April 10, 2019(KUTV) - According to a new study by the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan policy research organization, Utah’s teachers are paid below the national average and less than their peers in our eight neighboring states. It’s an average of $47,000 a year, which is $13,000 less than the average U.S. teacher. They also earn about 3/4ths less than working adults in the private sector with similar levels of education. As a result, “[Utah] may not be getting the … Continued
April 10, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - The average salary of a teacher in Utah’s public schools is $47,604. That’s significantly lower than the national average, according to a new Utah Foundation research report Apples to Apples? How Teacher Pay in Utah Stacks Up to the Competition. It’s also the lowest average salary among the eight states in the Mountain West. However, as the new report explains, it’s important to look beyond averages. The report also details how some of Utah’s largest … Continued
April 10, 2019(KTVX) - The Utah Foundation released a report this week on the state of teacher pay here in Utah addressing retention rates, teaching licensing and cost of living. Shawn Teigen is the Director of Research at the Utah Foundation; he said, “They may not necessarily be leaving because of salary but it’s certainly not keeping them around.” Their report says that Utah teachers are paid about $47,000 per year, much lower than the national average of about … Continued
April 10, 2019(KSL Newsradio) - Utah Foundation Vice President and Research Director Shawn Teigen spoke to KSL Newsradio’s Jeff Caplan on Wednesday, April 10th about Utah Foundation’s new research report Apples to Apples: How Teacher Pay in Utah Stacks Up to the Competition. (audio used by permission)
April 04, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - The 2019 legislative session ended without a significant restructuring of Utah’s sales tax system. There’s agreement on the general goals – broadening the base of goods and services subject to the sales tax – but the clock ran out on the session before the details could be negotiated. State Senator Luz Escamilla, a Democrat, and Representative Robert Spendlove, a Republican, presented their thoughts on where the process is going now when they spoke to the … Continued
March 26, 2019(KNRS) - 6:05 pm: Utah Foundation President Peter Reichard joins the show to discuss his recent op-ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune about the progress being made to address suicide prevention in the state. (Interview begins at 78:35 into the program.)
March 26, 2019(KSL-TV) - In 2018, the Utah Foundation’s Community Quality of Life Index fell—for the first time—below its starting point from when the survey started in 2011. Based off of Utahns’ perceptions of their communities, the quality of life index dropped to 70 out of 100 points last year. That’s a “significant” decline of three points since 2013, according to the report’s authors. “Utah’s rapidly rising housing costs have made many Utahns feel like rents and ownership are … Continued
March 25, 2019(Salt Lake Tribune) - Springtime is now upon us. The bluer skies, brighter sun and singing birds offer a welcome relief from the long winter. But the joy of spring doesn’t touch everybody. In fact, suicide rates in the U.S. are highest this time of year. In recent months, suicide has received increasing attention in Utah. Higher education and K-12 officials are placing new emphasis on mental health. A recent report from the Utah Foundation, “Getting to Tomorrow: Addressing … Continued
March 11, 2019(KNRS) - 6:35 pm: Peter Reichard, President of the Utah Foundation, joins Rod to discuss the foundation’s recent study on the effectiveness of tax incentives for businesses in Utah (Interview begins at 83:42 into the program.)
March 03, 2019(Salt Lake Tribune) - The Utah Foundation published its list of the top 10 issues for 2016. Health care, air quality, public education and taxes topped the list. Yet, in 2016 and 2018 and for almost as long as I can remember, the voters voted on none of these issues. If they had, Utah would have a much different government than currently exists. This does not necessarily mean voters lie to pollsters, but rather pollsters may not ask the … Continued
March 01, 2019(Deseret News) - A resolution before the Utah Legislature would compel state tax authorities to perform a comprehensive review of the use of tax incentives for new businesses to see whether they are a justifiable public investment in private enterprise. For example, was it necessary to offer Amazon $5.6 million in tax breaks in 2017 to build a distribution facility in Salt Lake City? Would the e-commerce giant not have built the center anyway as part of its … Continued
February 27, 2019(Deseret News) - The appeal of tax increment financing is clear. Public sector investments can be made off the balance sheet, meaning citizens don’t feel the pain. And, when executed properly, the new revenue would not have otherwise existed anyway and brings ancillary revenue benefits that results in a net gain for the public. But there’s the trick. Getting TIFs right depends heavily on getting the analysis right. In jurisdictions around the country, there are concerns that the … Continued
February 25, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - Utah Foundation releases Public Funds, Private Endeavors: A Primer on Local Economic Development Incentives in Utah. It is the first in a series of reports analyzing Utah’s incentive programs at the state and local levels. In the current legislative session, there are at least five bills that directly deal with how local governments award business incentives. Others may indirectly affect local governments’ ability to do so. This preliminary report provides background on the incentives that … Continued
