Latest news with #UtahFoundation
Axios
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Report finds gaps between Utah voters and party delegates
A new report reveals ideological divides and priority gaps between Utah's party delegates and the voters they aim to represent. State of play: Republican and Democratic delegates appeared more pessimistic than voters about the state's trajectory, according to the report by the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan policy research organization. By the numbers: 84% of Democratic and 55% of Republican delegates said the state is heading in the wrong direction, compared with Democratic (79%) and Republican voters (42%). Republican delegates prioritized the shrinking Great Salt Lake and women's rights more than GOP voters, while placing slightly less emphasis on housing and roads. Democratic delegates said overreach and crime were less important compared with their voters. What they're saying: "Utah's Republican delegates are somewhat more conservative than Republican voters, while Democratic delegates are about the same as Democratic voters," the report found. Between the lines: Delegates for both parties are more likely to be white and male, have more education, be actively religious and earn higher incomes than the electorate, per the report. What's next: Republicans are set to convene Saturday at a state organizing convention at Utah Valley University to select the Utah GOP's next leader.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Are delegates in touch with Utah voters? Survey reveals where they ‘align and diverge'
A report by the Utah Foundation found that even though party delegates tend to be more pessimistic than their voter counterparts, in general 'their ideological positions show notable alignment with voters.' (Illustration by Alex Cochran for Utah News Dispatch) A new report released days before Utah Republican Party delegates will gather to select their new chair offers some insights about where Utah's delegates 'align and diverge' with other voters in their own parties. The report published by the Utah Foundation — a nonprofit with the mission of informing Utahns with nonpartisan public policy research — didn't find glaring differences that would suggest Republican or Democratic delegates are completely out of touch with the rest of their voting party members. Axson or Lyman? Utah Republican delegates to elect their next leader But it did find some notable differences, especially when it comes to demographics like age, sex and education, and issues that are top of mind when compared to the voters that delegates represent in the caucus and convention system. The Utah Foundation report, informed by three separate surveys conducted by Y2 Analytics in 2024, outlined these key findings: Pessimism: Delegates from both parties are more pessimistic than their voter counterparts. The difference was more apparent among Republicans, with 55% of GOP delegates saying they felt the state was on the wrong track compared to only 42% of voters. Among Democratic delegates, 84% said they felt the state was on the wrong track, compared to 79% of Democratic voters. Ideological differences: Republican delegates are 'somewhat more conservative' than GOP voters, the report said, 'while Democratic delegates are about the same as Democratic voters.' While measuring 'ideological consistency' based on answers to survey questions, pollsters found the median Republican voter is 'less conservative' than the median Republican delegate, while the median Democratic voter and delegate are about the same. 'In other words, Utah's Republican delegates are more likely to have consistently conservative views than Republican voters, while Democratic delegates are about the same as Democratic voters,' the report said. Issue priorities: GOP delegates 'place less importance on housing, roads, air quality, and crime when compared to Republican voters,' the report said, 'while Democratic delegates focus more on education content and less on healthcare and homelessness when compared to Democratic voters.' Demographics: Most notably, delegates of both parties are more likely to fit specific democratic characteristics. 'Both Republican and Democratic delegates are more likely than voters to be men, actively religious, older, and white, and have more education and higher incomes,' the report said. Is the Utah convention system still relevant? 'I think the key takeaway is there are quite a few differences between voters and delegates,' said Utah Foundation President Shawn Teigen during a call with media discussing the outcomes of the report on Wednesday. 'But I think the most notable is in terms of demographics. (Delegates tend to be) actively religious and men, but also tend to be older, white, and have more education and higher incomes.' When it comes to priorities, the survey also found some but not many differences between delegates and voters in both parties. When asked to rank 17 priorities, Republican delegates tended to rank the Great Salt Lake and women's rights as more important when compared to GOP voters. However, Republican delegates also ranked housing, roads, density and crime as slightly less important, while air quality ranked less important. Democratic delegates, when compared to Democratic voters, ranked government overreach and crime as less important. In conclusion, the report said that even though delegates tend to be more pessimistic than their voter counterparts, in general 'their ideological positions show notable alignment with voters.' 'While voters and delegates have similar ideologies, the priorities look a little different for Republicans than they do for Democrats,' the report said. 'The largest differences in priorities among the parties' voters and delegates are air quality for Republicans and crime for Democrats, each of which was less important for delegates.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Utah's governor says America needs a ‘religious revival'
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Americans must look beyond politics for the solution to the country's problems. 'We do need, I believe, a religious revival,' Cox told the Deseret News. Cox spoke Thursday at the annual luncheon of the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. The subject of his remarks was social capital, an academic term used to describe the connections that create high-trust communities. Multiple surveys have identified Utah as having the highest level of social capital in the nation because of its No. 1 ranking on measures of family unity, charitable giving and neighborhood friendships. But there is one factor that underlies Utah's social capital, and its status as the best state overall, the best place to start a business and the best environment for upward mobility, according to Cox. 'The truth is, we're the most religious state in the country, and that absolutely matters,' Cox said. Religiosity is not the only way for a state to have strong social capital, Cox said. Individuals can also build community by forming sports clubs, social groups and volunteer organizations. But, the governor said, recent research and U.S. history tend to point in one direction. 'Religion is a shortcut to making it easier,' Cox said. As the keynote speaker at Utah Foundation's annual luncheon, Cox said that religious organizations can unite people across different backgrounds in a time of increasing loneliness and polarization. Churches force people to meet others they otherwise would not associate with and they create an environment of social norms that can hold people accountable, Cox told the room of business leaders, policymakers and philanthropists gathered in Salt Lake City. 