Miranda Jones Cox, WFRC’s government‑affairs lead, told the Regional Growth Committee on Jan. 16 that lawmakers are entering the 2025 session with limited new revenues and a focus on tax cuts, housing, higher‑education reform and energy issues — a context that will shape transportation and land‑use proposals.

“Senator Jerry Stevenson … has said this is a socks‑and‑underwear year,” Miranda said, summarizing budget expectations and advising committee members that large new appropriations are unlikely in the coming session. She noted, however, that substantial transportation investments have been approved in recent years — an approximate total staff referenced of roughly $5 billion in multimodal investments over the last four years — so ongoing programs remain active.

Miranda outlined WFRC’s role as threefold: serve as a technical expert for lawmakers, convene partners and advocate for appropriations and policies that advance Wasatch Choice and the Unified Transportation Plan. She listed several policy topics committee members should monitor: station‑area planning follow‑ups, proposed technical changes to Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zones (HTRZs) and First‑Home Investment Zones, active transportation funding, and a slate of housing bills and condo‑related measures arising from the Commission on Housing Affordability.

She said WFRC will publish weekly session updates, maintain a bill tracker with staff positions and a separate appropriations tracker, and will brief committee members as bills move. The committee was told that members of Congress and incoming federal officials had been invited to next week’s Council meeting for a federal funding update.

Ending: Miranda urged local officials to “get to know your legislators” and offered to provide one‑on‑one briefings and materials during session to help cities and counties weigh potential bills and appropriations.