UTAH

Public employee collective bargaining banned

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Republican governor on Feb. 14 signed a collective bargaining ban that experts are calling one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country, despite overwhelming opposition from union members.

Beginning July 1, unions serving Utah teachers, firefighters, police officers, transit workers and other public employees will be banned from negotiating on their behalf for better wages and working conditions.

Gov. Spencer Cox announced his decision late on Feb. 14 following a week of rallies outside his office in which thousands of union members from the public and private sector urged him to veto the bill. The Republican-controlled legislature had narrowly approved it the previous week after its sponsors abandoned a proposed compromise that would have removed the outright ban.

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Many educators, who are the state’s most frequent users of collective bargaining, view the new law as way for Republicans to curb the political influence of teachers unions and clear a path for their own education agenda.

Its GOP sponsors argued it was needed to allow employers to engage directly with all employees, instead of communicating through a union representative.

The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest public education employees’ union, criticized Cox for ignoring the many workers who urged him to issue a veto. The union is exploring a possible ballot referendum to try to overturn the law, though the effort would come with a high price tag.

OKLAHOMA

State won’t collect kids’ immigration status

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he will stop a plan pushed by the state’s top education official to collect the immigration status of children when they register for public school.

The Republican governor said Feb. 12 he is a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, but that policymakers should focus on targeting those in the country illegally who commit other crimes.

“Collecting 6, 7, 8-year-old kids’ addresses and immigration status in the state of Oklahoma, that’s not a public safety issue,” said Stitt, a second-term governor who is term-limited in 2026.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters pushed the proposal, which was approved by the State Board of Education in January, outraging teachers and civil libertarians and promoting fear in immigrant communities.

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The proposed rule, which requires the governor’s approval before it takes effect, mandates that parents or legal guardians provide proof of citizenship of their children when enrolling them in public school, including a U.S. birth certificate, U.S. passport, consular report of birth abroad, permanent resident card or other legal document.

Stitt also replaced three of the Board of Education members who approved the rule, saying he was frustrated by the idea that children were being used as “political pawns.”

Walters said in a statement that he intends to place two of the board members who were removed on a Trump advisory committee that will “continue to fight the liberal D.C. swamp that has now leaked into Oklahoma’s executive branch.”

WYOMING

Committees kill voting machine ban

CHEYENNE — After three long meetings of public testimony, House committee members killed a bill that would ban the use of electronic voting machines in Wyoming elections on Feb. 5 in an 8-1 vote.

A mirror bill also died in the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee earlier the same evening, after senators failed to advance the bill.

The sister committee in the Wyoming House of Representatives heard hours of public testimony over the course of three meetings on the bill before concluding this topic should be saved for further study during the interim, the legislature’s off season.

A large grassroots movement spurred by the Wyoming Republican Party, supported by some county GOP committees, led to the creation of two mirror bills that would ban the use of electronic voting systems and move the state to a full hand count of its election ballots.

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Both House and Senate committee members concluded this was too heavy of a topic to push through the current legislative session without further study.

Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, said he also supported a more “incremental look” into this bill that would include input from county clerks. During public testimony, county clerks widely criticized the legislation as expensive, time consuming and ill thought out.

Several members of the public, testifying in favor of both bills, expressed distrust of electronic voting machines. Should these bills pass, Wyoming would be the first state in the country to shift to a full hand-count system of its elections.

NEW MEXICO

Hydraulics celebrated on Lowrider Day

SANTA FE — State lawmakers are embracing New Mexico’s time-honored culture of transforming customized lowrider cars into rolling canvases of artistic expression and a source of community pride.

House and Senate lawmakers designated Feb. 11 as Lowrider Day at the state Capitol, marked by celebrations of Latino tradition and history. Proposed legislation would go farther by creating specialty license plates in tribute to lowriders.

Legislators including state Sen. Leo Jaramillo also are drafting a bill this year that would enshrine the lowrider as New Mexico’s state vehicle — alongside the roadrunner as state bird and the spikey yucca state flower. Lawmakers also envision a future lowrider museum in the car-crazed city Española, 20 miles north of Santa Fe.

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Jaramillo says the Upper Rio Grande Valley emerged as the cradle of lowrider car culture in the 1960s as Vietnam War mechanics brought their skills to bear on customized cars.

Lowrider enthusiasts parked vehicles near a statehouse entrance, including a vintage Pontiac Grand Prix in sparkling-fuchsia paint and an eyepopping, orange Cadillac with golden wire-rim wheels.

Democratic state Rep. Cynthia Borrego said lowriders are intertwined with memories of growing up in small-town New Mexico and cruising in cars on weekends during the 1970s and ’80s. In recent years, New Mexico cities including Albuquerque have rolled back ordinances that restricted “cruising,” by labeling it as a nuisance. Today, Borrego said, entire families embrace lowrider traditions.

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