Local News
Elected officials discuss North Utah County’s big issues
Rob Shelton | Lehi Free Press
Dozens of residents packed the American Fork Hospital conference room Saturday, February 28 for another round of “Pancakes and Politics,” where state lawmakers and a county commissioner fielded pointed questions on everything from Front Runner rail service to public infrastructure district abuses — and didn’t shy away from disagreeing with each other in the process.
Sen. Brady Brammer, Rep. Kay Christofferson, Sen. Heidi Balderree, state school board member Cindy Davis and Utah County Commissioner Skyler Beltran spent roughly 90 minutes working through a stack of audience questions. The forum is hosted each year by the American Fork Chamber of Commerce and was moderated by Joe Phelon.
Transportation: front runner, flyovers and the ‘last mile’ solutions
Transportation dominated the first half of the forum. Christofferson, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said lawmakers are pushing to double-track portions of the FrontRunner commuter rail line — a move that could cut wait times nearly in half.
“Right now, it’s an hour in off-peak times and 30 minutes in peak times,” Christofferson said. “We could cut that in half.”
Brammer painted a longer-range picture. He argued FrontRunner’s value will multiply as autonomous vehicle technology matures. This would solve what transit planners call the “last mile” problem: how to get riders from their front door to the nearest station.
“Autonomous driving solves a problem that no one has really been able to solve,” Brammer said. “If you have fleets of autonomous driving, they’re going to be local driving. You solve that last mile — but then FrontRunner becomes a key portion of that.”
Commissioner Beltran announced the county will launch an on-demand transit service, similar to Uber but with UTA-type fares. This service is planned to begin in August for Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs and North Lehi. Riders can hail a van via smartphone; trips to a FrontRunner station are unlimited distance for $3.
“There’s a lady in Eagle Mountain who posts on social media every day: ‘Can somebody give me a ride to work, and I’ll pay for your gas?’” Beltran said. “This system is perfect for her.”
The $5 million program, roughly the cost of a single fixed-route bus, will run 16 vans, half of them wheelchair accessible, Beltran said. He added the ridership data it generates will help planners decide where permanent bus routes make sense.
Separately, Brammer said he’s secured funding for an environmental study on a long-stalled flyover road connecting the Meadows area of American Fork to the local FrontRunner station. A project he said has been stuck in limbo for 15 years because it’s too large for city funding but too small for state attention.
Balderree pointed to legislation extending 2100 North in Lehi to Pony Express Boulevard and adding flex lanes to Pioneer Crossing. She said it should shave up to 18 minutes off peak commute times.
Housing: supply, satellite cities and state overreach
When asked how the legislature is addressing housing affordability, lawmakers offered strikingly different takes, and some candid self-criticism.
Brammer said forcing more density into existing cities has largely failed and suggested a different approach: state-funded infrastructure corridors into unincorporated land, with deed-restricted starter homes as the seed. Let new communities grow their own identities, he argued, rather than squeezing more people into places already straining.
“Our biggest wins on housing have been satellite cities — Herriman, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs,” he said. “The biggest losses were that we did not adequately plan for the infrastructure and roads to get to and from those cities.”
Balderree was direct about two bills that did pass: HB 68, which lets cities borrow state money at low rates to build sewer and water infrastructure for new subdivisions, and HB 184, which pushes cities toward smaller residential lot sizes.
“I didn’t vote for either of these,” she said flatly. “I prefer local control and I don’t like mandates.”
Christofferson highlighted a House resolution urging Congress to open federal lands adjacent to cities for development — an idea aligned with proposals from U.S. Sen. Mike Lee. The federal government controls roughly two-thirds of Utah’s land, Christofferson noted, leaving private ownership at around 20%.
Public infrastructure districts: transparency concerns mount
Audience questions touched on public infrastructure districts (PID), special taxing entities increasingly used to finance development. Lawmakers from both chambers offered largely critical assessments.
Brammer said he carried the only bill this session reining in PIDs, requiring them to hold public meetings within their own boundaries rather than, as had become common practice, at a law firm’s office miles away.
“What they were doing was they would set up a PID through a law firm and then hold their public meetings at the law firm — even though it was down in, like, Payson or somewhere else,” he said.
