New Utah flag gets OK from lawmakers, but foes promise fight against it
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- Utah’s proposed new flag, shown in a supplied rendering. The Utah House and Senate approved the final version of the bill creating the new flag on Thursday, March 2, 2023, and it was later signed by Gov. Spencer Cox.
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- One of three versions of Utah’s current state flag, all of them very similar. The banner would become Utah’s “historical” state flag if Gov. Spencer Cox signs a measure approved Thursday, March 2, 2023, creating a new state flag.
SALT LAKE CITY — You may have a new, more colorful Utah flag to shinny up your flagpole.
The Utah Senate approved legislation on Thursday creating a new state flag. The tricolor banner, featuring a mountain silhouette and a beehive in the middle, now awaits Gov. Spencer Cox’s signature to become law.
“I think that our citizens will embrace this flag and really be proud and fly it,” Rep. Jeffrey Stenquist, a Draper Republican, said Thursday ahead of the Utah House’s narrow 40-35 vote for the final version of the measure, Senate Bill 31. The Utah Senate subsequently approved the final version of the measure in a 19-9 vote.
Even so, the debate may not be completely over, even if the governor signs the measure into law. Presuming Cox backs the bill, the proposed replacement would become the new state flag on March 9, 2024, and the current one, dark blue with the state seal in the middle, would become the state’s “historical” state flag.
The Utah House vote Thursday was particularly close, and a member of a contingent of Utahns opposed to swapping the current flag out with the new one is promising a citizen-led effort to put the flag question to a vote of the public.
“Definitely not a mandate is how I feel about it,” said Chad Saunders of Stansbury Park, alluding to the close Utah House vote.
He said a group opposed to the new flag has already been coming together and that he will help push a drive to collect signatures on petitions to let citizens weigh in at the ballot box on S.B. 31, presuming Cox signs it into law. Utah law allows for such referendums, if those behind the drive get enough signatures — 130,000 to 150,000, Saunders thinks — from the required number of counties.
“It should be put up to the people. Let’s let Utahns decide what Utahns want,” Saunders said. If Saunders and other flag foes are successful, Utahns would be asked in a ballot question if S.B. 31 should remain intact or be repealed.
The debate over changing Utah’s flag has been a thorny one. Efforts started last year with a campaign to solicit ideas from the public, culminating with a proposal that got the final legislative OK on Thursday, with a few tweaks.
Proponents say a more distinctive flag will bolster pride among Utahns for their state.
Utah Rep. Mike Schultz, a Hooper Republican and the House sponsor of the measure, likes the seal on the current flag but said it is hard to distinguish. He ran it up a flagpole at his home “and it just didn’t look good so I decided to take it down and I haven’t put it back up,” Schultz said.
Stenquist hints at the proposed new flag becoming ubiquitous on shirts and other garb, as in other states with popular flags. “I will be proud to fly this flag and wear T-shirts and hats and whatever it is, things that you see in other states where they really do embrace their flag,” he said.
Saunders countered, saying the state has other successful marketing efforts it can point to in promoting the state, without changing the flag, like the Utah Life Elevated and Ski Utah campaigns. He doesn’t sense public support for creating a new state flag and worries those behind the initiative are doing so in a bid to create a legacy for themselves.
The campaign to come up with the new flag design cost “a couple hundred thousand” dollars, Schultz estimates.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with the correct date of when S.B 31 would take effect, if signed into law.