Monthly Archives: December 2017

There are No Easy Answers on the Question of Voter Turnout

Written by: Peter Reichard

  At a year-end meeting this month, Utah Foundation’s board members ranked our findings for 2017. Two of the top-ranked findings pertained to voter turnout. The issue of voter turnout came up a few days later over lunch with a friend who wanted to explore ways to boost the numbers in Utah. Meanwhile, statewide, two separate groups have been gathering signatures for ballot initiatives to rethink the way we elect our candidates, both with an … Continued

Bringing Light to the Heat of the Health Care Cost Debate

Written by: Peter Reichard

In each decade, one or two public policy issues emerge as thematic. In the 1960s, for instance, it was civil rights and Vietnam; in the 1970s, it was energy and “stagflation”; in the 1980s, tax reform; in the 1990s, welfare reform; in the 2000s, terrorism. For our current decade, health care has come to dominate. Utah mirrors the nation on this. In a 2016 statewide survey, Utah Foundation found that health care was the number … Continued

Looking Back on 2017: The Top 5 Findings

Written by: Peter Reichard

Each December, Utah Foundation’s Board of Trustees gathers to look back over the previous year’s accomplishments. As part of the review, the board ranks the year’s research findings based on which findings they found most remarkable. The following are the top 5 findings of 2017. Number 5: Despite experiencing below-average unemployment rates for the past four years, wages were not increasing as expected in a tight labor market. In May 2017, Utah Foundation released Help … Continued

Utah Thrives – Technical Education

Written by: Dan Bammes

As he announced his budget proposal for the coming year, Governor Gary Herbert proclaimed 2018 the Year of Technical Education in Utah. He set the goal of leading the nation in the number of students completing a high-quality technical education. His budget proposal includes more than nine million dollars in new funding for the institutions that provide it. In this edition of Utah Thrives, we hear from the head of Utah’s System of Technical Colleges, … Continued