December 14, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - Utah has one of the lowest prison incarceration rates in the nation — only six states have lower rates — but it’s a different story with county jails, where Utah’s incarceration rate is the 15th-highest in the nation. Part of this disparity is due to the criminal justice reform enacted in 2015 designed to keep people convicted of nonviolent crimes — mostly drug offenses — out of prison. That goal is being met, with a … Continued
December 10, 2018(UtahPolicy.com) - At its Board of Trustees meeting December 6, Utah Foundation announced the following new officers. Elizabeth Hitch, Associate Commissioner for Academic Affairs in the Utah System of Higher Education, is the new chair. Dr. Hitch previously served as vice chair and replaces outgoing chair Brent Jensen, vice president of HDR Engineering. Chad Westover, CEO of University of Utah Health Plans, is the new vice chair. Dan Eldredge, General Manager of Intermountain Power Agency, is the … Continued
December 08, 2018(Deseret News) - Utah has the fifth-highest suicide rate among all 50 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy research group, reported this year that the suicide rate in Utah jumped from 15.8 per 100,000 in 1999 to 24.2 per 100,000 in 2016, increasing among every age group. 2 comments on this story Among Utahns ages 10 to 17, the number of suicides were more than four times … Continued
December 02, 2018(The Independent) - A little history about Utah’s property tax laws sheds light on how we’ve arrived at our current situation. The current “Truth in Taxation” process came about due to increasing citizen concerns about the way local governments had been levying property taxes during a period from 1970 until the mid-1980s during which assessed property values had increased rapidly, averaging 13 percent per year. This situation provided a windfall to some local governments with tax revenues increasing … Continued
November 29, 2018(Deseret News) - And if today’s high turnout rate really is a Trump effect, what happens when he no longer is on the ballot? Will we still be able to muster the rage to vote? Is rage really the defining factor to a vibrant democracy? Should it be? In a Deseret News op-ed published a year ago, Utah Foundation President Peter Reichard noted a clear correlation between voter turnout and high education levels, high incomes and older age … Continued
November 21, 2018(City Weekly) - All this while Utah’s public school enrollment is bubbling into the 660,000 range and nonprofit organization Utah Foundation notes one in five Salt Lake residents say housing is not affordable. There is a huge disconnect—a fevered rush to build big, expensive developments, an expectation that suburban areas can fill the lower-end gap, but no real plan for mixed-use, affordable buildings that communities can get behind.
November 19, 2018(Deseret News) - Six years ago, a New York Times investigation found cities and counties nationwide gave a combined $80 billion a year in incentives to companies. Earlier this year, experts at the Brookings Institution estimated that figure now is about $90 billion, and growing. Earlier this year, the Utah Foundation released a study on sales taxes that found Utah has granted 91 separate exemptions from that tax, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year. … Continued
November 11, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - When considering Utah’s assets, it’s easy to rattle off a series of indicators that play directly into economic performance: a favorable tax environment, a strong workforce, a diversified economy, a fleet of strong higher ed institutions and one of the most well-educated populations in the nation. But one of Utah’s most important assets is less tangible. It comes up in conversation perhaps more than any other asset, but you can’t find it in federal statistics. … Continued
October 30, 2018(Utah Public Radio) - Utah ranks first in a few of these categories including voter accessibility policies and percentage of residents who participate in civic groups or organizations. However, according to a study that came out last year from the Utah Foundation, Utah remains near the bottom of the list for voter participation. Ranking 39th in the nation for voter turnout in 2016’s presidential and state elections. Ballots for the general election are due November 6th.