February 24, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - What did Utah’s governor mean when he told the Legislature that tax modernization is his top priority for this session? What’s not modern about our tax system — specifically, sales taxes? In this edition of Utah Thrives, we’ll hear what the governor had to say on the subject as well as from Research Analyst Christopher Collard, the author of Utah Foundation’s award-winning studies on sales, property and income taxes in Utah. And we’ll hear from … Continued
February 21, 2019(Salt Lake Tribune) - “Once we came back in special session, the budget had already been set. So we could only find $30 million that we could use,” he said. So it passed a $34 tax credit for every child dependent claimed. The Utah Foundation said with that action, about 64 percent of households will not see a major change in their state income tax. But 31 percent will have significant decreases. About 5 percent saw substantial increases, mostly … Continued
February 14, 2019(Kaiser Health News) - Utah’s plan to seek a per capita spending cap comes even though the state’s per capita Medicaid spending is among the lowest, according to a report last year by the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan research group. The average cost for each Medicaid enrollee in Utah was $5,326 in 2014, the most recent year for which that figure is available, the report found. That number was the 10th lowest in the United States. Nationwide, Utah also … Continued
February 11, 2019(KSL-TV) - “Utah State taxes are linked to federal definitions,” said Christopher Collard, a research analyst with the Utah Foundation. The Utah Foundation said the jump in 2018 taxes isn’t a surprise. The organization sounded the alarm last year, saying that the federal tax reforms would negatively impact lower and middle-income Utahns. “Larger families will see the biggest impact,” read Collard’s March 2018, report about income taxation in Utah. “Both single and married households with more than … Continued
February 08, 2019(KSL.com) - By the 1970s, sales tax overtook property tax as the state’s largest revenue resource and remained the top until the mid-2000s. The rate continued to rise from the ’70s and eventually topped out at 5.09 percent. It’s fluctuated slightly since and is now 4.85 percent. However, as the governor’s office points out, sales tax revenue has fallen during that time. A report by the Utah Foundation in 2018 also noted this. Using Bureau of Economic … Continued
February 06, 2019(The Oklahoman) - All this is occurring even though Utah’s per-pupil public school funding consistently ranks last among the 50 states. According to 2016 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the most recent available, Utah spent $6,953 per student. That same year, the Census pegged Oklahoma’s per-pupil funding at $8,097. Yet education results in the two states don’t track with spending. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in math and reading are higher in Utah than in Oklahoma. … Continued
January 31, 2019(Salt Lake Tribune) - Tax reform is a fact of life: Short of repealing the sales tax, which is not on the table, there is no change legislators can propose that would be more radical than the decision Utah made in the 1930s to create the sales tax in the first place. Since then, we’ve made ongoing modifications as times have changed. Utah Foundation’s 2018 report, The Everyday Tax, revealed that our sales tax rates have generally trended upward … Continued
January 22, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - Governor Gary Herbert’s recent proposal for tax modernization grows out of long-standing concern over the role of sales tax in funding state government. Some of those concerns are documented in a 2018 study from Utah Foundation, The Everyday Tax: Sales Taxation in Utah. Among the key findings of the study: During the past 45 years, Utah has seen the nation’s second biggest decline in taxable sales as a proportion of consumer expenditures. Beginning in 1975, … Continued
January 22, 2019(Salt Lake Tribune) - Demand for housing continues to grow with the state’s healthy economy and high birthrate. At the same time, homebuilding costs are also being pushed up by a variety of factors, such as escalating prices for key building materials like lumber and steel, construction labor shortages and dwindling supplies of undeveloped land in more populated areas. Combined, these trends — and the possibility they could begin to slow Utah’s economic growth — have recently put affordable … Continued
January 15, 2019(KSL Newsradio) - (Amy Donaldson addressing a panel of legislative leaders at 2:15 into the Voices of Reason podcast) “While voters rejected the gas tax in this last election, there’s still broad support from the business community and others. According to a report from the Utah Foundation — these are stats you guys are familiar with — Utah is the second-lowest in school funding per pupil, second-highest in the nation for student-teacher ratio, last in funding from the … Continued
January 17, 2019(ABU Education Fund) - The story of Utah’s urban-rural divide is, first and foremost, a story of lopsided growth. The urban side is home to most of the people, with three-quarters of the population living along the Wasatch Front. It’s also where much of the economic opportunity resides, with high-tech employment booming on the Silicon Slopes. On the rural side of the divide, population is sparse and financial resources are more scarce. As the ninth most urbanized state in … Continued
January 15, 2019(UtahPolicy.com) - Utah Foundation is pleased to announce that renowned Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam will serve as the keynote speaker at our Annual Luncheon on May 21 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Professor Putnam is the author of the landmark work on social capital, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. He is also the author of the recent best-seller, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Join us to hear one of America’s foremost public scholars share … Continued
