The Utah Foundation was approached by Hispanic business, civil and elected leaders who asked the organization to provide key data related to Utah’s Hispanic and Latino population. The project, which received support from the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, highlighted disparities and challenges the community faces. Some of the data in the 2021 report includes: Hispanic Utahns tend to have poorer educational outcomes and far lower educational attainment when compared to all Utahns, in general. … Continued
Utahns regularly pack public meetings to speak their mind on tax reform. Or expanding Medicaid. Or big housing developments planned for their neighborhoods. More recently, they’ve gathered to express their views on face masks and vaccines. If it seems like Utahns attend more public meetings than those in other states, it is because they do. A new Utah Foundation study has the state ranked third in the nation in public meeting participation. “It is indicative … Continued
Utah Foundation Releases Citizen Engagement Report A new report from the Utah Foundation shows voter turnout has improved in Utah since 2006. But compared to the rest of the country, it was still on the low end in the 2020 presidential election. The Civic Engagement Report released Tuesday looked at how Utahns engage with their government. It measured voter turnout, public meeting attendance and the number of advocacy organizations. The state trails the nationwide rate … Continued
Today, the Utah Foundation launches its new Utah Social Capital Series with The Measure of a Citizen: Civic Engagement in Utah. This first installment in the series focuses on civic engagement. It presents data and analysis on three key measures: voter turnout; citizen attendance at public meetings; and the number of advocacy organizations. It looks at Utah’s performance on these measures over time, comparing the Beehive State both to the seven other Mountain States and … Continued
Mending the Net: Exploring Homeless Service Gaps in Salt Lake County is a new report released by the Utah Foundation that looks at gaps in services for the homeless in Salt Lake County. RadioACTive spoke with Jesus Valero, the report’s author and a professor of political science at the University of Utah, and Shawn Teigen, the Foundation’s Research Director.
A couple of years back, a mental health professional asked me to sit down with him. He had noticed a big uptick in his teen patients coming in with an acute sense of foreboding. Among the issues that seemed to trouble them most were apocalyptic worries about global climate change ruining their future. But it wasn’t the topic that alarmed the therapist most; it was the growing anxiety. And that was before 2020. That was … Continued
Mike Parsons, Public Affairs Director at Cumulus Media, sat down with Utah Foundation Research Director Shawn Teigen to talk about the Utah Foundation’s July report Going for the Green: How Utah Can Thrive in the New Climate Economy. The conversation was part of the Wasatch Gazette that plays on Sundays on: B98.7, KBER101, K-Bull 93.3, 860am, and Power94.9. Listen to the interview here: .
Shawn Teigen, Research Director for the Utah Foundation, joins Rod to discuss the results of a study that shows the gaps in homeless services in Salt Lake County, particularly in the areas of housing and employment services. Listen to the audio here:
SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) – After working on a research report aimed to find the biggest gaps in homeless services in Salt Lake County, one thing was very clear to Shawn Teigen, Research Director for the Utah Foundation. “I think the obvious thing is that the kind of makeshift encampments along streets in town – that isn’t the solution. That’s not a solution for people that are living in these communities and then are … Continued
A new report from a Utah group is examining how the state can better serve the homeless population. Salt Lake County is currently where half the state’s homeless population can be found. “You’re seeing more people that are downtown, sleeping in a tent beside a road somewhere and you’re seeing these little encampments,” said Shawn Teigen, research director for the Utah Foundation. Teigen, along with others, are concerned that rising housing prices, combined with the … Continued
Housing options, employment services top list of unmet needs Today, the Utah Foundation released Mending the Net: Exploring Homeless Service Gaps in Salt Lake County. The third report in the Utah Foundation’s Homelessness Series draws from a wide-ranging survey of homeless service providers to explore the overarching service gaps. In particular, the report identifies areas where there is the greatest need for service expansions or enhancements. It also explores whether adequate collaboration is occurring to … Continued
