Campaign Phone
360-628-9997
Current Employment
Granite School District
Education
Teaching Degree, MBA
Campaign Website
www.juliejacksonforutah.com
Policies are most effective when made as close to the individual as possible. For me, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety are areas of policy that should be left to local leaders. State-level decisions should override local decisions when the issue is something that impacts all or most Utahns: resource management, the judicial system, state-wide transportation, industry regulation, and social services. Our current legislature tends to be making decisions that no government local or otherwise should be making for individuals–LGBTQIA+ rights, what books to read, women’s health needs, etc.
I do not support cutting the income tax. As a member of the Granite School Board, and one who is managing the budget for one of the largest districts in the state, the metric for sustainability is whether a decrease to the income tax results in an increase to the property tax. That is exactly what is happening now. When the income tax decreases, property tax increases, creating instability for homeowners–particularly the elderly. I do support holding the income tax steady and actually fully funding schools in a way that allows for local control so our tax dollars can be more efficiently spent. This will remove the need for consistent property tax increases and will provide stability for our schools and home owners.
Where the unhoused are concerned, I want to address the issues I’ve seen in my own unhoused friends: healthcare. So many of the people I know who are unhoused lose their homes because they have to choose between home and life-saving healthcare, or because they are not getting the mental healthcare they need in order to keep their jobs or roommates, who help them pay rent. Where housing affordability is concerned, we should provide incentives to developers and more flexibility to cities so we can incentivize developers to build housing that is reasonably priced. My background–small business owner, teacher, parent, elected official, non-profit board, and foundation operator–makes me a valuable asset in these conversations.
We must find money in the budget to reallocate to water and use it to incentivize conservation. This will require building political will with republican legislators. They must feel confident that if they invest in water, their constituents will still vote for them. I have not met a farmer, rancher, or community member who isn’t concerned about water. We can provide support to farmers and ranchers who see they are not going to have enough water to sustain their current system, regulate groups who are using more than their fair share of water, and put protections in place against future projects that endanger our water supply (like data centers). We must act quickly and to water a major priority in our budget.
I’m not in favor of pursuing nuclear energy. It still requires non-renewable materials (uranium or platonium) and creates a concern about waste management and meltdowns. There is also the inefficiency that comes with needing to move the power from the plant across the state. I want to pursue the geothermal energy that exists in the west desert as well as renewable energy such as solar and wind power and create infrastructure that is more local so we can take full advantage of the power we do create. Currently our state loses over a billion dollars worth of power a year in moving it from its source to its user. I think this needs to be done in collaboration with cities and towns.
Campaign Phone
801-839-5822
Current Employment
Utah Domestic Violence Coalition Policy Director
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Master's in Public Administration
Campaign Website
www.erinforutah.com
Decisions should be made at the level closest to the people they affect. In my work at the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, I see how one-size-fits-all state mandates can undermine what's actually working in communities. At the same time, I believe the state has a responsibility to set a floor for public health standards, equitable education funding, statewide services, and civil rights. I will defend local control to ensure they can deliver zoning, transit planning, and local wage decisions, while also supporting state-local partnerships in each of these areas to address statewide concerns. I will also push for state funding where local governments cannot fill the gaps around affordable housing, healthcare, and efficient service delivery.
In my career, I’ve seen what happens when services are underfunded: the gaps in the system fall hardest on the people who can least afford it. Year after year, the Legislature passes tax cuts without honestly identifying their regressive tax policy choices and answering to who benefits and what gets left behind. We should always ask, "Does this fully fund public education, protect infrastructure for neighborhoods waiting for overdue improvements, and fund essential shared services?” The metrics that guide those answers include per-pupil spending, infrastructure conditions, wage growth, and access to life-saving social services. Tax cuts that look good on paper too often benefit the highest income Utahns and cut funding that benefits us all.
Housing costs continue to climb out of reach for far too many working people. I’ve also seen in my policy work how housing instability intersects with domestic violence, behavioral health challenges, and economic insecurity. We must continue to work with local communities to address zoning reform that removes barriers to density where it makes sense, increase and sustain investment in housing assistance programs, and pass stronger renter protections in state law. Reducing homelessness also requires a serious commitment to permanent supportive housing, expanded mental health and substance use treatment, and other crisis intervention and case management services. Our Legislature must fund prevention rather than just manage the consequences.
Saving Great Salt Lake is one of my top priorities, and water conservation is critical to those efforts. The majority of Utah's residential water use goes to outdoor irrigation, so I'd expand restrictions on overhead spray irrigation, require water-efficient landscaping in new developments, and direct water providers to set tiered rates that reward conservation. On the agricultural side, I’d support scaling up the agricultural optimization grant program and strengthening in-stream flow leasing so farmers can voluntarily dedicate water to Great Salt Lake without losing their rights. Any approach we take must be developed in partnership with impacted communities, businesses, industries, farms, and ranches to meet critical water needs.
We absolutely need to accelerate the transition to clean energy to address our growing climate crisis while also meeting increasing energy demands. The science points toward a diversified clean energy portfolio as the clear path forward and Utah has everything we need to be a clean energy leader—abundant solar, wind, and geothermal resources, and the technology to deploy them today. We should be leading, not lagging. We should also be investing in grid modernization in order to actually get those energy sources to our homes and businesses. While nuclear energy technology has not advanced to be the most immediate clean, safe, and affordable option, furthering well-informed investments into all clean energy sources must be Utah's priority.
