The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) has just released its ratings of the 2018 meeting of the Utah State Legislature.
ACUF’s Ratings—both federal and state—are an initiative of ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability. These ratings are designed to reflect how over 8,000 of the nation’s elected officials view the role of government and illustrate the differences between chambers of the legislature, while revealing lawmakers’ positions on a wide variety of issues that directly affect Utahns.
ACUF reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both the Senate and House to produce average scores of each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member. According to ACUF’s Year in Review, the Utah State Legislature’s overall conservative score fell significantly compared to the 2017 session (from 66.7 percent to 53.0 percent).
Utah legislators voted on key issues during the 2018 session. In one or both chambers, they voted to block a ban on natural gas and oil production and reduce harmful licensing requirements and restrictive regulation of businesses.
“Utah lawmakers on both sides of the aisle found common ground in the 2018 session and protected citizens from bearing the cost of a politicized energy agenda by blocking a ban of natural gas and oil production,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. “We salute the small group of conservatives who created opportunities for Utah to grow when they won uphill battles to lift prohibitions of food trucks and reduce licensing requirements that prevent hard-working people from entering the workforce. We urge the Utah State Legislature to follow these conservatives who are fighting for commonsense policies that will benefit everyone.”
The average score for Republican Utah House Representatives was 63 percent, while just over 10 percent of all representatives earned awards for scoring 80 percent or better. Senator Dayton was the only Utah State Senator who earned an award. The overall average for the Utah State Legislature was 53.0 percent.
Click Here to view the 2018 Ratings of Utah online.
