Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald
Heidi Balderree, state senator for Utah District 22, stands near the Traverse Mountain Outlets in Lehi on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023.
After former state Sen. Jake Anderegg announced he was retiring from serving Senate District 22, Heidi Balderree decided it was time for her to step in and advocate for her community and conservative policy, leading her to run a campaign for the open seat.
Balderree, a Saratoga Springs resident, won the Utah GOP special election to replace Anderegg earlier this month and now represents constituents within Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain and a small portion of Draper in the Utah Senate.
Before being chosen by Republican delegates to fill Anderegg’s seat, Balderree worked in policy reform, most recently working for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group. She left her position with the group shortly after being elected.
Some of the policy reform work she contributed to included advocating for Utah’s school choice bill that passed this year, which provides families with vouchers for private schools, and last year’s state income tax reduction.
Balderree and her family lived in Saratoga Springs for seven years before moving to California for work for more than four years. But the political environment of California and its more liberal policies led Balderree to return to Saratoga Springs, and, in total, she and her family have lived there for a combined 17 years.
She said she chose to return to the Beehive State because Utah, particularly her district, respects conservative values and “it feels like home.”
“If you want to start a business, (Utah) is a great place,” she said. “If you want to raise your family, it’s a great place, if you want to thrive economically.”
She also hopes to be a more conservative voice in the Senate and to support conservative legislation from representatives in the Utah House.
“It might have been harder to find a more conservative sponsor in the Senate and I’m happy to do that,” she said. “Because I feel like I’ll help add to that space and be a place where I can really collaborate with some of my colleagues to promote more conservative legislation.”
Education, transportation and scaling back taxes are some of the topics Balderre intends to address in the Legislature.
With the rapid growth being seen in her district, she said, transportation is a particular concern for people living in and moving to the area.
The new senator said she already has set up meetings with the Mountainland Association of Governments and Utah Transit Authority to discuss transportation issues in her district.
She said she supports public transit but is interested in privatizing the transit sector to improve transit and use taxpayer dollars elsewhere, but acknowledged that would take some time.
“I believe in free markets and I don’t think the government always does the best job like the private sector can,” she said.
Regarding education, Balderree said she’s currently looking at co-sponsoring legislation regarding “sexual conduct” in schools and transparency for parents.
“I think some parents just want to know what their kids have access to,” she said. She said she’s heard concerns from parents and grandparents who are worried kids are not being educated but rather “indoctrinated” and want schools to go back to “reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Housing is another key issue in the area and Balderree expressed her trust in the free market system to dictate how the housing market chooses to increase supply.
“Whether it’s high density, whether it’s tiny homes, whether it’s single-family dwelling units, what I would like to see is less heavy-handedness from the state and allowing people to dictate what needs to be built,” she said.
Balderree supports past work the Legislature has done to loosen restrictions on accessory dwelling units. She would also like to see the new first-time homebuyer program — which provides new homeowners with $20,000 if they are building new construction — be expanded to first-time homeowners who are buying existing homes.
Other legislation Balderree plans on supporting or running is an expansion to Utah’s “Lemonade Law,” which allows children to operate occasional businesses, like a lemonade stand, without being subject to regulation that other businesses face. Balderree said she wants to expand the law to include 18-year-olds who are still in high school.
Additionally, Balderree would “support anything” that would lower taxes for Utahns.
“I’m 100% supportive in (reducing taxes), particularly our income tax,” she said. “I’d like to see that get reduced further this year.”
Because Balderree was elected to replace Anderegg after his resignation, she’ll be filling out the end of his term, which ends next year, and already plans to run for reelection.
“There are things that I want to do, and it’ll take more than a year to do them,” she said.
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