'Every Sunday, I get to sit down with like 30 dudes in a room where we talk about how messed up and screwed up our families are and how many problems we have,' Cox joked. 'Where else do you get an opportunity to do that?' As these kinds of gatherings disappear, they are often replaced by political identities that are more tribal and divisive, Cox said. 'How do we prevent that from happening? We have to build institutions,' Cox said. 'We have to use our social capital. We have to be rooted in our place.' In his conclusion, Cox encouraged attendees to continue contributing to help 'the least of us, those who are struggling.' It is in family, neighborhoods, schools and congregations where individuals — and society — find fulfillment, Cox said, not in 'self-centered pursuits, in pursuits of money and stuff.' 'And we need more of those connections,' Cox said. The Utah Foundation event served to celebrate the organization's 80th anniversary and to preview its upcoming 2025 Utah Social Capital Project. The unfinished report found that Utah tops the nation in the strength of its middle class and low levels of fraud, corruption and violent crime, Utah Foundation President Shawn Teigen said. Utah is by far the most religious state in the country on multiple metrics. More than three-quarters, 76%, of Utahns identify as adherents of a religion — more than any other state, according to a 2024 analysis by the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. This is 12 percentage points higher than the next highest state of Alabama, the analysis found. Utah also has the highest rate of weekly church attendance in the country. A comparison made by data scientist Ryan Burge determined that 41% of Utahns attend church weekly, compared to the average of 25% across the U.S. and 14% in Europe. A separate Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll put Utah's attendance rate slightly higher, at 43%, with 58% of respondents saying they attend religious services at least once a month. Recent decades have tracked a precipitous decline in religious affiliation and attendance in the U.S. Between 1991 and 2020, the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans went from about 5% to nearly 30%, making this group the largest and the fastest-growing religious demographic in the country. In 2021, U.S. church membership fell below 50% for the first time in recorded history, down from 70% in 1999. Over that same time, church attendance fell from 42% to 30%, according to a Gallup survey. But Utah — while having a slightly larger share of religious 'nones' compared to the national average — seems to be experiencing the opposite trend. Utah is one of the few areas in the country where the number of religious congregations has actually gone up in recent years: increasing from 5,557 in 2010 to 6,018 in 2020. The state's dominant faith organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has the highest rate of church attendance among religious groups in the U.S. Two-thirds, 67%, of Latter-day Saints attend church weekly or nearly weekly, compared to 44% of Protestants, 38% of Muslims, 33% of Catholics and 22% of Jews, according to a 2024 Gallup survey. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also has one of the highest percentages of younger people among its congregants. The share of adults between ages 18 and 29 makes up 25% of the church's members, compared to 14% of evangelical Protestants and Catholics, as the Deseret News previously reported. A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute survey conducted in 2024 found that a slight majority, 51%, of Utahns identify as Latter-day Saints. A recent analysis of three different surveys found that the rise of the 'nones' — those not affiliated with any organization — appears to have plateaued at around 35% of the population. 'I'm grateful to see that those numbers are starting to turn, that people are looking for something more,' Cox said.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Health care costs more transparent, but data isn't reaching Utah consumers, report says
SALT LAKE CITY — Health care prices are at an all-time high, according to Joshua Wright at the Utah Foundation, and what makes that hit even harder is health care consumers don't know what price they are going to pay until well after a procedure. He said transparency efforts are not relieving the pain consumers feel as they open their medical bills. Patients are entitled to pricing estimates on nonemergency services following the No Surprises Act, which became effective across the country in 2022. But the act only requires providers to give prices for self-pay or uninsured patients, since the price changes when insurance is introduced. Wright said most prices are available, but it is still up for debate whether the numbers are accurate and they 'rarely reach patients' — specifically in Utah. The Utah Foundation released a report on Tuesday called 'X-raying health care: A look at price transparency for Utahns.' The organization has been doing research in Utah for 80 years. It said the All-Payers Claim Database, managed by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, provides anonymized health care information about actual costs paid by Utahns for services. A large amount of data is available to researchers and a cost comparison tool, Utah Health Cost Compare, can help consumers see the estimated out-of-pocket costs for various procedures or appointments. Despite the availability of this valuable information, the report said the website only gets about 250 visitors each month. Allowing the information to be searchable by insurer, in addition to facility and provider information already available, could help people find a cost more specific to their situation, and might help more than comparing prices from different facilities or doctors generally, the report states. Seventeen percent of Americans reported in 2024 that they knew the cost ahead of treatment, the report said, quoting a separate study. It also states that a 2022 study found only 12% of Americans are 'health literate' or understand the information and services available for health-related decisions. Tuesday's report said although there has been a push into price transparency from both sides of the political isle, transparency alone will have only a small impact on prices. It concluded that politicians will need to also implement policies designed to reduce prices. Wright said transparency in prices is an opportunity for bipartisan cooperation, meaning 'there's a lot of room for action.' Matt Slonaker, with the Utah Health Policy Project, said although there is agreement on affordability among political parties, they don't align on how to reduce costs. He also said there is a cultural issue — people are not encouraged to shop for the lowest price but instead to keep their current doctors who have their medical history and follow health insurance advice for which provider to see. 'Patients should be somewhat empowered in this environment,' he said. Patients should be engaged with their doctors about what options are available, including what options would come at a lower cost, Slonaker said, adding that patient involvement is 'an essential arrow in the quiver' for reducing prices encouraging looking at quality and cost differences. Another suggestion from Wright and Tuesday's report is mandating the availability of an 'advanced explanation of benefits' which would require insurance companies and health care providers to work together to provide an estimate of the cost to patients ahead of the care. This was a requirement in the No Surprises Act, but was put on hold with no specific date to go into effect because the infrastructure for it was not available.
