by Howard Stephenson

The Legislative Auditor General released his audit results in December on the use of nearly ¾ billion dollars appropriated by the Legislature since 1993 to reduce the average class size in Utah.  Unfortunately, the Auditor General’s audit didn’t look at trends in class sizes and in fact reported no data on average class [...]

by Howard Stephenson

Cities are assaulting the Granite School Board with requests for education taxes to be given to developers. Holladay, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville and West Valley City are asking the school district to pony up more than $100 million over the next 20 years, so those cities can increase their sales tax base. Granite’s [...]

by Howard Stephenson

The state of Utah spent $2.3 billion in FY2007 on programs targeted for low-income and disadvantaged households and individuals, according to the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s first annual Government Assistance Expenditure Report. This accounts for almost 21% of state expenditures.
Last year, Rep. Mike Morley (R-Spanish Fork) sponsored HB89, which requires the Legislative Fiscal Analyst [...]

by Howard Stephenson

Total property tax collections in Utah will approach $2.3 billion in 2007, according to calculations by the Utah Taxpayers Association based on data from the Utah State Tax Commission. Property taxes will increase 10.4%.
2007 Increase is higher than normal
Since the enactment of Truth-in-Taxation (TNT) in the mid-1980s, property tax revenues have increased by [...]

by Howard Stephenson

Utah newspapers have been abuzz about a proposal brought recently by
Representative Carl Wimmer and originally by Senator Curt Bramble to
require candidates for the State School Board to go through the same
election process as other elected state officials. The Provo Daily
Herald threw down the gauntlet: “Someone needs to explain to us why
education needs politics.” [...]

by Howard Stephenson

It’s past time the Utah Legislature switched its defined benefit
(DB) retirement plans to a defined contribution (DC) system. The
positive benefits of such a change would be significant for both
state employees and the taxpayers who employ them, while enhancing
the professionalism of state workers.
Through a defined benefit plan the state guarantees a certain
retirement income – [...]

by Howard Stephenson

Salt Lake County Council of Governments ranked rail and road projects to give a higher priority to those which would save the fewest lives at the highest cost per life saved.  Projects which would save more lives per project dollar were given the lower rankings.
If hospital managers based their decisions on this type [...]

by Howard Stephenson

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak to a group of 40 educators who
were also students in an education administration class at Utah State
University.
Earlier, I had been wrestling bureaucrats at the Utah State Office of
Education over their directive to Utah school districts to spend at
least half of the $60 million funding [...]

by Howard Stephenson

Patrick Byrne may seem like an atypical education reformer.  He has no children, doesn’t invest or plan to invest in private schools, and he’s much better known for being an investor and starting his career with Warren Buffet.  Yet he is the head of First Class Education (an education reform group advocating that [...]

by Howard Stephenson

We discussed the theory and mechanics behind Utah’s property tax Truth-in-Taxation law last week. Now we’ll talk about the impact of this law in controlling property taxes since it was enacted in the mid 1980s.
Property tax revenue growth before and after Truth-in-Taxation
In the six years (1980 to 1986) prior to Truth-in-Taxation’s enactment, property [...]