Libertas Institute

10/12/2026

California is about to hand off $3.4 trillion in inherited wealth. Will any of it come to Utah? 🤔

Over the next two decades, $3.4 trillion will transfer as older homeowners pass assets on. Inheritances give heirs the freedom to choose where their money goes furthest. Although Utah’s appeal is strong, wealthy individuals are eyeing zero-income-tax neighbors like Nevada and Wyoming.

To attract investment, support local businesses, and sustain growth, Utah must rethink income and capital gains taxes.

Read Kristian Fors’s full analysis 👇

Utah’s natural beauty makes it an attractive destination. Its 4.45 percent income tax, on the other hand, is a harder sell.

10/09/2026

A microschool founder in St. George once spent more than $100,000 fighting the city just for the right to teach kids. Local rules had no category for these small, new schools. Utah passed a first-of-its-kind law letting microschools open in any neighborhood and operate in sensible buildings.

Red tape no more—now education entrepreneurs have a clear pathway to launch their microschool.

10/07/2026

California's environmental regulations have been weaponized to stifle housing development, fueling the nation's largest housing shortage!

This provides a valuable cautionary tale for Utah: well-intentioned policy can have devastating consequences.

Read his latest piece in the Orange County Register on why regulatory predictability matters for housing supply: CEQA is standing in the way of the California Dream.

The first step in restoring the California Dream is lowering housing prices

10/07/2026

Doomsday predictions about AI wiping out jobs keep missing the mark while employment holds steady. History suggests innovation tends to create more opportunity than it destroys. The better bet is to embrace the new tools and adapt.

Doomsday AI job predictions keep missing while unemployment holds steady. Why Utah lawmakers should champion innovation over speculative fear.

10/06/2026

“It’s an awkward thing for the state to protect someone’s rights and due process throughout the process until the moment that we decide to kill them...” — Connor Boyack

From botched executions to prosecutorial misconduct and overturned cases, the death penalty is a prime example of government inefficiency and failure.

What do you think? Is it time for conservatives to rethink capital punishment?

Should conservatives apply the same mistrust of government to justice as they do to other functions?

10/05/2026

Utah limited the government's power to revoke a professional license over a criminal record that has nothing to do with the job. People who have paid their debt deserve a real path back to honest work.

10/03/2026

Reading and math scores have slipped below where they were before the pandemic. Results like these are a signal that repeating the same approach will not work. Families need real options now.

10/02/2026

Seven judges in one Utah district sent third-degree felons to jail or prison at rates from 41% to 89%. When lawmakers asked which approach cuts recidivism, auditors said that data doesn't exist.

A legislative audit found Utah judges jail third-degree felons at wildly different rates, and no one knows which approach reduces recidivism. Lawmakers should require better sentencing data.

10/01/2026

Should adults be free to make risky financial choices, or is regulation there to protect us from ourselves? 🤔

We allow people to make plenty of bad choices—from eating fast food every day to taking out high-interest loans.

So why do prediction markets and leveraged trading get hit with a completely different standard?

Check out our article as we dive into the fine line between consumer protection, market integrity, and personal accountability.

We allow people to eat sugary foods despite the adverse health effects. The same respect for individual choice should extend to other risky behaviors.

10/01/2026

For decades, police could grab your digital data without a warrant as long as a company was holding it for you. Utah passed the first law in the nation to close that loophole for all digital data. Storing your life in the cloud should not mean surrendering your privacy.

A first-in-the-nation law to protect privacy clamped down on law enforcement snooping on your digital data.