The Essential Tax: Property Taxation in Utah

Written by: Christopher Collard

Property tax is one of the legs of Utah’s “three-legged stool” of tax revenues, along with the income and sales taxes. During the nineties and early aughts, the property tax was the smallest revenue generator of the three. However, with the 2008 income tax reform and the erosion of sales tax revenues, the three have been more equal, with the property tax bringing in approximately $3.3 billion in 2016, compared to $3.6 billion for income … Continued

Simple Arithmetic? K-12 Education Spending in Utah

Written by: Shawn Teigen

SOME CLAIM UTAH NEEDS MORE MONEY for K-12 public education. Others assert there is waste in the current K-12 public education budget. Simple Arithmetic? K-12 Education Spending in Utah can help readers answer for themselves questions about sufficiency and waste. It explains education finance and financial transparency. It explores revenues and spending in Utah and provides national comparisons. It also discusses data availability – and the next steps in education finance reporting. Download this report. … Continued

Getting By with Less: Two Decades of K-12 Education Revenue and Spending

Written by: Shawn Teigen

Over the past twenty years, Utah’s K-12 education funding effort – or the amount spent per $1,000 personal income – has decreased from 7th highest in the nation to 37th. The decline has resulted in a nearly 29% decrease in tax revenue, which equates to a $1.2 billion reduction of funds available annually for public K-12 education. This would equate to an increase in funding of nearly $2,000 per pupil, or an average of over … Continued

Utah Priorities 2016, Issue #3: K-12 Education

Written by: Shawn Teigen

Utahns have always ranked K-12 education as a one of their top three concerns in the Utah Priorities Project. In 2016, K-12 education ranked third. Survey Responses Level of Concern In the Utah Priorities Project, over two-thirds (68%) of Utahns had a high level of concern for K-12 education (rating it a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale). Liberal respondents were slightly more concerned than moderate and conservative respondents, but over 81% of “very … Continued

Lessons from Our Neighbor: Learning from Colorado’s Educational Success

Written by: Shawn Teigen

In the early 1990s Utah ranked in the top 15 states on all four major national tests. Utah lost ground in the late nineties and now ranks in the middle twenties among the states. Colorado also slipped in national rankings, but contrary to Utah, Colorado quickly rebounded, and has been in the top 15 in reading and math for the last decade despite spending less than the national average on education. This report explores a … Continued

Reaching Toward 2050: Education in the Midst of Population Growth

Written by: Shawn Teigen

The prospect of adding 385,000 school-aged Utahns over the next 35 years seems daunting. With this public school growth will come certain challenges, some of which the state has already been facing over the past two decades. Inadequate policy responses to these challenges may have produced a slide in national academic rankings, a decrease in education funding efforts, and an increase in tuition for college students. One way to address growth in the coming decades … Continued

Easing the Burden: Utah Tax Burden Taking Lowest Share of Income in 20 Years

Written by: Christopher Collard

Over the past several years tax cuts have reduced Utah’s annual revenues by $479 million, or nearly 8%. For Utahns, this means a lower tax burden. Utah Foundation periodically reviews Utah’s tax burden and ranks it among other states. For this review, tax burden is defined as all taxes and mandatory fees collected by the state and local governments as a ratio to $1,000 of personal income. Utah Foundation found that Utah’s state and local … Continued

The Role of Bonds in Utah: A Guide to Utah Bonding and its Benefits and Limitations

Written by: Mallory Bateman

The State of Utah borrows billions of dollars to finance large capital projects. Several such projects loom on the horizon, including the prison relocation, highway construction, and water projects. In consideration of these needs, Utah Foundation researched whether it is beneficial for Utah to maintain the practice of bonding with shorter terms, or if it might be useful to extend the term lengths. The report first explains what municipal bonds are, how they work, and … Continued

Fueling Our Future, 2013-2040: Policy Options to Address Utah’s Transportation Needs

Written by: Stephen Hershey Kroes

Funding Utah’s transportation needs is a significant economic and fiscal challenge for state policy makers.  Over the next three decades, Utah’s population is set to increase by over 60%. Coupled with this significant growth is the possibility of an increase in vehicle miles traveled.  In the past, the state has relied on the Transportation Fund to support transportation projects, but this has changed in the last two decades as the state has had to rely … Continued

The Affordable Care Act: Placing Healthcare Reform in a Historical and Comparative Context

Written by: Stephen Hershey Kroes

Healthcare has been an important issue for Utah voters throughout the past decade, but the 2012 Utah Priorities Survey revealed they are now more concerned with it.  In the 2012 survey, 69% of respondents indicated that they were concerned or very concerned with healthcare, making it the fourth most important issue to voters in this election year. Healthcare is not only an important issue to voters, but a divisive one as well.  The Utah Priorities … Continued