October 30, 2021(ETVnews.com) - Women in Utah have a strong history of political engagement. In fact, Utah women were the first in the United States to vote under an equal suffrage law in 1870. Utah was also the first state to elect a female state senator (elected over her own husband in the same race), and as recently as 1992, Utah women had the highest voter turnout in the nation at 76%. However, by 2006, Utah women’s voting rates … Continued
October 26, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - Every decade every state in the U.S. has an opportunity through redistricting to help bring our elected government, at all levels, closer to the people. In an incredibly compressed time frame, members of the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission (UIRC) have devoted time and dedicated themselves to map discussions with citizens from San Juan County to Logan. Citizens have taken time out of their busy lives to participate in these meetings in person and virtually. Some … Continued
October 27, 2021(UtahPolicy.com) - On multiple measures — political polarization, economic inequality, social capital and cultural solidarity — America is heading decisively in the wrong direction. But have we been here before? And what can we learn from our past successes in coming together? Why are state and local-level solutions so important?
October 22, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - As the Utah Foundation noted in its recent report “Going for the Green: How Utah Can Thrive in a New Climate Economy,” zero- and low-emission vehicles offer a path to decreasing the harmful fossil-fuel emissions that cause climate change and pollute our air, even with more drivers on the road and regardless of whether the electricity used for charging comes from renewables. While transitioning to cleaner sources of electricity would create even greater emissions-reduction benefits, … Continued
October 06, 2021(City Weekly) - We keep getting told that it’s too late or it’s almost too late, that climate change is changing in the worst way possible. It’s not just that we’re witnessing unrelenting droughts or unstoppable fires. It’s that our very breath is being taken away, and politicians prefer to equivocate rather than act. “What should be our top priorities for reducing pollutants? What concrete steps can we take today that will bring a real return in better … Continued
October 05, 2021(UtahPolicy.com) - On October 13, the Utah Foundation will hold an important online Breakfast Briefing on air quality in Utah. Among the questions the panel will address: * How will a rapidly growing Utah grapple with the air quality challenges ahead? * What new strategies will the Cox-Henderson administration bring to the table? * What plans does the inland port have for air quality stewardship? * What should be our top priorities for reducing pollutants? * What … Continued
October 05, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - Utah’s largest coal-fired power plant is headed to early retirement in 2025, but the Intermountain Power Project’s transition to natural gas and hydrogen could offset associated job losses suffered by the state’s flagging coal industry if it kickstarts a green-energy revolution in Utah. That’s according to a new report by the Utah Foundation exploring the economic impact of the Intermountain Power Authority’s (IPA) plan, dubbed IPP Renewed, to move its 40-year-old Millard County plant away … Continued
October 05, 2021(UtahPolicy.com) - The good thing about Utah’s growth planning is that, for the most part, it is bottom up and coping mechanisms are voluntary. No super agency is mandating how growth rolls out or how we deal with it. But we can be decentralized and still improve collaboration among sectors. We also have a lot of smart people in agencies and think tanks who could work together to figure out how to better integrate all planning efforts. … Continued
October 04, 2021(UtahPolicy.com) - Today, the Utah Foundation releases Plugging into the Future of Electricity: The Economic Impacts of the IPP Renewed Project. Having provided coal-generated electricity since the mid-1980s, the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) has decided to build a combined-cycle gas power plant by 2025 to replace the coal-fueled generators. The plan, known as IPP Renewed, will include a turbine that runs on a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen, with 30% hydrogen at start-up, transitioning to 100% … Continued
September 25, 2021(Deseret News) - Going back 200 years, strong citizen engagement in the democratic process and in civic improvement has served as a barometer of the vitality of the American republic. It’s a matter of good government: At the state and local levels, civic engagement has significant implications for the effectiveness and efficiency of government, the quality of services and the responsiveness of public officials to citizen priorities. A decline in civic engagement can reduce the accountability of the … Continued
September 22, 2021(City Weekly) - The Utah Foundation just released a report on the stunning strength of citizen participation in public meetings. But then it turned to the curious news of low voter turnout. It says we “surged” to 13th out of the 50 states in the 2020 midterms, but fell to 39th in the presidential election. What gives? We know Utahns get hot and bothered about all kinds of issues, but voting? Meh. That is likely because of the … Continued
September 20, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - … When you pay taxes on a home, business valuation or even an automobile in Utah, chances are some of that money is going to fund water infrastructure owned by municipal providers or wholesalers that sell water to cities. A 2019 report from the Utah Foundation concluded that 90% of Utahns live in a jurisdiction that collects property taxes for water. The Washington County Water District, for instance, a water wholesaler and retailer that provides … Continued
September 19, 2021(Fox13) - Civic engagement means more than voting — it’s any way you can get involved in the political process. A lot of Utah voters pride themselves on their civic engagement. But according to the Utah Foundation’s recent study on civic engagement, we could improve in a few ways. Watch the video above to see what Utahns are doing to make changes in their communities, as well as how they can improve.
September 16, 2021(o2 & You! podcast) - Shawn Teigen talks to David Garbett from o2 Utah about the Utah Foundation’s recent report, Going for the Green.
September 17, 2021(Rod Arquette Show) - Peter Reichard, President of the Utah Foundation joins Rod for a conversation about the group’s latest civic engagement study of voter turnout in Utah
September 16, 2021(Deseret News) - 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
September 17, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - 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
September 15, 2021(KRCL RadioACTive) - Shawn Teigen talks about civic engagement in the first release of the Social Capital series. The conversation starts at 33:30 in the program.
September 14, 2021(KUER) - 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
September 14, 2021(UtahPolicy.com) - 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
August 24, 2021(KRCL RadioACTive) - 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.
August 20, 2021(Salt Lake Tribune) - 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
August 14, 2021(Wasatch Gazette) - 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: .
August 13, 2021(Rod Arquette Show) - 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:
