Challenges do lay ahead: Residents consume large amounts of energy and water, a particular concern in the high desert. Salt Lake County, largely encircled by mountains, faces perennial air-quality problems, which some policy experts say the state has been slow to address, particularly in light of its opposition at the national level to stricter federal clean air regulations. And the sales and gas taxes approved by voters and the legislature – including a gas tax hike signed by the governor in 2015 – face shrinking revenues from more fuel-efficient vehicles and the ongoing shift to online sales.
“We all know that at some point we’re going to have to stop widening the freeways and figure out other ways to get people around,” says Steve Kroes, president of the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan research group.
What’s more, a fight is brewing over raising state taxes to fund education: The state ranked last in per-pupil spending in 2016, and about 40 percent of teachers quit within the first five years, frequently to seek better pay. Many of those who do stay have been forced to find second jobs. And while Salt Lake County voters were amenable to raising taxes to fund infrastructure improvements, voters statewide – who tend to be more conservative – appear less enthusiastic about a similar measure for education.
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