October 22, 2022

"According to the Mayo Clinic, social media is distracting teens, disrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, and unrealistic views of other lives and peer pressure." Governor Cox

ANNOUNCER: "PBS Utah" presents "The Governor's Monthly News Conference, an exchange between Utah reporters and Governor Spencer Cox.

GOVERNOR COX: Good morning, everyone, welcome back. It's great to see you all. Thanks for joining us today. Let me begin by just sharing some of the events that we've had over the past few days. As some of you know, we've been spending those days hosting meetings with the National Governor's Association here in Salt Lake City and discussing youth mental health. 

The chair of the National Governor's Association, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, was here with us, and it's always great and I believe refreshing to see Republicans and Democrats working together on issues that are important to the citizens of our state and those across the country. Representatives from New Jersey, Arkansas, New Mexico, Minnesota, and other states gathered here in Salt Lake City. I should mention Alabama was here as well.

We had researchers, clinicians, public health experts, and others who were here talking about ways that we can work to prevent suicide and improve mental health outcomes, make our young people strong and resilient. We heard firsthand accounts from those who have navigated mental health challenges, and we learned more about maternal and infant health from our First Ladies Abby Cox and Tammy Murphy.

These incredibly important policy sessions will continue over the next year in different states all across the country, and I'm grateful that we could bring them to Utah to discuss some of the solutions that we are working on here and to learn from our counterparts across the nation. 

The forum reaffirmed what I told parents and teachers earlier this week, that we all need to talk to our young people about their mental health and we need to be honest about the negative effects that social media platforms and cell phones are having on young people, especially young women.

According to the Mayo Clinic, social media is distracting teens, disrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, and unrealistic views of other lives and peer pressure. There are several other studies that have showed that increased screen time with phones leads to significantly reduced outcomes, including major rises since 2010 in anxiety, depression, and self-harm. Again, with the greatest rises happening with young women. 

When it comes to protecting our children and teens, everything should be on the table. And as I mentioned earlier this week, we really want to work to make our schools phone-free zones as much as possible, create better learning environment for our students and help teachers do their job more effectively.

We want to hold social media companies more accountable. We're working with legislators on what that might look like to create better parental controls and get parental permission when setting up accounts for minors. And as adults, we need to work harder to model good behavior.

A report out of the Wheatley Institute at BYU that shows that some of the problem may be coming from parents who are spending too much time on social media as kids have to compete for their parents' attention. So those are issues that we're working on, and we'll continue to work on.

Before we go to questions, just a quick note on elections. Ballots have been or are being mailed out in counties all across the state. Many of you received your ballots yesterday. I want to assure you that Lieutenant Governor Henderson and county election officials across the state have worked very hard to ensure our elections are safe and secure, and they are safe and secure.

We were heartened by recent poll that showed a significant increase in Utahans' faith in elections. 89% believe that our elections are secure, and we're going to work to continue to increase that number. And of course, most importantly, make sure that our elections are secure.

So, if you're a registered voter, please mail your ballot or carry your ballot to your county clerk or go to the polls on election day, because your vote matters. We want to make sure everybody who is eligible gets a chance to vote in this very important election. 

And with that, happy to take some questions.

BEN WINSLOW, FOX 13 NEWS: Governor, on your push for social media, what kind of legislation are you envisioning and how do you not run afoul of intruding upon maybe free speech rights, things like that? The social media companies certainly raised their hackles. 

GOVERNOR COX: You've very eloquently expressed the difficulty with legislation. And so, what legislation do I envision? I envision legislation that does enable parents and families to have more opportunities to keep their kids safe. There is nothing in the First Amendment that prevents that. I vetoed a social media bill because I did think it violated the First Amendment.

So, I'm obviously anxious in protecting the First Amendment, but I believe that there is space in between there. We don't have any details on what that is yet, but we're certainly looking at that piece. It really is around focusing on minors. That's where the First Amendment gives, doesn't take any authority away from government in protecting minors and empowering families. That's what I'm most interested in, is making it easier for families to make those decisions.

Look, ultimately, if parents in conjunction with their youth decide that they want to open cell phones up and give them more screen time, that's certainly their prerogative. But companies right now are using data collected from minors and algorithms that I believe are very harmful to minors. 

