Not many surprises in 10-year Go Utah vision strategy draft

By Brice Wallace

An early version of the state’s 10-year economic strategy contains several initiatives and ideas that have been discussed by Gov. Spencer Cox and other parts of state government in the past.

Under the title “Economic Vision Strategy 2030,” a draft version of the document was discussed during the August meeting of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board. Go Utah is charged under recent legislation with developing the strategy and reviewing the state’s economic incentive programs, with recommendations to be submitted to the newly formed Unified Economic Opportunity Commission. The commission then will make recommendations to legislative interim committees in October.

The strategy draft uses broad language. For example, the vision says the state should “create the strongest economy in the global community, while maintaining world-class quality of life and cultivating opportunities for all Utahns.”

Among the strategies listed are boosting the education and talent pipeline, providing for “low regulations/low taxes,” providing economic opportunity for all people, targeting certain industries for recruitment, having Utah become “The Startup State,” focusing on improving rural economies, helping Utah companies make international connections, and coordinating community and economic planning.

All of those have been discussed by Go Utah, including when it was known as the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), or by Cox or his predecessors.

Among the actions to achieve those strategies are helping every student to gain market-relevant skills; creating more business and education alignment partnerships; enhancing training and education opportunities for underserved populations; creating partnerships to support diversity, equity and inclusion; strengthening workforce programs, helping create higher-paying jobs for Utahns; bolstering entrepreneurship education in schools; supporting more patent and tech privatization efforts; and recruiting more early-stage capital to the state.

In briefing the Go Utah board, Ben Hart, the agency’s deputy director, cautioned that the document was a draft and therefore subject to revision. He asked board members to provide input that could alter the draft.

“Just note today, we’re not looking to solve this,” he told the board. “This is the beginning of the conversation, not the end.”

The Legislature created the commission with HB348 during the 2021 session and charged it with studying ways that state government can grow the economy in the best way. The commission’s first meeting was June 30, and its working groups and committees have been meeting since then. Among state government’s tools are tax policy, regulation, education, workforce, incentives, transportation, outdoor recreation/quality of life, and infrastructure.

The Go Utah board also discussed possible changes to its most-used incentive to recruit companies to Utah or grow Utah-based companies: economic development tax increment financing, or EDTIF. The draft contains criteria revisions that would determine if a company would be awarded an EDTIF incentive and the incentive amount. Among the criteria in the draft are whether the business is in a targeted industry, offers a disruptive or innovative technology, is considering rural Utah for operations, would be reshoring jobs to the U.S., is a homegrown Utah business and is committed to hiring Utah workers.

Hart said the current EDTIF statutes do not indicate what the state wants as much as what it doesn’t want. A new statute would make clear the state’s goals.

“We feel like that’s probably the overarching umbrella that we’re working under, is how do we create EDTIF statute that is prescriptive in terms of what we’re looking for? This is a big change,” he said.

Under the draft, Utah would place more emphasis on recruiting companies in targeted industries — technology, financial services, life sciences, aerospace/defense and advanced manufacturing — that typically create jobs in other industries.

“We’re going to double down in terms of really focusing on these industries, recognizing how key they are in providing a multiplier that really helps pull our economy,” Hart said.

Regarding the 10-year strategy draft, Daniel Hemmert, Go Utah’s executive director, said he had been pushing for it to be brief. “I don’t want this to be a 50-page document,” Hemmert said. “It needs to be a one-pager. And if we can’t get it on one page, then it’s just stupid and no one will read it.”

He said he was happy that the draft was “succinct, clear and, I want to believe, ultimately actionable over a long period of time. That’s the goal here.”

Hemmert also told the board that the strategy will be subject to constant revision. “It won’t be a static document, to be clear,” he said. “Even after this is all said and done, I hope we’re looking at this thing yearly, every six months or something. It shouldn’t be a static document; the world isn’t static.”

The Go Utah board meeting included chair Carine Clark reminding Hemmert to tell board members to keep the drafts confidential — for board review only and not for distribution.

However, Hemmert noted they were presented at a public meeting and will be public documents in other future public meetings. “That said, while it’s in draft form, we’d appreciate it if you’d keep it within your hands as we’re working through drafts,” Hemmert told the board members.

Earlier in the meeting, during Hart’s presentation, the drafts were not just discussed but displayed on screens.

“I think some people would say, ‘Why would you do this at a public meeting before you do it with your stakeholder groups or what have you?’” Hart said. “I think we wanted to be very open about this and some of the changes that we’re looking at.”