Our Natural Heritage

If the Great Salt Lake (GSL) dries up, we aren’t just looking at a dusty view; we’re looking at toxic arsenic dust in our kids' lungs and the total collapse of our "Greatest Snow on Earth" economy.

As an economist, I see a state giving away our most precious resource—water—for pennies on the dollar to benefit overseas interests, while our own future evaporates. It’s time to stop being "polite" about a literal catastrophe.

Why "Wait and See" is a Death Sentence

I’m tired of hearing politicians talk about our "Natural Heritage" like it’s a pretty postcard. Our mountains and our lake are the literal life-support system for our state’s ecology (and snow). If the Great Salt Lake disappears, the Utah we love disappears with it.

I refuse to be the generation that watched our air become toxic and our snow disappear because we were too afraid to stand up to a few powerful interest groups.

Stop Exporting Our Future in a Hay Bale

Let’s look at the math, because the science is screaming at us. We are currently diverting massive amounts of water to grow alfalfa—a water-intensive crop—and then exporting it to China. * The Fact: We are literally shipping Utah’s water across the ocean while our own lake hits record lows.

• The Economic Reality: Our "snow-dependent" economy brings in billions and supports thousands of local jobs. We are sacrificing our long-term economic stability for short-term agricultural exports that don't even stay in our state.

It’s time to use economic policy to protect the lake. We need to stop subsidizing the destruction of our own backyard. If you want to use Utah’s water to ship hay to the other side of the world, you should be paying the true cost of that water—a cost that reflects the risk you're putting on every person breathing the air in this valley.

Little Cottonwood Canyon: The People’s Mountains, Not a Private Playground

Then there’s the LCC Gondola. They call it a "solution," but as an economist, I call it a transfer of public wealth to private interests. We are being told to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a permanent scar across our canyon that primarily benefits a few ski resorts. Meanwhile, our actual public transit, and the buses that real people use every day, are underfunded and inconsistent.

• The Caretaker Perspective: Our canyons are a public trust. We should be protecting access for everyone, not just those who can afford a luxury lift.

• The Solution: Enhance the bus experience. Expand electric transit. Solve the problem without destroying the ecological health of the canyon for a private-interest project.

Reason Over Rhetoric

Why aren't our officials listening? Because the "Gondola Gang" and the "Alfalfa Lobby" have deep pockets. But they don't have the science, and they definitely don't have the logic.

We can have a thriving economy and a healthy lake. In fact, we cannot have one without the other. This isn't about "hating growth" or "hating farming." It’s about Economic Resilience. A resilient economy doesn't commit suicide by draining its own water supply.

I choose our kids. Every single time.

My First Day

The "Family First" Tax: My First Day in Office

As someone with a Master’s in Economics, let me tell you: that is a lazy answer used by people who are too comfortable to lead. Yes, supply matters. But who is demanding the supply?

Right now, a young couple in Sandy isn't just competing against another family. They are competing against multi-billion-dollar investment firms using low-interest credit lines to snap up "entry-level" homes before they even hit Zillow.

The Math of the Monopoly

When a corporation buys a home, they aren't looking for a place to raise kids. They are looking for an asset with a high Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Because they can buy in bulk, they can outbid you by $20,000 without blinking. They then turn around and rent that same house back to you at a markup.

This isn't a "free market." This is an extraction economy. They are extracting wealth from Utah families and sending it to shareholders in New York and California.

My Solution: The Corporate Ownership Surcharge

If I’m in office, we aren't going to just "ask nicely" for them to stop. We are going to make it mathematically unprofitable for them to treat our neighborhoods like a vending machine.

1. The Homestead Exemption: If you live in the house, your property tax stays low. We protect the roof over your head.

2. The Tiered Corporate Tax: If an entity owns more than a specific number of single-family residential units in Utah, their tax rate should skyrocket.

3. The Math: By increasing the carrying cost for these "institutional landlords," we lower their IRR. When it’s no longer a "guaranteed win" for a hedge fund, they’ll stop buying. The houses go back on the market. The prices stabilize.

Why Nobody is Doing This

It’s simple: Urgency is the enemy of the elite. They want to study this for another ten years while your rent goes up another 40%. They say "it’s complicated."

It’s not. It’s a choice.

