By Dan Bammes
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kuer/local-kuer-948393.mp3
Salt Lake City, UT –
There are two kinds of money that go into Utah's state budget. Ongoing revenue comes mainly from taxes. The amount available grows with the state's economy - and shrinks during a recession. It's the base that everything else is built on.
Then there's one-time money. It can come from many sources - federal funding such as the economic stimulus bill, legal settlements, lots of other places. What makes it one-time money is that legislators can't count on it for next year.
During the recession, the Utah legislature used one-time money to plug holes in the budget - hundreds of millions of dollars worth. But now, just as it appears the economy is recovering, legislative leaders have asked each agency of state government to prepare for a seven-percent cut. The goal is to eliminate what's being called the "structural deficit." Lyle Hillyard, who chairs the Executive Appropriations Committee, explained:
"One-time money is really good as a bridge. And I'm concerned in the three years we've been doing budgets with this crisis that we use one-time money as an excuse to get through the next year without really thinking of the long-term implications. I've described one-time money as a parachute. It softens the blow, but as one of my fellow colleagues said, you still have to land."
Gregg Buxton, a former legislator who now heads the Division of Facilities and Construction Management, told an appropriations subcommittee his agency has been squeezed to its limit.
"I have zero redundancy. If I have somebody get sick or hurt or in an accident, that doubles the load on somebody else. And quite frankly, we're doubled up about as far as we can go right now."
Other agencies have found that generating their own revenue is one way to manage their shrinking appropriations. Kim Hood, the head of the Department of Administrative Services, says state purchasing is moving to fee-based contracts - and she concedes that can raise the price of everything the state buys, from office supplies to patrol cars. "It is an administrative fee on the contract," she says. "Now vendors do have the opportunity to increase their prices slightly in order to help pay for that cost."
Legislative leaders are hoping to put together a base budget reflecting those seven-percent cuts early in the session. New revenue projections are due in the middle of next month - and it seems likely there will be enough ongoing money available then to reduce at least some of those cuts.
Cost was one of the issues cited in yesterday's debate on the floor of the Utah House of Representatives over whether to designate a state firearm. Republican Representative Carl Wimmer proposed the Browning M-1911 45-caliber automatic pistol to join the list of state symbols that includes the seagull, the beehive, the blue spruce and the Dutch oven. The goal, he said, is to honor its inventor, John Moses Browning - and this designation doesn't cost the state anything. "Symbols and state designation are simply there to capture - they're there for one reason and one reason only - to capture a part or a portion of state history. And I think this is a very appropriate designation to capture a portion of state history."
The debate went on for half an hour, with different legislators finding their own reasons for supporting or opposing an official state firearm.
Democratic Representative Carol Spackman Moss: "I'm envisioning kids coloring, drawing pictures of, answering quizzes about a gun."
Republican Representative Richard Greenwood: "I'd just like to let this body know that weapon was carried on my hip for two years, during Viet Nam. It protected me."
Republican Representative John Dougall: "Whether we're talking a designation of a month or a day or an item like a crock pot or a tree, it's appropriate for us to take time for designations, then?"
The final vote was 51 to 19 to pass House Bill 219 and send it to the Senate. A couple of Republicans - John Dougall and Fred Cox - joined Democrats in voting against the bill.
The day concluded with Governor Gary Herbert addressing both houses of the Utah legislature in his State of the State address. Herbert outlined four principles he says will guide Utah's recovery. "Like any sound structure, Utah's prosperity will be built upon four cornerstones: Education, Energy Development, Job Creation and Utah's ability to solve its own problems."
The governor says Utah is able to fund the growth in its public schools this year - more than 14-thousand new students. He said Utah's low-cost energy is critical to the business climate, and the state needs to start looking at nuclear power as an option. And he pointed to a recent decision by designate new "Wild Lands" in Utah as unacceptable interference by the federal government.
"With no public input, with no state input, this pronouncement threatens years of collaboration and rural economic progress. Let me be clear: This process and the resulting policy are flat out wrong."
Democratic leaders in the legislature recorded their response before the governor's speech. They promised to support affordable health care and show compassion to the disabled and others who need the state's help.
Senator Ross Romero promised not to get distracted by meaningless battles. "We will not be sidetracked by politically motivated message bills or efforts to take on the federal government."
Shortly before the governor's speech, Republicans on the Senate Education Committee voted to back an amendment to Utah's state constitution that would give control of public and higher education to the governor and eliminate the authority of the State Board of Education. The only opposing vote was a Democrat, Karen Morgan.