no artifacts there and that happen to have some very critical minerals that are really important to decarbonizing our atmosphere, taking CO2 out of the atmosphere and to energy production in our state, in our country.

And so you can't say in one breath that you believe in climate change, that you're desperate to have more electric vehicles, that we have to have better and more efficient and cleaner energy production, and then say we can't mine any of the critical minerals that are necessary to do all of those things, and instead outsourcing that to China and to Chinese-owned mines in Africa to places like Russia and other geopolitical foes that are hell bent on destroying our country.

And so all of this again, on paper, in a fairytale maybe makes sense that we just protect the land and nobody gets to touch it ever.

But when you look in practical terms, that is exactly not what is happening.

Instead, we put a bullseye on, we attract people to come and trample over these sacred lands and we can't get to the critical minerals that are so desperately needed to do the very things that the people claiming that they wanna protect this land are anxious to do so.

So that's my response and I think there's a better way to do all of those things.

- [Announcer] Sounds like Chris has a follow up.

Go ahead Chris.

- Go ahead Chris.

- Sure, and on another subject, back in April we talked over at Desert Hills High School actually about this, and it was about what was then 34 indictments against President Trump.

And as an attorney, you expressed your concern that what was a hush money case was turning, as you said, a misdemeanor into a felony.

Now that there are 91 criminal charges against the former president, including defrauding the US, racketeering, interfering with the 2020 election, do you still have those concerns?

- Well obviously the charges that have come since that initial case that we talked about are different.

They're much more serious and deeply concerning.

Now look, I will say the same thing I said on another case earlier.

There is a presumption of innocence in our country, and that applies to the president of the United States.

And I'm grateful for a legal system that has withstood some very significant challenges over the past couple years, especially around the 2020 election and others.

And I have an immense amount of faith in the legal system and its ability to hold up during this process as well.

And so the president, like any of us, will have his opportunity to present his defense, his attorneys will have an opportunity to argue in court.

And I look forward to seeing what happens with these cases.

I will say though, it is a very dark day for our country, a very sad day anytime that we have these types of allegations and anytime we have an indictment of a former president.

And so again, deeply concerned, we don't have time or the opportunity to go through all 90 of those counts across four, I guess, different jurisdictions now, different indictments.

Some of them, I disagree with strongly, that I think are a mistake and an overreach.

Others of them seem appropriate and very serious, but all of them are deeply troubling.

And I hope we can find a way through this as a nation.

- Governor, there is currently a ballot initiative, citizen ballot initiative that's been proposed to privatize, sort of privatize really liquor sales in Utah, allowing wine and spirits in grocery stores.

Do you think the state should get out of the business of selling liquor and leave it up to private industry?

- I think the system we have right now is an appropriate system.

I'm supportive of where we are with some caveats and changes.

And those are changes that I've been trying to implement over the past couple years to, again, make it more user friendly, to make it more business friendly.

We're not the only controlled state in the country.

And I think though when you look at the levels of alcohol abuse in our state, we're doing something right.

And so trying to find that balance between making the product available for those who want to consume it and should absolutely be able to consume it while also protecting young people and overconsumption, I think there's a logic behind what we're trying to accomplish there and trying to get that balance right.

And I hope we're trying to do that.

So I'm not supportive of the initiative, I think we're in a better spot now.

I think if you ask people, if you ask businesses if things have improved over the past couple years, I think they would say yes.

At least I've been asking those questions.

And what I'm hearing is very positive.

They're grateful, like the change I announced today, that we are making strides to modernize the system, to make it less cumbersome for businesses to participate.

I certainly hope that that's the case.

We've also tried to change the mindset of our DABC, including changing the name to DABS, adding that service component.

And I believe this with all of our regulatory agencies and government in general, in fact, I just had this conversation yesterday with our Department of Agriculture, and that is, if you are in a regulatory position in the state of Utah, your job is not to catch people doing bad things.

Your job is to help people do the right things.

And far too often we've treated the DABC and now DABS and others as exactly the opposite.

It's tough to navigate all the rules and laws that we have here.

And as regulators, our job is to help businesses and consumers navigate that, to help them do it the right way.

Most of them want to do it the right way.

If they mess up, it's not because they were trying to, it's because they didn't know or it's too complicated.

So by trying to simplify that and then helping people do it the right way instead of trying to catch them doing something wrong, it's just a much better way to run a state.

And I think people are starting to notice that mindset change.