We can choose to have a state full of renters beholden to an app, or we can choose to have a state full of homeowners who have a stake in their community. I’m choosing the families. I’m choosing the science of a stable middle class over the "reasoning" of a corporate lobbyist.

We have the data. We have the solution. Now, we just need to stop being afraid of the people who sign the big checks and start caring about the people who sign the back of our kids' permission slips.

Business as Usual is Killing Utah

It’s not just about "money"—it’s about the homes we build and the people we love. When you’re looking at your kids and wondering if the world is going to leave a seat at the table for them, "economic resilience" stops being a buzzword and starts being a mission.

Business as Usual is Killing Utah

I’m looking around, and I have to ask: Is anyone else seeing this? We’re watching the cost of living skyrocket while the diversity of our local economy vanishes, and the people in charge are acting like everything is just fine. It isn’t fine. We are at a breaking point, and the silence from the top is deafening.

Economics Isn't an Opinion—It's a Roadmap

Here is the part that keeps me up at night: We actually have the answers. This isn't a mystery. As someone with a Master’s in Economics, I can tell you that the math doesn’t lie. We know that market concentration kills innovation. We know that when a few massive corporations own the playground, everyone else gets kicked off the swing set.

So why aren't our state officials listening to science and reason?

• The Science: Healthy markets require competition to stay stable.

• The Reality: We are letting monopolies build walls around our state, and our leaders are holding the bricks.

Protecting Our Own

I’m a caretaker at heart. I want to protect the small business owner who put their life savings into a storefront on Main Street. I want to protect my kids from a future where they are priced out of their own hometown.

But I’m also done playing nice.

The "status quo" isn't just a stagnant pool; it’s a predatory system that favors the donor class over the working class. If the people in power refuse to use the economic tools at their disposal to break up these concentrations, then they are choosing the side of the giants.

Why the Hesitation?

It’s simple: The giants have louder voices. But science and reason don't care about campaign contributions. We need to stop "managing" our decline and start disrupting the systems that caused it.

Economic resilience isn't a suggestion; it’s a survival strategy. We need to break up the monopolies, clear the path for our local entrepreneurs, and stop pretending that the "invisible hand" is going to fix a market that’s been handcuffed by bad policy.

Utah deserves better than leaders who ignore the evidence. It’s time to stop asking for permission to fix our economy and start demanding it. 

Reclaiming Our Family & Future

The Utah Dream Shouldn’t Be a Fairy Tale: Reclaiming Our Family & Future

I was talking to a neighbor the other day—a young dad working two jobs—and he told me something that broke my heart. He said, "Shana, I love this state, but I don't think my kids will ever be able to afford a roof over their heads here."

That is a failure of leadership, plain and simple. We’ve reached a point in Utah where the "cost of living" isn't just a headline; it’s a crisis that is hollowing out our communities. If we don’t act now, we are essentially exporting our greatest resource—our children—to other states because they’ve been priced out of their own birthright.

Houses Are for Families, Not Hedge Funds

Here is the truth that nobody in the Capitol wants to say out loud: Your family is currently being outbid by a computer algorithm. Massive out-of-state corporations are buying up Utah’s starter homes, turning them into permanent rentals, and driving prices up. They don't care about our neighborhoods, our schools, or our kids; they care about their quarterly profits.

• The Science says: When corporate ownership of residential property spikes, homeownership rates for families plummet.

• The Reason says: A house should be a home first and an investment vehicle second.

My priority legislation is simple: Tax corporate home-ownership at a significantly higher rate than family ownership. If a giant corporation wants to snatch a home away from a local family, they’re going to pay a premium that goes right back into our community.

40 Hours Should Be Enough

If you work 40 or 60 or 80 hours a week, you should be able to cover the essentials. Period.

We’ve let the gap between wages and the cost of survival grow into a canyon. Advocating for a living wage isn't some radical idea, it’s basic economic common sense. When people can afford to live where they work, our local economy stabilizes, our schools improve, and our families thrive.

Why is nothing changing?

Why hasn't this happened yet? Because the current system is working exactly as intended for the people at the top. But I’m not here to represent the interests of corporate landlords or lobbyist groups. I’m here for the families.

We have the tools. We have the data. What we’re missing is the political will to stop prioritizing profit over people. The right time was years ago. The next best time is now.