Balderree went further, calling out what she described as a structural conflict: developer-controlled boards can vote to fund expensive infrastructure projects knowing future homeowners, not yet present to object, will carry the tax bill for decades.
“The people who are actually going to pay the tax — the future residents — aren’t there yet to vote on the board or the debt,” Balderree said. “This is definitely taxation without representation.”
She said PIDs can increase a homeowner’s property tax bill by 20 to 50%, creating particular hardship for seniors on fixed incomes and making starter homes less affordable rather than more.
Utah County governance: Three commissioners or five?
The forum’s most animated exchange came over whether Utah County should expand from three at-large county commissioners to a larger, district-based body. Beltran and Brammer disagreed — politely, and by name.
Beltran acknowledged concerns about representation — noting he ran in part because no one from north of Pleasant Grove had served on the commission in roughly a century — but warned that moving to geographic districts could produce horse-trading and parochialism.
“In order to get everybody else [to vote for something], you’ve got to make sure they’re getting something in [their area], so their people are happy,” he said. “Are we spending more money than we probably should have in that scenario? Yeah, I do think that happens.”
He also pushed back hard on a mayor-council model, citing Salt Lake City’s $8 million mayoral office versus Utah County’s $1.1 million administrative arm. “The separation of powers [arguement], there’s three of us and we do control the budget, but we have eight other elected officials — I am not their boss.”
Brammer invoked Federalist Paper No. 70 — Alexander Hamilton’s argument against plural executives — and said the county has simply grown too large for three commissioners to adequately represent. He expressed support for geographic districts and separation of powers even at the cost of efficiency.
“We do believe in separation of powers, even at the expense of efficiency,” Brammer said. “I’ve never had anyone say: ‘You know what I’d like? Three CEOs, all over everything, and then a board of directors that’s the same three CEOs.’”
Balderree, who served on a good-governance advisory board, said the current three-member quorum structure creates a legal problem: two commissioners technically can’t discuss policy outside a public meeting. “That alone is the reason we need to change,” she said.
Christofferson said expanding to five members would be a reasonable first step and an easier transition than a wholesale restructuring. Davis — seated between the sparring parties — stayed quiet. “I think wisely, I shall say nothing,” she quipped.
Education: literacy scores, budget cuts and local control
Davis, finishing her eighth and final year on the State Board of Education, spent her closing remarks on reading scores and what she described as a misunderstood measurement problem.
Half of Utah students currently test below grade level, a number that has alarmed parents and generated headlines. But Davis urged context: state policy requires students to reach the upper tier of on-grade-level reading, not just the midpoint, before being scored as proficient. The legislature is now considering adjusting that benchmark.
“If you see more news stories and reading scores are changing again, just know that sometimes policy impacts the way that literacy scores come out,” she said.
On the budget, Davis said education’s base funding was trimmed by less than 1% after a 5% cut exercise lawmakers ran across all subcommittees. But additional spending added on top of the base produced a net increase of 2.7%. The weighted pupil unit, money that flows directly to local districts with no strings attached, went up by $4,870 per pupil.
“We actually came out on top,” she said.
Other bills: veterans, vaping and victim privacy
Balderree highlighted SB 90, a military licensing crosswalk bill she said has been in the works since her first legislative session three years ago. The measure gives the state’s professional licensing agency authority to convert military credentials directly into civilian licenses, removing what she called redundant and costly recertification requirements.
“The number one cause of suicide among our veterans is not PTSD, it is financial stress,” she said.
Brammer took credit for legislation banning prop betting, framing it as a gambling issue despite federal opposition, and for regulation limits on how much money can be loaded into the crypto ATMs to give fraud victims more time to come to their senses before handing over life savings.
He also touted bipartisan work with Sen. Jen Plum, a Democrat, producing what he described as the nation’s strongest laws on flavored vaping products. “Next year we’re going to do it to Zyn,” he added.
Balderree closed by describing SB 290, a victim and witness privacy bill inspired in part by the murder of University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey. The measure would limit what personal phone data can be handed to defense attorneys, routing sensitive material through a secure digital viewing room rather than handing over raw downloads.
“Now imagine that the cost of reporting a crime is that everything on your phone is going to be given to the defendant,” Balderree said.
This was the final Pancakes and Politics meeting for this 2026 legislative session. The legislative session is scheduled to end Friday, March 6.
