Written by: Shawn Teigen
How will the 2015 Utah Legislature’s increases on gas and property taxes affect Utahns? It may bump our respective state and local tax burdens ranking up just a bit. While in 2012 Utah saw the lowest tax burden that we have in at least 20 years, a new analysis by Utah Foundation’s Christopher Collard shows that downward trend may stabilize or reverse by 2016 and 2017. This table is simply an estimate. The 2016 data … Continued
Written by: Stephen Hershey Kroes
For many years, Utah Foundation has written about the decline in Utah’s investment in K-12 education. In the 1990s, it was common to hear about Utah’s “education paradox” – a term Utah Foundation coined to describe how a very high funding effort could yield a small amount per pupil. In 1995, for example, the proportion of income that Utahns paid for public schools ranked seventh highest in the nation, yet per-pupil funding was last in … Continued
Written by: Dan Bammes
Utah Foundation President Steve Kroes appeared on a panel at the presentation of this year’s Economic Report to Governor with economist Carrie Mayne from the Utah Department of Workforce Services Each year, the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah publishes an Economic Report to the Governor. The 2015 report was presented on Friday, January 9th to a breakfast meeting of business, state and community leaders at the Marriott City Center … Continued
Written by: Christopher Collard
The governor recently announced an additional $638 million in revenues for the coming fiscal year. This total is made up of 2014 and 2015 revenue growth above projections and some funds that were not used in previous years. Some attribute the surplus to a spike in economic growth. While Utah’s economy is outperforming the rest of the nation there might other factors behind the surplus. To begin with, whether Utah brings in revenue above predictions … Continued
Written by: Christopher Collard
Utah was recently recognized in a Pew Charitable Trusts report for exemplary budgeting practices. Namely, Utah does a good job at forecasting tax revenue and dealing with revenue volatility. A key difficulty in the budgeting process lies in forecasting tax revenue: Business cycles are unpredictable and have a large effect on the amount of money the state collects through taxes. Recessions decrease revenue from sales tax and income tax. Swings in specific industries can have … Continued