Tax Increases… Tax Increases Everywhere!
Elected officials like to tout Utah as the best managed state, but this is a hard idea to stomach when you look at the many taxes that have been increased in recent years.
In Education, Small Amounts of Funding Can Go a Long Way
Ever heard of the Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship? It's an important education program providing a few lucky families the flexibility they need to help their child.
Statement Opposing “Our Schools Now” Tax Increase
Salt Lake City, UT (June 6, 2017) — Today, a group calling themselves “Our Schools Now” announced the filing of a ballot initiative that, if successful, would increase the income and sales tax rates of hard-working...
Libertas Institute successfully obtains secret tax agreement between Tax Commission and Amazon
Salt Lake City, UT (April 14, 2017) — In a hearing last month, the Utah State Records Committee unanimously agreed with our appeal seeking the release of the secret agreement between the Utah State Tax Commission and Amazon,...
New Poll Shows Utahns Aren’t Sold on State Income Tax Increase for Public Education
Earlier today, the Trafalgar Group (TFG) released a public opinion survey commissioned by Libertas Institute and Americans for Prosperity. The survey showed that only 50% of likely voters support the proposed state income tax...
Income Tax Increase Won’t Improve Education Outcomes
The following op-ed, written by our president Connor Boyack, was published this past weekend in the Salt Lake Tribune. A group of business owners and former politicians have announced a plan to pursue a ballot initiative...
Why Utah Should Abandon the Work Requirement Waivers for Food Stamps
In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Herbert has emphasized, “our state economy has added 219,000 new jobs, with an unemployment rate dropping from 8 percent down to 3½ percent today.” According to the U.S. Dept. of...
Taxing carried interest a bad idea for Utah’s Silicon Slopes
The following op-ed, co-authored by our policy analyst Josh Daniels, was published this week in the Deseret News. The only things certain in life are death and taxes. Rarely, however, do you find a tax plan bad enough to...
Utah’s Tax Freedom Day — How long do you have to work for the government?
Tax Freedom Day is the day when individuals in the entire nation, or state, have earned enough money to pay the total tax bill for the year. It includes all federal, state, and local taxes and divides them by the total income of...
Per Pupil Spending in Utah: The Wrong Measure of Success
Each summer, local media outlets produce stories about the level of per pupil spending in Utah, pointing out that Utah comes in last place across the country in per-pupil funding. These stories aren’t really news since...