Again, I don't just believe that. It turns out that social media companies also believe that because as we've seen, some leaks of memos from companies like Facebook and their subsidiary Instagram have shown that even they know and admit that their algorithms, their platforms are causing harm. And so, giving, again, making sure that if we're going to err on this one, that we're erring on the side of protecting children. That makes sense to me. And I think the Supreme Court would agree.

BEN WINSLOW, FOX 13 NEWS: How do you enforce the phone-free zones in schools, though? 

GOVERNOR COX: Sure, yeah. So, look, this isn't like rocket science. There are lots of schools doing this already. I saw that there was some hackles raised over this one. There are schools all across the country and some schools in Utah that do this already. And it's very simple. When you come into the classroom, you put your phone in a cubby, a box of some sort right there so that you can get it if you need it. If there's an emergency, the phone's available.

But it's a way to have children, it turns out, the researchers that we've talked to have said even if you're not looking at your phone, even if you turn your phone off, if it's in your pocket or on your person, and again, this is for adults too, there's just this subconscious almost connection to that device where you're always thinking, "Oh, I should probably check that."

But having it separated even by just a few feet can make a big difference in learning outcomes. And again, hopefully, looking at the data, in mental health outcomes as well. I mentioned several weeks ago, I got away from my phone for the first time in like 14 years for three days. I was able to be out with no connection. And it was marvelous. And I realized, for my own sake, I needed to do more of that. And I'm hoping more families will start to do that.

I have a friend that kind of as a baseline says at least one hour a day, at least one day a month, and at least one week a year where you just take that phone away from ourselves and that that will help with our mental health. So, I'm hopeful that we can do more around that. I will also say that we're working and hoping to get some funding for some PSA campaigns helping to inform families of the dangers of social media.

We've been able to do this with smoking and teenagers. We've been able to do it with drugs and alcohol campaigns where we've seen significant reductions in harmful behavior amongst teens because we shined a spotlight on it 

If I shared these numbers that we have right now, the dangers of social media and phones, what's happened since 2010, and those were related to cancer, those were related to some virus, if they were related to smoking or something else, this would be all we talked about. And because it's social media and because it's so ubiquitous, I don't think we talk enough about it. So, we're going to try to shine a brighter light on that.

DANIEL WOODRUFF, KUTV: Governor, on elections, we've had a number of debates recently sponsored by the Utah Debate Commission. This cycle, only one incumbent skipped, Burgess Owens. Your thoughts on him skipping, one, but two, do you think the Commission is positioned to be able to fill this role in the years ahead? There's been it seems like a lot of discussion and controversy around them this year with a lot of the Republicans in the primary cycle choosing not to take part in their events.

GOVERNOR COX: Well, look, debates have become a debate, I guess, all across the country. There's a democratic governor in Arizona who's a candidate for governor who refuses to debate. We've got Republicans, one in our state and other states that are refusing to debate. I think it's appropriate to talk about the value of these debates.

Certainly, the Lincoln-Douglass debates are kind of the high watermark, I think, when it comes to actual substantive debating. And it's probably been downhill ever since then. I don't know, I haven't watched any of the debates yet this year. I've got a couple of them recorded. I need to, maybe on Saturday, I'll get a chance to go back and watch them.

I can tell you, though, what I am seeing over the past few years that there isn't much substance to debates. I don't know, I haven't seen debates where it changes anyone's mind. I want to say up front, I'm a believer in debates. I think debating ideas is a good thing. I think just attacking each other probably doesn't add to the collective wisdom of voters and doesn't make us any better as a nation.

I'll speak to my own debate experience. I had an opportunity to debate my democratic opponent when I ran for office in 2020. We had a debate put on by the Debate Commission. I thought it was very well done, I thought it was fair. And I have to give credit to my opponent for this, Chris Peterson, who did bring ideas. And we debated those ideas. And we agreed in some places, we disagreed in others. And I think there was a contrast, but I think it was a healthy debate.

I will also tell you that the first presidential debate of the last cycle was run right after ours, so back-to-back. And it was interesting. Of course, we were finishing up and leaving, so I didn't get to see the first part of that debate, but my phone started blowing up and it was people saying, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe the difference between your debate and this presidential debate that we're watching, which was kind of a circus." 

