Now law, SB73 requires initiative backers to include in their application for the initiative a detailed description of how the proposed law would be funded and if it would require a new tax.

That provision of the bill took effect the moment Cox signed it.

The governor did not issue a statement along with his signature of SB73. But proponents of setting new rules for ballot initiatives — including Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, who sponsored SB73 — argued during the Utah Legislature’s 2025 session that Utah voters need to know the fiscal impact of proposed ballot initiatives.

Critics, including the anti-gerrymandering group Better Boundaries, opposed the bill as another piece of legislation that makes it even more difficult for Utahns to exercise their ballot initiative power in a state where it’s already hard enough.

“It’s disappointing to see legislative leaders take on a problem that doesn’t exist,” Elizabeth Rasmussen, Better Boundaries’ new executive director, said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Better Boundaries announced Rasmussen had taken the place of the group’s former executive director, Katie Wright.

“Regardless of political affiliation, citizens should have a fair and accessible path to bring forward initiatives,” Rasmussen added. “SB73 adds costly, complicated barriers that make it harder for regular people to participate. At Better Boundaries, we’ll continue working with Utahns to protect this constitutional process and ensure it remains open, fair, and grounded in Utah’s values.”

Fillmore, on the Senate floor during debate over SB73 in January, defended his bill, saying it’s “not in any way an effort to limit the ability of citizens to engage in their constitutionally granted legislative power.”

“But it is also very important that when citizens exercise their legislative power, that they do so with their eyes wide open about what the consequences of those decisions are,” Fillmore said. He added the Legislature has a “constitutional mandate to balance the budget,” and “the citizens ought to know in advance what we’re sacrificing” for a new voter-approved law.

While the provision in SB73 requiring initiative backers to include more information about how the proposed law would be funded took effect upon the governor’s signature, another provision won’t take effect until much later — Jan. 1, 2027. However, lawmakers wrote it that way with the intention of leaving time for voters to adjust it, if a proposed constitutional amendment that’s also set for the November 2026 ballot gets approved.

That delayed provision requires initiative backers to follow the same publication requirements that lawmakers do when they put proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, which could increase the cost of ballot initiatives by an estimated $1.4 million. However, that could change.

Currently, the Utah Constitution requires that constitutional amendments be published in newspapers statewide for 60 days before the next election. Lawmakers want voters to consider changing that, which would impact not just proposed constitutional amendments, but also ballot initiatives. Here’s why:

Utah lawmakers also passed a resolution and a companion bill that could remove that newspaper publication requirement from the Utah Constitution and leave it up to lawmakers to decide how voters should be notified before an election. They included:

• HJR10 places this question on the November 2026 ballot for voters to consider: Should the Utah Constitution be changed to strike the language requiring that proposed constitutional amendments must be published “in at least one newspaper in every county of the state where a newspaper is published, for two months” immediately preceding the election, and should the constitution instead say those proposed amendments be published “in a manner provided by statute, for 60 calendar days” immediately preceding the next general election?
• If voters approve the question from HJR10, then another bill — HB481 (which is currently waiting the governor’s signature ) — would take effect, setting a state law that requires proposed constitutional amendments and ballot initiatives be published as a “class A” notice on the Utah Public Notice website or a government’s official website for “60 calendar days immediately preceding” the next general election.

Voters will decide: Should some initiatives require 60% vote?

Another proposed constitutional amendment slated to appear on the 2026 ballot would set a higher bar for certain ballot initiatives. Like SB73, it also targets ballot initiatives that would come with a price tag.

Utah lawmakers also approved SJR2, which puts a question on the 2026 ballot for voters to either approve or reject: Should ballot initiatives that would require a new tax or a tax hike only be allowed to take effect if at least 60% of voters approve it?

Currently, the Utah Constitution only requires a simple majority vote for ballot initiatives to be enacted as new laws. But that resolution’s sponsor, Fillmore, argued it should take more than support from 50.1% of voters to “raise taxes on the other 49.9%.”

Unlike bills, joint resolutions don’t need the governor’s approval, so SJR3 and HJR10 will be enacted without his signature. It will be up to voters to decide what comes next.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.