The Asset and Investment Review Task Force was established by S.B. 323 (2025 General Session) and codified in Utah Code § 67-4-21 to conduct a comprehensive review of reserve levels and investment options available for those reserves across the state’s public entities, including the state, counties, cities, school districts, charter schools, and special districts. The task force was charged with: 1) evaluating the growth of reserve balances and the drivers behind that growth; 2) assessing whether statutory thresholds or best practices for reserves need to be updated; 3) examining economic outcomes of public funds investment, including trade-offs between placing money on deposit with local financial institutions to drive local economic activity versus investing in debt instruments per the Money Management Act; and 4) making recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee.
Key Findings
- Deposits and investments have increased across all public sectors.
Between 2019 and 2025, deposits and investments held by Utah’s public entities increased from $17.4 billion to $30.5 billion, a nominal change of $13.1 billion (75.3%). After adjusting for inflation, balances rose from $17.4 billion to $24.2 billion, a real change of $6.8 billion (39.1%). Over this same period, deposits and investments increased as follows:- The state grew from $4.4 billion to $14.6 billion in nominal terms (231.8%) and from $4.4 billion to $11.6 billion in real terms (163.6%).
- Counties and cities grew from $6.9 billion to $12.5 billion in nominal terms (81.2%) and from $6.9 billion to $9.9 billion in real terms (43.5%).
- Local Education Agencies (LEAs) grew from $3.5 billion to $5.7 billion in nominal terms (62.9%) and from $3.5 billion to $4.6 billion in real terms (31.4%).
- Special districts grew from $2.3 billion to $3.8 billion in nominal terms (65.2%) and from $2.3 billion to $3.0 billion in real terms (30.4%).
- Growth of reserves and revenue have outpaced population growth and inflation. Between 2019 and 2024, deposits and investments grew much faster than population and inflation, but did not outpace statewide revenue growth, which increased slightly more over the same period.
- Drivers of reserve growth are multifaceted, and continued reporting and analysis are necessary. Public entities pointed to pandemic-era federal transfers, stronger revenues, and higher interest earnings as key drivers of reserve growth, with delayed capital projects further allowing balances to accumulate. Conservative fiscal practices and credit rating considerations also played a role. However, these factors do not fully explain the scale of the statewide increases, highlighting the importance of ongoing reporting and analysis to better understand the underlying dynamics.
- Public funds are governed by a clear legal and reporting framework that may warrant targeted refinement. Utah’s Money Management Act and statutory fund-balance requirements establish how public entities manage and invest reserves, but rising balances and evolving fiscal conditions suggest that improvements to reporting clarity, such as enhancements to the Deposit and Investment (D&I) report, may be warranted. At the same time, because entities maintain reserves for many legitimate and varied reasons, the task force cautions against prescriptive statutory changes and recommends that any broader adjustments be considered carefully if elevated reserve levels persist.
- Modeling suggests meaningful economic benefits may be achievable when additional public deposits help expand Utah-based lending. Theoretical modeling suggests Utah’s community banks and credit unions could generate measurable economic gains if increased public deposits translate into additional loans to Utah households and businesses. Although the scale of these benefits depends on the degree of incremental in-state lending, the analysis shows a clear potential for positive outcomes, including benefits that could exceed the yield differential relative to higher-returning investment options. Utah’s longstanding fiduciary framework—safety → liquidity → yield—remains appropriate and continues to guide public-fund management. However, a limited, data-driven pilot program would allow policymakers to determine whether, under what circumstances, and to what extent, additional public deposits can be converted into new Utah loans and whether the resulting lending is associated with measurable local economic benefits.
Recommendations
While task force members did not agree with every concept examined throughout the final report, they reached unanimous consensus on the policy recommendations listed below and discussed in greater detail beginning on page 31 of the report.
- Continue to uphold Utah’s investment framework for public funds.
- Support and sustain Transparent Utah and the Governmental Asset & Investments Dashboard.
- Encourage continued refinement of Deposit and Investment (D&I) reporting and analytics.
- Study regulatory constraints and private-credit growth, and explore market-based ways to strengthen local lending.
- Authorize a limited, data-driven pilot on public deposits and local lending.
- Continue monitoring reserve trends and engaging public entities on persistent growth.
- Consider studying the potential effects of including investment yield in the certified property tax rate calculation.
Core Deliverables
- Asset and Investment Review Task Force Report. An analysis of statewide deposits and investments held by Utah’s public entities, documenting the scale and growth of reserves from 2019-2025, examining how growth compares to population and revenue trends, identifying the primary drivers behind rising balances, and assessing the legal and reporting framework governing public funds. The report also evaluates whether current statutory structures remain appropriate given elevated reserves and reviews the potential, yet unproven, local economic effects of placing additional public deposits in banks operating in Utah.
- Public Entity Survey. Responses from more than 250 entities describing reserve policies, investment practices, and rationale for current balances.
- Governmental Asset & Investments Dashboard. The Office of State Auditor created an interactive dashboard integrating D&I Reports, Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs), and responses from a statewide public-entity survey. The data explorer provides entity-level and statewide visualizations of unrestricted cash, cash reserves, reserve ratios, and survey-derived insights, offering a transparent and searchable tool to support fiscal oversight and analysis.
- Investment Study. An independent study conducted by the University of Chicago and Tur Partners evaluating how a reallocation of public deposits into banks and credit unions operating in Utah could affect local lending and economic activity under varying assumptions, including conversion rates of deposits into Utah loans, collateral requirements, and interest-rate differentials. The primary recommendation is to conduct a pilot program that measures the impact of placing state cash reserve deposits with local financial institutions willing to provide data on local lending activity resulting from those deposits.
- Bank Deposits Economic Dashboard. The Bank Deposits Economic Dashboard is an interactive tool that allows users to adjust key assumptions—such as the share of loan activity that remains in Utah, the interest-rate differential, and the marginal product of capital—and observe how those inputs might affect projected economic impacts. By varying these parameters, the dashboard theorizes the conditions under which additional bank-based lending might produce local economic benefits.
Task Force Members
Treasurer Marlo Oaks, CFA, CAIA
State Treasurer of Utah
Auditor Tina Cannon
State Auditor of Utah
Senator Keven Stratton
Utah Senate
Representative Val Peterson
Utah House of Representatives
Daniel Gardiner
Utah Department of Financial Institutions
Howard Headlee
Utah Bankers Association
Rusty Cannon
Utah Association of Credit Unions
Billy Hesterman
Utah Taxpayers Association
Paul Jerome, West Jordan Deputy City Manager
Utah League of Cities & Towns
Kim Jackson, Utah County Treasurer
Utah Association of Counties
LeGrand Bitter
Utah Association of Special Districts
Advisory Task Force Members
Scott Jones
Utah State Board of Education
Todd Hauber, Granite School District
Utah Association of School Business Officials