And so, I don't know if there's a way to kind of pivot and bring back debates to a place where it is a conversation about ideas. Maybe just with the toxic nature of where we are, it's too difficult to do that. And so, I think it's fair to say, is there value in that? And I don't know the answer, but I do like that we have a bipartisan commission.

We have Republicans and Democrats that sit on that commission, and the idea is to try to make it as fair as possible. But I suspect, again, just from some of the feedback I've gotten from people who have watched the debates that there was a lack of substance in many of them. And I don't know how to fix that. I really don't have a good idea. But Republicans and Democrats all across the country are skipping them, so maybe we should talk more about the value that they add.

JORDAN BURROWS, ABC4NEWS: Governor Cox, along those lines, you've always been talking about civility and making sure that both sides talk to one another. I don't know if you've watched the Mike Lee, Evan McMullin debate-

GOVERNOR COX: I have not yet. I have it recorded, but I've not watched it. But please.

JORDAN BURROWS, ABC4NEWS: It's safe to say it was a more fiery debate and included what you were talking about about how they might have attacked each other's character more so than gotten to the substantive measures that you said need to be talked about. Would you have, obviously you didn't watch that, but with that in mind, do you advise people to make sure that they're getting their points across? Do you seek advice for McMullin or Lee to make sure that debates go okay? Because the crowd would interrupt a lot, too.

GOVERNOR COX: Okay, neither of them asked me for any advice. I'm certainly not a professional debater, I don't pretend to be great at it. It's hard, I will tell you that. Anybody who has had to debate when those cameras come on and you've got a shot clock in front of you and you have to get your answer out there and try to make your points, it's incredibly difficult. It's a really different skill.

But I have, whenever I talk to people, I always try to tell them, "Look, get your positive vision out there." I do think people are hungry for anything positive and a positive vision. It is fair to bring up our opponent's records or their ideas to compare and contrast what we believe and what they do or what they voted on, all of that is fair game. I'm not saying we should just walk on pins and needles and never point out a disagreement. But if that's all we're doing, if we're only running against the other person instead of running for what we stand for, then that just doesn't offer a compelling vision to people.

So that's my advice if anybody ever asks for it. It's hey, make sure you tell people what you believe in and what you stand for and give them something to believe in as well instead of just being fearful of your opponent or trying to tear your opponent down.

MARCOS ANDRADE, TELEMUNDO UTAH: Governor Cox, we have recently seen that governors in other states take action to fly or bus migrants out of their borders in what they say is an effort to relieve overwhelmed communities. I am wondering the extent to which you think that this type of action and messaging can have an impact in the morale of migrant communities. And I would also like to know, what is driving you to conduct the Latino Town Hall that you are participating in later this month?

GOVERNOR COX: Sure, thank you for question, Marcos. I'll answer the second one first, and that is that we have a very large Latino population here in our state. It is the largest multicultural population that we have. About 16% last time I looked at the numbers and growing.

We have some incredible leaders there.

Sometimes I know they feel a little disconnected from government, and we've had that conversation before. And I want to make sure that the citizens of Utah, no matter what their background is, that they feel like they are a part of Utah. And we are so lucky and blessed to have them here adding to the fabric of our community. They're helping with our very serious employment needs right now. They make us better. And so, this was an opportunity, I did one of these when I was lieutenant governor, this is my first opportunity to do one as governor, and I've said from the very beginning that I really do try to work hard.

Look, I'm a conservative Republican. I don't shy away from that. But as Governor, my job is to represent everyone in the state, not just conservative Republicans. And I also happen to believe that, from the time I lived in Mexico, that many more of our Latinos share the same values that I do and would make wonderful Republicans. And so, I'm going to do everything I can to reach out to them and show them that there's room for them in my party as well. But whether they're part of my party or not, I want to connect with them and make sure that they understand that the government represents them as well. So that's why I'm doing that.

As far the busing of migrants and those other issues that are up there, look, we have got to fix immigration in this country. It is absolutely maddening to me that politicians in Washington, D.C. have put their own self-interest ahead of solving what is the easiest of the most controversial problems in our nation to solve. If you were to list the most 10 controversial issues in our country this is the one that has by far the most bipartisan support. And I will continue to shout that from the rooftops.

