Why Utah Has Become America’s Economic Star

From taxes to education to the business climate, the Beehive State has its house in order.

By Stephen Moore. Excerpts:

"the real secret to Utah’s success is disarmingly simple: The state’s politicians tend to do everything right to encourage business development and job creation.

Utah has a low, flat-rate income and corporate tax of below 5%. There’s no death tax, so wealthy people don’t have to flee to Florida after they retire. It’s is a right-to-work state, meaning workers can’t be compelled to join unions. Even though the regulatory touch is light, Utah has some of the best health outcomes in the nation.

The minimum wage in Salt Lake City and Provo is $7.25 an hour, not the $10 to $15 mandated in many blue states and cities. This has allowed employers to respond to labor-market forces. Because jobs are so plentiful, wages are rising briskly. Job growth has ranked second in the nation for the past decade, and the state’s population growth ranks in the top three. The Salt Lake metro area has become one of America’s fastest-growing tech sectors and is now nicknamed the Silicon Slopes.

Utah’s K-12 schools serve families well despite per pupil state spending that is the lowest in the nation and $4,000 below the national average. Fourth-graders in the state ranked in the top 10 in both math and reading on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress. So much for money buying better school results.

The state government in Salt Lake also has Utah’s fiscal house in order. Utah was among the first states in the nation to start erasing public pension liabilities by gradually shifting to a defined-contribution pension system for government workers. Property taxes fund actual municipal services—schools, police protection, hospitals and roads. In other states—most notably, California, Illinois and West Virginia—hundreds of billions of dollars in pension liabilities are draining tax revenues."

"But while their elected representatives are frugal, Utah residents don’t feel deprived. According to WalletHub.com Utah is the second-happiest state in the country. Only Hawaiians are happier."

"Roughly half of Utah’s population explosion has been due to net migration of almost 80,000 newcomers (mostly young) over the past decade from other states."

"it has the least income inequality in the nation, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data."