SALT LAKE CITY — With the increase in property values over the past couple of years, some Utah residents are worried property taxes might rise just as fast. But Utah’s Truth-in-Taxation law means local governments don’t get an automatic windfall. Former State Senator Howard Stephenson is one of the architects of Utah’s Truth-in-Taxation law. “If you’re seeing a huge increase in values because home prices are skyrocketing,” Stephenson told KSL NewsRadio, “the certified tax rate … Continued
Excellent effort by Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) to establish a Congressional Energy Storage Caucus, to promote “advanced energy storage through legislation and advocacy.” A recent report from the Utah Foundation indicates that transitioning to clean energy will improve health by improving air quality and is a tremendous economic opportunity for the state, including rural counties. The Foundation suggests establishing a state commission to address our worsening climate challenges, promoting clean energy innovation (including advanced battery … Continued
Record heat and the drought this summer are putting the issue of climate change on Utahns’ minds. While a run of unfavorable weather measured in weeks or months does not in itself equate to climate change, it does invite us to pay more attention to the issue. The causes and effects of climate change, as well as the proper responses, remain matters for some degree of debate. And those debates, by the way, are worth … Continued
Today, the Utah Foundation released Going for the Green: How Utah Can Thrive in the New Clean Economy. Innovations and other measures from corporations, along with new policies and investments from the federal government, provide states with a range of opportunities to capitalize on the transition to an economy that prioritizes climate-focused strategies. Going for the Green analyzes job-creating opportunities by economic sector, explores opportunities from the public and private sectors, and looks at ways … Continued
The Utah Foundation was honored with several awards by the Governmental Research Association, a national association of government research professionals. The GRA presented the awards at its annual conference, hosted by the Civic Federation of Chicago. The honors include three award-winners and two certificates of merit.
Lockdowns. Social isolation. Unrest. Soaring drug overdose deaths. Health worries. Economic anxiety. This decade is off to a challenging start for our nation’s sense of well-being. On August 26, the Utah Foundation will hold an important Breakfast Briefing focusing on the Beehive State’s mental health challenges and what we can do to address them. Panelists include Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Mark Rapaport and Doug Thomas.
Economists interviewed say they believe the worst of the worker shortage will fade in the coming months, as higher wages, declining COVID risks and a return to in-person school lures more people back to the workplace. However, researchers point out that worker shortages in Utah have been brewing for years—and likely won’t disappear anytime soon. Back in 2015, the Utah Foundation—a nonprofit, nonpartisan, policy research organization—surveyed 151 local employers and found that a shortage of … Continued
This spring, the Utah Foundation said an analysis found that Californians moving to Utah don’t seem to be the reason for steep increases in home and rental prices. “Why are we seeing these increases? The Utah Foundation has looked whether it might be due in part to any influx of Californians. That does not seem to be the answer,” the report stated. The rate of people moving into Utah’s larger metropolitan areas is actually down, … Continued
From 1940 to 1980, a higher percentage of Utah women were earning at least a bachelor’s degree than U.S. women, according to a 2006 Utah Foundation report. Although Utah women continued to earn more degrees, they fell behind U.S. women in 1990 and 2000, the report shows.
Economy When stimulus checks came, Utahns were more likely to sock money away: https://www.utahfoundation.org/2021/07/when-stimulus-checks-came-utahns-were-more-likely-to-sock-money-away/
6:20 pm: Peter Reichard, President of the Utah Foundation joins the program for a conversation about his piece for the Salt Lake Tribune in which he discusses why the current drought highlights the importance of water management
Since the start of the pandemic, the federal government has issued three different rounds of stimulus checks to Americans. According to a recent analysis by the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization, Utahns were more likely to put that money into savings than people living in other states. The study found 11% of Utahns surveyed used their stimulus checks for savings or investments, compared to 7% nationally. Generally, though, residents of the Beehive State spent … Continued