When I get the chance to serve on as chair of the National Governor's Association next year, I'm going to be talking to other governors about how we can push Washington, D.C. to do this.

When I was in Washington, D.C., I met with the president. All of the governors were there. I got to ask the first question, and it was a question about immigration. By the way, he said he was going to call me later that week. He still hasn't called, so I'm still waiting for that. But it's very easy. Everyone wants to secure the border, Republicans and Democrats believe we have to secure the border.

We have to slow down illegal immigration into our country. But we also have to fix legal immigration. And you can do both of those things. We can do both of those things. Certainly, my governors, my fellow governors who are governors along the border, pay a much heavier burden for our country's inability to fix immigration. They carry an enormous burden, and they deserve more support. If we're not going to fix it, then we all have to be involved in helping them. 

Now, whether or not busing, flying migrants, obviously, I don't think we should be doing that without their understanding of where they're going. I don't know exactly what happened with all of that. I believe in good policy and getting attention. And so, this is something we should all be working together on and trying to figure out. But some of those states that don't have migrants coming in need to bear some of that cost, some of that burden. And maybe if they did, maybe their senators would be much more interested in actually solving the problem.

KIM BOJORQUEZ, AXIOS: Governor, Utah seems to be this GOP anomaly when it comes to expressing confidence in our election systems and being a proponent of mail-in voting. Why do you think that is? And do you plan to use your leadership role on the National Governor's Association to show your Republican colleagues that elections can be conducted fairly and securely?

GOVERNOR COX: We've been doing that. I was lieutenant governor, and of course, in Utah, lieutenant governors oversee elections. And so, for the past, before I became governor for seven-and-a-half years, I worked tirelessly to improve elections here in Utah but also to work with my colleagues across the country. And will continue to do that. Lieutenant Governor Henderson is doing that right now with her colleagues.

So, the first question is, why do I think Utah is a little bit of an anomaly in the support that we have for the way that we conduct elections? And I think it's because we did it the right way. We started very, very slowly. If you look back, this is not something we did overnight, it's not something we did over a year, it's something we did over a decade. And that is that we worked with counties, we worked with county clerks, we worked with everyone who had issues to implement this very slowly. And we did it in such a way that we were constantly improving security measures along the way to keep it safe. It is not correct to say that all vote-by-mail is the same in every state.

But it is correct to say that if you do it the right way and you put the right security measures in place, you can make it every bit as secure as election day voting. And that's we have worked hard to do. And every year we're improving those. Every year there is an elections bill that the lieutenant governor's office supports, with the legislature taking the lead, and we add security measures. This past year, we put video monitoring equipment on all of our drop boxes just to make sure that those drop boxes are never tampered with. And those are good things.

So why do I think in some areas that it has not been as successful? Well, because in many of those states, they did it overnight. Many of them did it because of COVID and then just did it very quickly. And so this is something that their citizenry has not had an opportunity to vette, to kind of get used to. We rolled it out, it was voluntary, one county at a time. And people started to see the benefits of it and actually started demanding it.

So, we took a very different approach, and we are always advising other states. We believe that we're a model state when it comes to vote-by-mail. We're helping them improve their safety and security measures so that they can install that kind of trust in their citizenry as well.

JORDAN BURROWS, ABC4NEWS: Governor Cox, you talked a lot about inflation in these monthly press conferences. With where we're at now with the national government, where would you rank how Utah's economy is working as to where the national government is at with inflation, too?

GOVERNOR COX: Inflation is a problem all across the country. I mean, it is an issue everywhere, there's no question. There's not a state out there that has been able to avoid significant inflation. Whether we're within a point or two, it's tough for everyone. A couple of things that we've been able to do.

So first of all you asked how is our economy doing. Our economy is doing better than any other state or as well as any other state. I would say, not me, but economists would tell you that Utah and Idaho have the two best economies right now in the country.

Certainly, there are only about, I haven't seen the latest numbers, but still probably 20 or less states that have more jobs now than they had when the pandemic started. We are number one. Idaho, we've been one and two tied. I think we're at like 6 1/2% both of us last time I was able to see that. That's 6 1/2% growth above where we were in March of 2020 when the pandemic started.