October 30, 2018(Fox 13 News) - Even though there are a lot of new homes being built, many aren’t affordable due to a labor shortage caused by several big municipal projects, most notably the Salt Lake City International Airport. “The valley’s kind of filling in, so there’s a lack of available land and if you add to that the tariffs situation that’s driving up the cost of steel, aluminum, and lumber and other things that you use for home construction,” said … Continued
October 31, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - A recent survey by the nonprofit Utah Foundation found that about 12 percent of respondents statewide said their personal housing costs were not affordable — although that number was as high as 20 percent in Salt Lake County. Price increases along the Wasatch Front for the third quarter were led by Tooele County, up 14.6 percent, and Utah County, up 11.3 percent. Salt Lake County’s median home price, by comparison, went up by 9.2 percent … Continued
October 28, 2018(UtahPolicy.com) - Christine Durham, the former Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, will be honored with Utah Foundation’s Insight Award at the Foundation’s Annual Luncheon on Wednesday. Union Pacific will also be recognized with the Civic Cornerstone Award. Justice Durham received her law degree from Duke University. She worked in private practice in both North Carolina and Utah. She has also taught at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. Justice Durham served for four … Continued
October 28, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - A common critique of concerns about Utah’s education spending is this demographic fact: We have larger families and fewer working taxpayers to support them as a consequence. Nevertheless, there was a time when we put more financial effort into educating our young charges. From the 2016 Utah Foundation report on education spending, “Over the past twenty years, Utah’s K-12 education funding effort — or the amount spent per $1,000 personal income — has decreased from … Continued
October 23, 2018(Deseret News) - Mitt Romney, hot-button citizens initiatives and leftover emotions from the 2016 presidential race are setting up to help haul Utah out of the voter participation basement in the upcoming midterm, according to observers. And Utah Democrats are adding new voters at a rate outpacing their GOP counterparts by almost 3-1, when measured as a percentage of growth. Morgan Lyon Cotti, Hinckley Institute of Politics associate director, said current ballot items and lingering emotions that track … Continued
October 23, 2018(Deseret News) - Housing affordability has become one of the biggest topics in recent public discourse. That makes sense: Housing prices in Utah have increased sharply during the past five years. The median sales price of a home rose from $207,000 in 2013 to $298,950 in 2018. Median rents in Utah have increased from $851 in 2012 to $986 in 2017. From a longer-term perspective, housing cost increases in both Utah and most other Western states have consistently … Continued
October 19, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - The ranks of Utahns worried about affordable housing have grown dramatically since 2015 and conditions appear to be the worst for renters living in Salt Lake County, according to a new study. The nonprofit Utah Foundation reports that of 20 measures in its yearly Community Quality of Life Index, public perceptions on housing affordability have seen the largest declines in recent years. In 2015, nearly 16 percent of the state’s population labeled the availability of … Continued
October 18, 2018(Daily Herald) - In a study released Wednesday by the Utah Foundation, residents were asked if they felt their housing was affordable. The answers show a difference in thinking between generations and a difference between owners and renters. According to the foundation, the standard definition of housing affordability is that a household should not pay more than 30 percent of its income toward housing costs, including utilities. That rule-of-thumb of 30 percent was established in 1981 in an … Continued
October 17, 2018(Salt Lake Tribune) - Let’s start with the gas tax. Historically, the idea behind the gas tax has been that it should fund construction and maintenance of roads. And for decades, that worked. But as demands increased, legislators resisted increasing the gas tax to keep up with inflation. By 2013, Utahns were paying a lower percentage of their income toward the gas tax than they had at any time since its inception in 1929, when Studebakers and Ford Model … Continued
October 17, 2018( Deseret News) - Suicide affects a broad swath of society, so it follows solutions must originate from a broad range of sources. But however they come, come they must, for Utahns desperately need help in the midst of a mental health and suicide crisis that isn’t abating. The latest examination comes from a Utah Foundation report released earlier this October. It finds suicides in Utah have increased dramatically across all age groups since the turn of the millennium, … Continued
October 09, 2018(KNRS) - Peter Reichard, President of the Utah Foundation, joins Rod to discuss their recent study on suicide rates in Utah and whether intervention efforts have been successful. (Note: Interview begins at 95:33 into the program.)
October 07, 2018(Spectrum) - Suicides in Utah have soared since the turn of the millennium and require an aggressive societal response to implement prevention efforts and carefully monitor the effectiveness of those programs, according to a new report issued by a Utah public policy research group. The report, prepared by The Utah Foundation, concludes that suicide prevention efforts in the state are hindered by a lack of data collection related to results, making it difficult to determine which programs … Continued
October 08, 2018(Park City TV) - Utah Foundation Vice President/Research Director Shawn Teigen explains our Quality of Life report and why the Quality of Life index has declined since 2015.
October 06, 2018(Deseret News) - A lot of Utahns are assisting with efforts to curtail the state’s uniquely high rates of suicide, specifically among teenagers. But a new report indicates there isn’t much data available on whether these many efforts are producing the desired results, as suicide rates in Utah continue to rise and the phenomenon of suicide remains largely misunderstood. It also points to the fact that Utahns lack access to sufficient mental health care, beginning in elementary school, … Continued
October 04, 2018(KSL Newsradio) - Utah ranks fifth in the nation when it comes to suicide rates, according to new numbers released this week. A suicide prevention advocacy group released a report Thursday addressing what can be done regarding this grim statistic. The Utah Foundation details how Utah differs nationally in its efforts and challenges in preventing suicide, pointing out that from 2000 to 2016, the rate of suicide in Utah rose from 15.8 per 100,000 residents to 24.2, an … Continued
October 03, 2018(UtahPolicy.com) - While public health agencies, schools and other groups are working to address Utah’s rising suicide rates, judging the effectiveness of those efforts will require better data collection. That’s among the findings of a new study from Utah Foundation, Getting to Tomorrow: Addressing Suicide in Utah and the Mountain States. All but one of the Mountain States were in the top 10 nationally for suicide rates in 2016. Utah ranked number five. The Utah Foundation study … Continued
