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The Royalty Route: A Guide to Federal Mineral Lease Revenue
When natural resources like oil, natural gas, coal, and potash are extracted from federal and trust lands in Utah, the financial benefits extend far beyond...
October 9, 2026
A Strange Time to Be a Debt Analyst: Utah’s Debt-Free Moment
This is an exciting year in the world of state debt. You might be asking yourself, why would I be excited by debt? Well, because...
October 2, 2026
Planning for Future Needs: Utah’s Correctional Capacity Strategy
As one of Utah’s larger state agencies, no one has ever claimed that the Corrections budget is easy to understand. However, while we won’t get...
September 25, 2026
Following the Money: A Guided Tour of Your Tax Dollars
Taxes are notoriously complicated, and while you might have a trusted accountant to tell you what you owe on your return, who tells you what...
September 18, 2026
Back to School: Packing Utah’s Public Ed Funding “Lunchbox”
If you've spent any time around public education funding, you've probably heard terms like WPU, enrollment growth, basic levy, or property tax equalization. At some...
August 14, 2026
Trailblazing into the Fiscal New Year with BOTSU
With the historic America 250 celebration on July 4th and Pioneer Day behind us, you might not have realized that July 1st marked another major...
July 31, 2026
Sine-Nara to the 2026 Utah General Session
As the gavel falls and the 2026 General Session moves to adjourn Sine Die, we find ourselves humming a familiar tune. Before we say adieu,...
March 6, 2026
Fiscal Field Guide: Cultivating the State Budget
The Soil: Base Budgets Every successful harvest begins with the quality of the soil. In Utah, that "soil" is the base budget; the essential, ongoing...
February 20, 2026
The Performance Cycle III: Unmasking State Spending
Today is Friday the 13th, which most people might associate with bad luck, spooky occurrences, or maybe even a movie marathon featuring a 1980s cult...
February 13, 2026
Mad Props: Introducing Utah’s Property Tax Dashboard
In Utah, property taxes are a substantial source of revenue despite the fact that the state does not impose these taxes. Instead, political subdivisions such...
January 30, 2026
The Chicken and the Egg: A Budgeting Story
As the 2026 General Session gets cracking, so too does the Request for Appropriation (RFA) process. Before RFAs existed, many bills were drafted solely to...
January 20, 2026
Winning Peers and Influencing Policymakers: A Performance Vision Board for the New Year
Dr. W. Edwards Deming said “if you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” Over the...
January 2, 2026