- Back to the Trump indictments.

In a previous time, 91 felony counts against someone would be a death knell for a political career.

Do you think it's appropriate for Donald Trump to continue to run for president when he's facing so many counts?

- Well ultimately, we the people get to decide that.

Anyone can run for president that meets the definition under the constitution.

And so he's certainly entitled to run.

He also happens to be the frontrunner right now in the Republican party, I will say that that does trouble me for sure, but less so that he's deciding to run and more so at the support that he's getting.

One reason is just political, I like to win elections.

I like when Republicans win elections.

I desperately think we need a Republican president, and I would like the next president in the 2024 election starting in 2025 to be a Republican.

And I don't think that Donald Trump can win the presidency as the Republican nominee for the reasons that you mentioned.

Also, the polling just shows that his approval rating is so low right now that it would be very hard to change that.

And so that's one reason, I think we have some incredible candidates.

And I certainly hope, I hate the system by which we nominate candidates.

I hate that Iowa and New Hampshire kind of get to decide for the rest of us.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

And I certainly don't think anyone would design a system like that, any logical person would design a system like that.

But right now I'm desperately hoping that our good Republican friends in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and Nevada will take a good hard look at some of the many other candidates we have and choose someone else.

- Governor, you said you wanted to support a governor in the presidential race.

There's now six current or former governors.

Is there one you're endorsing or leaning towards?

- I endorse all of them.

I mean that sincerely, again, it's so early right now, but I think there are definite upsides to all six of them, current and former governors.

And I think all of them would do an amazing job as president.

- Governor, the Utah GOP or the SCC is journeying, not a journey, they're coming together this weekend.

And they're voting on a resolution to censure Aimee Winder Newton for her involvement with Equality Utah.

What's your thoughts on that?

- Oh, it's ridiculous.

And the person who filed that, and again, any anybody can do that, that's fine, but it was funny to me.

He was seeking the same endorsement.

And so again, it's a non-issue in my eyes.

I think Councilmember Newton's response, if you haven't had a chance to read it, I think you should.

I think it was brilliantly put together and I suspect that that issue will go away on Saturday.

- Okay, we'll go to another remote reporter, Sophia Fisher with Moab Times-Independent.

Go ahead with your question, Sophia.

- Hi there, as I'm sure you know, people in the state received their property tax notices in recent weeks, and many in Grand County are reporting steep rises.

I've heard increases of up to 300, 400%.

Are you concerned with the steep rise in residential and commercial property taxes?

And if so, are there any plans to revisit the formula used to calculate these taxes to give people some relief?

- Yeah, thank you Sophia, and it's great to have you, it's great to have Moab represented here today.

We appreciate you joining us remotely.

That does concern me for sure.

That's a very significant increase.

I would have to know a little bit more about what is causing that increase in Moab.

What I will say is many jurisdictions last year saw a steep increase in their property taxes, and that actually had to do, well definitely with the formulation, but the way that property taxes are calculated even though there wasn't a rise in the tax itself in the amount that that local governments were receiving.

What happened was there's a rebalancing that happens every year as municipalities look at the value of properties.

And in large part because of the pandemic and remote work, the value of commercial properties decreased significantly, which meant that, and again, correspondingly, the value of residential properties increased significantly.

And so that valuation threw things off and caused, again, a steep increase for many municipalities.

We are not seeing that in as many municipalities this year.

So that's why I would have to see if Moab is a one-off and what are causing those increases?

Does it have to do with a school board decision to raise taxes?

Is there a truth in taxation issue that's happening within the county or one of the other taxing entities?

I'm always concerned about rising taxes and the ability to pay for those taxes.

That's why we've had, since I've been governor, over $1 billion in tax decreases at the state level.

Again, property taxes are mostly done at the local level.

And so those are decisions that are being made by county commissioners, by school boards and elected officials at that area.

So I usually don't kind of dip into those decisions.

I let people hold their elected officials accountable.

But I'm certainly willing and actually had proposed a one year decrease in property tax across the state, kind of a rebate to help everyone who was seeing that big increase last year, that did not make it through the legislature.

We did get tax increase decreases in other areas and so, yes, I'm concerned and always willing to look at that valuation process.

- That is all the time we have for our television broadcast.

I wanna thank you so much for joining us for the Governor's Monthly News Conference.

- [Announcer] This has been the Governor's Monthly News Conference.

For video and more information, visit pbsutah.org/governor.