So again, to put that in perspective, we still have over half the states in this country that have less jobs now than they had in March of 2020 and we're 6% above, 6 1/2% above where we were when that started. So, whatever is happening, if we are having a recession, whether it's a mild recession, a deep recession, over the next year, the economists are telling us that Utah is well positioned to ride out whatever that is.

We have also issued over the past two years combined the largest tax cuts in Utah's history. I don't know the exact numbers, but probably 350 million plus. I can look that up and get back to you. And I suspect that we will have another, in fact, I'm going to advocate for another tax cut this year. We'll see exactly what those numbers look like.

We're just going through the budget process now. That helps our families, again, gives them more money in their pockets to help battle this inflation, or stagflation, that we seem to be, that we are experiencing right now. There are a couple of other things that I'm going to be talking about in the next few weeks that I would like to see, but we'll get back to you as we get ready to roll out our budget.

JORDAN BURROWS, ABC4NEWS: And the second part of that, how do you think Biden and his administration is doing now as they've been fighting this inflation?

GOVERNOR COX: Not great, I don't know what they've done to fight inflation, I've yet to see anything. I mean, they passed an Inflation Reduction Act that added to inflation. You can call it an Inflation Reduction Act, but there's not, I don't think there's a rational person out there who actually thinks that it decreased inflation or it will decrease inflation. If you can tell me what the Biden administration has done to decrease inflation, it would be the first I've heard of anything.

DANIEL WOODRUFF, KUTV: Governor, the last session there was criticism about the tax cut in terms of more money not going to affordable housing, specifically. I know you had proposed more money than was given. But my question is, is a tax cut the wisest use of money to help families or should it go toward affordable housing initiatives and other efforts like that?

GOVERNOR COX: Well, the good news is that we can do both, and we did both last year. Now, yes, I wanted more, but we got more than we've ever gotten before. So, I'm not going to quibble with $55 million. That was a huge, huge increase. And a major impact, by the way. We're so excited as we're working with municipalities on that deeply affordable housing that that $55 million is going to translate into.

There's a multiplier effect with that and we're some amazing projects. We will be working on similar numbers this year, I believe. And I believe that we have the funds to do that because our economy is doing so well. That's the great, that's why you work so hard to have a good economy, so that we can do these types of things. So, I think we can have a tax cut helping families with inflationary pressures and we can still add significant investments into deeply affordable housing, because we do need more.

KATIE MCKELLAR, DESERET NEWS: Governor, are there any additional policy decisions you'd like the legislature to tackle next year to deal with Utah's affordability crisis?

GOVERNOR COX: Yes, yeah. Some of you have followed the Unified Economic Opportunity Commission. And I chair that together with the senate president and the speaker of the house. And one of our major focus areas is reducing the cost of housing in this state.

It is very, very simply, I will never tire of saying it, it is supply and demand. This is economics 101. We have more demand than supply, and anytime that happens, the price of housing is going to go up. And Katie, you've reported on this often, you shared on social media, we are starting to see the price of housing come down here. But the reason that is happening is not, it's because the Fed has decided that we're going to not increase supply, but we're going to artificially destroy demand. And they're artificially destroying demand by increasing the interest rate, making it harder to get money to buy a house.

So even though the price of housing is going down, your monthly payment on buying a house is not going down because the interest rates are so much higher than they were just six months ago. So, I don't believe that artificially destroying demand is a great way to improve housing outcomes in Utah. And so, what do we have to do?

Well, it's very simple, we have to increase supply. And we have some policy proposals out there. We are working with the League of Cities and Towns, because ultimately much of that authority when it comes to permitting new uses happens with the League of Cities and Towns. So, we're not there yet on final proposals, but we are close, and I suspect within the next month, month-and-a-half, you're going to see some very major and significant proposals that will help us increase the supply of housing in our state.

REPORTER: That's all the time we have for the broadcast portion of this news conference. Thank you so much for watching and we will see you back here next month.

ANNOUNCER:  This has been "The Governor's Monthly News Conference." For transcripts, full video, and more information, visit PBSUtah.org/governor.

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