If you ask the average American which election matters most, many will say the one for president. It’s the race with the biggest ads and the loudest coverage, and the media often makes it seem like a do or die situation. But if you actually trace where the rules of daily life get written, the answer looks different. A surprising amount of what touches your family, your schools, your business, and your community is decided not in Washington DC but in Salt Lake, your county courthouse, or your city hall.

 

What is federalism?

Federalism is the idea that power in the United States is split between separate, sovereign levels of government. The federal government handles a defined set of national responsibilities. State governments handle most of what isn’t reserved to the federal level. Local governments handle what state law lets them handle, which varies a lot from state to state. This is different from the way a lot of other countries operate. 

The Constitution sets the basic frame. The federal government gets specific enumerated powers like regulating interstate commerce, coining money, maintaining a military, conducting foreign policy, and enforcing constitutional rights. The Tenth Amendment hands everything else to the states, or to the people directly. The states, in turn, set the rules under which counties, cities, and special districts operate.

In practice, sometimes things are more complicated. Federal funding can come with strings that allow the federal government to push agendas on the states. Federal courts can also override state laws when constitutional rights are at stake. Additionally, only state governments are in the constitution, meaning that municipal governments can be very regulated by the state, depending on the state constitution.

 

What gets decided at the federal level

Some things only the federal government does, and only federal elections affect them. The list includes:

• Foreign policy and treaties

• The military and national defense

• Immigration and naturalization

• Tariffs and international trade

• The currency

• Federal taxes

• Federal courts, including the Supreme Court

• Federal civil rights enforcement

• Social Security and Medicare

• Interstate regulation of major industries like aviation, banking, and telecommunications

• Management of federal public lands, which in Utah is major

Presidential and congressional elections decide the people who control these. If your top issues are immigration policy, federal taxes, foreign affairs, or who sits on the Supreme Court, federal elections are where you weigh in and if you have concerns, you should call your Congressmen or Senators. 

 

What gets decided at the state level in Utah

The states control everything else but states decide what is handled by the state legislature, executive branch, county, and municipal levels, depending on their own constitution. In Utah, the state regulates: 

• Public K through 12 education standards and most of its funding

• State universities and community colleges

• Most criminal law and the courts that enforce it

• Family law, including marriage, divorce, and custody

• Most property law and most contract law

• State income tax and state sales tax

• Driver’s licenses and motor vehicle rules

• Most professional licensing, from doctors to barbers to general contractors

• Insurance regulation

• Water rights, which in Utah are administered by the state and matter more than in most places

• Liquor sales, which the state runs through the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services

• State highways

• The Utah Transit Authority and the Inland Port

• Most environmental policy that is not federally preempted, including air quality enforcement

• Abortion policy and other questions returned to the states by federal courts

These are legislated in different ways by the governor, the state legislators, the attorney general and other state offices. They are elected in even years like the presidential and midterm elections but often have less votes than higher offices so each vote carries more weight. 

 

What gets decided locally

Below the state sits another layer, and it’s the one closest to your front door. At the city, county, and district level:

• Local zoning and what can be built next to your house

• The police department and the fire department in your city

• Emergency response and ambulance service

• Local roads, sidewalks, and snow removal

• Culinary water and sewer service

• Garbage and recycling pickup

• Local parks and recreation

• Public libraries

• The day-to-day operations of your school district, including hiring superintendents, setting boundaries, approving curriculum within the state framework, and managing the district budget

• City and county general budgets

These elections often run in odd-numbered years, with single-digit turnout in some races. They are also the elections most likely to be decided by a few hundred votes, sometimes a few dozen, which means your vote is extremely important. 

 

State versus municipal in Utah

The split between what the state decides and what cities, counties, and special districts decide is where a lot of Utahns get confused. Property taxes are a useful place to see how it actually works.

The state of Utah sets the overarching framework and guidelines. Utah’s Truth in Taxation law, passed by the Legislature in 1985, requires that any local taxing entity that wants to bring in more property tax revenue than the prior year, must hold a public hearing and formally adopt the higher rate. The state defines how property is assessed, how appeals work, and what exemptions exist, including the primary residence exemption but doesn’t actually collect any property tax itself. 

The actual rates are set locally, meaning your property tax bill is the sum of separate rates levied by several different overlapping local entities like the city, county, and school district. If they want to change the tax rate, they must hold a Truth in Taxation hearing. 

The same logic applies elsewhere. Zoning is local, but the state sets the ground rules cities have to follow, and the Legislature periodically preempts local control on specific issues like short-term rentals and accessory dwelling units. Education funding mostly comes from the state, but how it gets spent inside a district is mostly a local school board decision. Police are municipal, but state law defines what police can and can’t do. Roads in your neighborhood are local, but the highway running through town is the state’s.

 

Is the federal level still important?

Of course. Federal elections decide huge questions, and dismissing them completely would be a mistake. Supreme Court appointments (decided by the president) can reshape the legal landscape for a generation. Federal policy on taxes, immigration, public lands, and national security touches every state, and in Utah’s case, federal land management decisions affect more than half the territory of the state.

Voters definitely shouldn’t ignore Washington but there’s value in knowing that presidential elections aren’t the only ones that matter. 

 

How to get involved

Find out who currently represents you at the state level, both in the Utah House of Representatives and the Utah Senate. Find out who sits on your city council, your county commission, your school board, and any special district board that taxes your property. Some of those elections are happening this year and some are happening next year. 

Read the impactful bills moving through the State Legislature, starting from mid January to the beginning of March. Show up to a committee hearing and speak on bills you feel strongly about. Attend a city council meeting when something on the agenda matters to you. The lawmakers will only know your opinion if you tell them.  

Federalism works best when people pay attention at every level it operates on. The federal government will keep getting most of the coverage but the state and local governments will keep making most of the decisions that actually affect your life. The voters who understand that gap are the ones quietly shaping the country.