What the Cox-Henderson administration accomplished in our first 500 days – and what’s next

SALT LAKE CITY (May 19, 2022)  – Today, Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson marked their 500th day in office by releasing a list of their major achievements to the public. They also thanked state employees, legislators and community members for their help in accomplishing these goals. 

“The past 500 days have been exhilarating – full of challenges and rewards – and we’ve worked hard to invest tax dollars wisely, expand opportunities for all Utahns, improve quality of life, and plan for the future,” Gov. Cox said. “We know trust must be earned through both competence and ethical behavior. I’m extremely proud of our team for their high-level performance in both areas, and I look forward to the next 500 days continuing to serve the people of Utah with integrity.” 

Within weeks after Inauguration Day on Jan. 4, 2021, the administration released its One Utah Roadmap, a set of guiding principles and goals in six primary areas of focus: economic advancement, education innovation, rural issues, health security, opportunity for all, and government efficiency. 

“When Gov. Cox and I took the oath of office, we promised to work on behalf of every Utahn – in every corner of our great state – to give people a fair shake at living the Utah dream,” Lt. Gov. Henderson said. “I am so proud of all that we have accomplished. Together, we have made record investments in education and infrastructure and fostered an economy that is the envy of the nation. I cannot wait to see what the next 500 days have in store for our administration as we continue our work to expand opportunities for every Utahn.”

During this first 500 days, the administration hit many of the Roadmap’s milestones including:

Economic Advancement

We’ve:

• Developed the state’s Economic Vision 2030, which focused on creating a strong global economy, committing to our rural communities, and maintaining world-class quality of life with opportunities for all Utahns.
• Signed over $300 million in tax cuts for Utahns, with special focus on families, military heroes, and social security recipients.
• Overhauled the state’s incentives to advance strategic objectives.
• Invested record amounts in technical and vocational training and built education pathways that support all Utahns to enter the workforce.
• Created a transparent scorecard to benchmark our budget and tax system against other states.
• Aligned unprecedented funding resources to combat poor air quality and climate change. FY22 and FY23 authorized over $700 million in multimodal transportation.
• Created and completed a systematic licensure and regulation review resulting in the new Office of Professional Licensure Review.

Next, we’re: 

• Incorporating housing into the state’s economic development strategy.
• Streamlining rural economic development programs to increase access for small communities and enabling long-term investments.
• Working to make Utah the start-up state by partnering with universities and entrepreneurial communities.
• Facilitating industry-specific collaborations and educational initiatives, like microcredentials and experiential learning programs that empower students and job seekers.

Education Innovation & Investment

We’ve:

• Increased funding for at-risk students by more than $28 million.
• Increased funding for optional all-day kindergarten to provide more families with expanded early-learning options.
• Invested $19 million in programs to ensure adequate early literacy outcomes.
• Focused on supporting parents, teachers, and children to achieve the Utah Portrait of a Graduate.
• Launched Utah’s new Adopt-A-School initiative, one of the first of its kind in the country, to match schools — including those in rural areas — with local businesses that want to give back.

Next, we’re

• Enrolling 750 students in our apprenticeship program, Talent Ready Utah.
• Promoting Adopt-A-School. 

Rural Matters

We’ve:

• Developed Utah’s Coordinated Action Plan for Water, which prioritizes decades of planning and infrastructure efforts into action items with champions and timelines.
• Released Utah’s State Energy and Innovation Plan, which is focused on reliable, affordable and sustainable development of Utah’s energy resources.

Next, we’re:

• Continuing our investment in rural Utah, and ensuring a sustainable future through energy independence, water planning, and food self-sufficiency.
• Establishing freight rail infrastructure to strengthen Utah’s energy independence.
• Launching a pilot program to promote growth and expansion of harvesting and processing plants.
• Continuing to streamline rural economic development programs and coordinate with regional and local partners to simplify access to state and federal funding for smaller communities.

Health Security

We’ve:

• Received national recognition with a #1 ranking for our state’s COVID-19 response, which included distributing 5+ million COVID-19 vaccines. 
• Launched the One Utah Health Collaborative, which involves hundreds of stakeholders and aims to improve health service delivery, access, and payment in order to reduce cost.
• Enhanced mental health resources, and improved statewide coordination and accountability to ensure access.
• Secured telehealth kits for every school that wants one to improve children’s access to health care.
• Improved access to loan repayment programs for health care workers who work in rural Utah.

Next, we’re:

• Inviting local leaders to join the Utah Sustainable Health Collaborative in securing Utah’s health future through specific, measurable goals for their own businesses and organizations.
• Finishing our state’s after-action COVID-19 report so that we learn from our response and prepare for future emergencies. 
• Finding a technology platform to help address social determinants of health.

Equality & Opportunity

We’ve:

• Recruited diverse candidates for board, commission, and judicial appointments. There are more women serving in cabinet and senior staff positions now than ever before.
• Hired the first senior advisor for equity and opportunity, first equity and inclusion accelerator, and first director for immigration integration. 
• Eliminated barriers to opportunity through licensure reform, infrastructure to support mental health, and expanded parental leave for state employees
• Incorporated equity and opportunity into how we do business, including training, budgeting, and planning.
• Completed a gender pay gap study last year, resulting in the Division of Human Resource Management developing policies to address disparities, refine recruitment and promotion practices, and collect more data. 
• Signed legislation to make period products available in schools.

Next, we’re:

• Releasing the Equity and Opportunity Framework and an executive order to require state agencies to complete their action plan by January 2023 to track annual progress.
• Launching the Expanding Opportunities for Women in Utah initiative with two campaigns:
  • 100 Companies Championing Women, and
  • 1,000 New Women-Owned Businesses.
• Creating a strategic framework to coordinate resources for prevention education and support services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in partnership with stakeholders.

Streamline & Modernize State Government

We’ve:

• Expanded remote work to give employees more flexibility and more communities access to higher-paying jobs.
• Held employee town halls to listen to and answer questions from state employees.
• Pushed for strategic investments in our IT needs. 
• Improved human resource practices based on employee feedback.
• Secured funding to increase pay for POST-certified state employees.

Next, we’re:

• Focusing on IT solutions to improve Utahn’s user experience.
• Collaborating with the legislative branch to connect meaningful performance measures to budget line items.

The administration will continue to build on these achievements in the next iteration of the Roadmap, which will include incorporating housing into the state’s economic development strategy; streamlining rural economic development programs to increase access for small communities; continuing our investment in rural Utah; establishing freight rail infrastructure to strengthen Utah’s energy independence; expanding the Utah Sustainable Health Collaborative and setting specific, measurable goals for individual businesses and organizations; finishing the state’s after-action COVID-19 report so that we learn from our response and prepare for future emergencies; launching an “Expanding Opportunities for Women In Utah” initiative; procuring the Parity.Org Index, a data system that tracks disparity in pay to ensure state employees are getting paid equally for the same work being done; focusing on IT solutions to improve Utahn’s user experience; collaborating with the legislative branch to connect meaningful performance measures to budget line items, and much more.

The next version of the One Utah Roadmap will be released in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to see what’s next! And stay up-to-date by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

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