It's been a minute since the 2026 legislative session ended, which has been great for our collective blood pressure here in Utah.
But some of us are still noodling over what happened — like me, Emily Means, City Cast Salt Lake's executive producer and a former politics reporter. I'm obsessed with the drama that unfolded on the final night, when the Senate passed a bill after the midnight deadline and had to void the results.
That bill was HB 212, which FOX 13 reporter Ben Winslow coined the "Salt Lake County divorce bill." Lawmakers seem keen to revisit the idea in the future, so let's talk about this proposal that asks: Is Salt Lake County too big?
The Basics of the Bill
The TL;DR of this 352-line legislation is it provided a pathway for a group of cities to leave a county and form their own. Why would they want to do that? Maybe their politics don't align with county leadership; maybe they think they can offer better services to their residents.
Now, there's already a way for citizens to initiate a split, but HB 212 created a different process:
- The city councils of the cities that want to leave vote to do so. Their combined population needs to be at least one-third of the county's population, and they can't split a city with the proposed boundaries of the new county.
- Those cities fund a study to determine the cost of leaving and how the new county will do all the things it's required to do, like having a health department and a sheriff.
- In the next general election, if a majority of voters in both the "old" and "new" counties approve the split, it's official.
The bill specifically applies to counties with a population greater than one million residents. That means only Salt Lake County qualifies (at 1.2 million residents), though Utah County is inching closer with about 800,000.
The Salt Lake County Council voted to take a neutral stance on the bill. There was no public comment on it during its legislative hearings.
What’s the Right Size for a County?
Back to this question about Salt Lake County being too big. Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, sponsored the bill. During his presentations, he kept saying — and I'm paraphrasing here — that as government gets bigger, it moves further away from who it represents.
I called up Teuscher and asked what he meant by that.
" What happens is the county continues to grow and grow and provide certain services, and they don't get as much feedback from what people really want," he said. "It becomes this sort of invisible layer of government that doesn't have a very good check and isn't well connected to people."
Teuscher said now that there are "wall-to-wall" cities across Salt Lake, there's a lot of overlap between municipal and county services, like libraries, parks, and law enforcement. Fewer than 12,000 residents live in unincorporated areas, meaning they're not part of a city and Salt Lake County government is the only local government they have.
As far as a number, Teuscher said he couldn't give a "perfect answer for what the right size" is. According to an analysis of Census data by World Population Review, Salt Lake County is the 39th largest county in the U.S.
Mostly, Teuscher told me he hoped the bill could give cities "leverage" to challenge the county's role and how resources are allocated.
" I'm not even necessarily sold on the fact that we have to split Salt Lake County," he said. "But my fear is … that the county itself holds so tightly to those types of things that the only way that you might be able to start having a real conversation like that is by looking at splitting the county."
Who Wants To Leave?
Here's the burning question for me: What cities want to leave Salt Lake County? I asked Teuscher directly, and he said he's talked with some mayors about it, but he "[doesn't] think there are any cities that are willing to go on the record right now to say that."
However, the Salt Lake County Council meeting on Jan. 27, 2026 gives some clues. During a discussion about HB 212, Councilmember Sheldon Stewart, from the southwestern part of the valley, said, "There is a segment of our population, which I represent, that really has struggled, especially with Salt Lake City."
Stewart elaborated that it's not about political ideology but rather transit funding. He said there's "resentment" among cities in his area that feel their access to transit isn't as robust as Salt Lake City's for what they spend.
So, I emailed the mayors of the five cities that seemed most likely to be disgruntled — Herriman, South Jordan, West Jordan, Bluffdale, and Riverton.
All of them said essentially the same thing: They aren't involved in any discussions about splitting the county.
The strongest response came from Riverton Mayor Tish Buroker.
"I do not support, and would not consider, separating from Salt Lake County," she said. "One of the reasons the County is moving their offices from 2100 South to Midvale is to be more accessible to the southwest quadrant of the valley, which is appreciated. I look forward to continuing to work with Salt Lake County."
OK, zero-for-five on the most likely cities. So, I decided to go big and ask every municipal mayor in the county — all 23 of them — if they've discussed or considered leaving Salt Lake County.
I heard back from 17 of them by the time we published this story: Alta, Bluffdale, Draper, Herriman, Holladay, Kearns, Midvale, Millcreek, Murray, Riverton, Sandy, Salt Lake City, South Jordan, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville, West Jordan, and White City. Again, all of them told me they had not discussed or considered leaving Salt Lake County. Except Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski, who declined to comment. You can read all of the mayors' responses below.
Midvale Mayor Dustin Gettel mentioned the strength of the city's partnership with the county. But beyond that, he said the nuts and bolts of splitting "would make it extremely difficult to justify."
"Standing up a new county would come with significant costs to taxpayers, require rebuilding services and infrastructure that the county already provides effectively, and demand years of time and staff resources that our city would much rather invest in serving our residents," Gettel said. "It's just not something that makes sense for Midvale."
FYI, I asked Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson's office about the bill and if they were aware of any cities that wanted to leave. A spokesperson declined to comment, except to point to the County Council's neutral stance on the legislation.
What Happens Next?
HB 212 failed this session, but Teuscher said this is a long game for him. He introduced the bill in the 2025 general session and will likely bring it back next year. There's been whispers that the Legislature may revisit it in a special session, but Teuscher doesn't expect that.
" I think it's an important bill, but it is not an urgent bill," he said.
In the meantime, Salt Lakers will ponder: What's the proper size of a county government? Or maybe that's just what keeps nerds like me awake at night.
