By Robert Gherke | The Salt Lake Tribune

Gov. Spencer Cox put a stop to — or at least paused — Utah’s drive toward transacting business using gold.

The governor vetoed HB306, sponsored by Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, a bill that would have hired a company to set up a system that would enable the state to pay vendors using gold, if that’s how the vendors choose to be paid.

The payment system was envisioned as the next step along Utah’s road to gold. The state had already purchased about $60 million worth of gold as of the end of the legislative session under a bill Ivory sponsored last year and is on pace to put about $140 million of the state’s emergency funds into the precious metal.

This year Ivory wanted to set up the payment system under the Utah State Treasurer’s office to pave the way for gold to be used like a standard currency when transacting business with the state.

But Cox wrote in his veto letter late Thursday that hiring a vendor to build a system that is fully integrated into the state’s accounting system raises “significant problems that make HB306 operationally impracticable.”

Read more at sltrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.