April 22, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – Various state and federal tax provisions and programs may create a “marriage penalty” or a “marriage bonus.” A new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute focuses on selected state-level policies to determine whether they create different levels of marriage penalties, many of which tie directly to federal policies carried into state-administered programs. […]

April 17, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – Peer support specialists are “individuals who use their lived experience in recovery from mental health and/or substance use disorder…to deliver services promoting recovery and resilience.” The Utah 2025 Peer Support Specialist Workforce Survey, conducted by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and Utah Peer Network, suggests ways to effectively engage peer support specialists as part of an integrated care team and help address retention, burnout, and turnover challenges. […]

April 10, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – Median household income provides helpful insights into a region’s overall economic well-being. A new research brief from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute details how Utah’s median household income has ranked high in recent years relative to other states, meaning Utah’s middle-income households earn more on average than middle-income households in other states. After adjusting for cost-of-living differences between states, Utah’s median household income of $98,336 ranks highest in the country, nearly 27% higher than the U.S. average of $77,719. […]

April 7, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – Utah’s consumer sentiment fell 8.0% in March, from 88.1 in February to 81.1, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment. A similar survey conducted by the University of Michigan measured an even more significant decline (11.9%) in sentiment among Americans as a whole. […]

April 4, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – U.S. and Utah fertility rates, which can be thought of as births per woman, continued a long-term decline in 2023, according to recent data released by the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and analyzed by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. The U.S. total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.621 in 2023, a 2.1% decline from 1.656 in 2022.  Utah’s TFR has now declined or stayed constant for 15 consecutive years, dropping to 1.801 in 2023, a 2.8% decline from 1.853 in 2022. […]

April 3, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – Utah’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth led the nation in 2024, reaching 4.5%, compared to the nation’s 2.8% growth, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and analyzed by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Additionally, Utah’s nominal GDP surpassed $300 billion for the first time, averaging $301 billion for the year and ending at $308 billion. Statewide personal income grew 6.1% from 2023 to 2024, ranking Utah 4th highest among states. […]

April 2, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – States and the federal government share a vital economic relationship. This data summary, the ninth in a series on state and federal economic linkages from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, presents the Utah-federal government nexus for research funding. […]

April 1, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – States and the federal government share a vital economic relationship. This data summary, the eighth in a series on state and federal economic linkages from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, presents the Utah-federal government nexus for the payment balance between taxes paid by Utahns to the federal government and funds allocated to Utah from the federal government. […]

March 28, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – In the spring of 2024, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute hosted two forums titled What’s Past is Prologue: Public Policy Lessons from the Past Quarter Century. The forums featured Utah’s 14th governor, Michael O. Leavitt, many of the people who served with him, and several of today’s policy leaders, creating an influential public policy discussion around the past, present, and future. Following the forums, the Gardner Institute assembled six summaries highlighting significant policy priorities, as described by participants and informed by lessons learned from Governor Leavitt’s administration. […]

March 27, 2025 (Salt Lake City) – States and the federal government share a vital economic relationship. This data summary, the seventh in a series on state and federal economic linkages from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, presents the Utah-federal government nexus for Medicaid. […]