COMMUNITY MATTERS
		Financial Stability Council Releases Far-Reaching Proposals

If you have read the local newspapers of late or listened to your radio, perhaps you are familiar with United Way’s Financial Stability Council, a group of 130 top-level business, government, and community leaders.

Over the past six months, the Financial Stability Council has met to address some of our state’s most serious challenges. Indeed, the financial challenges we all face require innovative and far-reaching solutions and the Financial Stability Council was formed to developed a foundation for bold, new strategies to help every Utah household achieve financial security. Consider these startling facts:

• 360,000 Utahns currently have no insurance, including 90,000 children and 140,000 people between ages 19 and 34.
• Over the past decade, median household incomes in Utah grew by 15 percent, while family health care premiums increased 109 percent.
• If current trends continue, health insurance premiums will consume half of median household income in 10 years, and exceed that income in 20 years.
• Some 509,000 Utahns live in "asset poverty," meaning that they could only survive three months at the poverty level were they to lose their income and rely solely on their savings and other assets.
• Of bankruptcy filers with credit card debt, 80 percent reported using credit cards to meet basic needs like food, transportation and housing.

Obviously, middle and lower-income Utahns (and Americans in general) face significant and growing financial challenges. Measures of financial instability among Utah households indicate growing levels of indebtedness, income and asset inadequacy, financial illiteracy, and lack of preparation for emergencies, post-secondary education and retirement. The fact remains, too many Utah families are teetering on the edge of financial disaster. To address the problem at its core, UWSL identified five fundamental components of financial stability:

1. Health care
2. Income
3. Assets
4. Housing
5. Financial literacy

After much exhaustive research and discussion by the Financial Stability Council, we now have strategic, innovative proposals in draft form, which address each of the five areas of financial stability. The proposals were released to the public last week and we are now seeking public input. Summaries of the proposals can be found on our website, as well as links to the complete proposals. You may also read highlights of each proposal in the Impact Matters article in this newsletter.

Truly, financial stability is not just an individual matter, but also one requiring the attention and actions of our entire community. We hope you will read the proposals of our Financial Stability Council, provide your input, and lend your voices to this imperative effort.

Deborah S. Bayle
President and CEO