Lawmakers agree with governor on 3 top needs
But the devil is in the details, the Republican lawmakers said, and while the governor "can deal in generalities, we can't," as House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, put it.
Speaking Tuesday at his Education Summit at Salt Lake Community College, Huntsman said he'll try to push tax money into those three areas for his fiscal 2008-09 budget, which will almost certainly top $12 billion. He plans to publicly release his recommended budget in early December, as required by law, and the Legislature will adopt next year's spending plan before it adjourns at the end of February.
The governor's priorities reflect pressing needs in the state. Utah has a growing number of uninsured residents — 300,000, including 46,000 children.
And according to state records, stringent new federal air-quality standards for particulate matter were violated about one-fifth of the time during the past winter in northern Utah. For summertime ozone levels, Salt Lake and Davis counties had 18 "red alert" days when the standard was violated, and Utah and Weber counties had 19 such days.
At the start of the 2008 legislative session, legislators will put $20 million of ongoing tax money into public schools to make whole last session's promised $2,500 pay raise for each teacher. Valentine said they will also find enough one-time moneys to ensure a $1,000, one-time bonus for each teacher will be paid, despite calculation errors that left the 2007 teacher-pay plan short of cash.
Curtis said that last year, legislators promised teachers a $2,500 pay raise, "and we are still committed to that. We don't know the type of pay raise that the governor wants in the future, in 2008, so we'll have to see what that is."
Curtis looks forward to details on the governor's budget priorities. "In the big picture, we all agree there should be health insurance for all. What are the details?" he said.
As for air quality, Curtis said, "living in this valley, we're all worried about it, but some are saying we shouldn't build the Mountain View Corridor highway because of air quality. Is he saying that? Does he want to set automobile emissions standards as some states are imposing? And what impact would have that have on fleets of vehicles and individuals?"
But newly installed House Minority Leader Brad King, D-Price, said the governor's priorities are encouraging. He has not heard of any budget priorities from the Republicans, but he added, "I hope they do the same thing as the governor. These are three really good priorities to me."
Even so, King said he would be surprised if air quality rose to the top three priorities of GOP lawmakers.
Over the next two weeks, Huntsman has set up "social/information" meetings with all of the 104 legislators and their spouses. Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said that at those closed, informal meetings, Huntsman plans to tell legislators what he wants out of the 2008 Legislature and to get to know the lawmakers and their spouses better.
Covering the state's 300,000 uninsured has been on the governor's priority list since he first campaigned. Having nearly 12 percent of Utahns without medical insurance puts incredible stress on medical benefits and service providers.
In Utah, as in many states, most medical-insurance plans are provided through the workplace. The governor's office is becoming even more convinced that core-level reform in health care — not just the cost of services — is needed.
The rapidly rising cost of services, which are twice the rate of inflation, is fueling the rapidly declining numbers of private companies providing insurance plans. A report issued Nov. 1 by the Economic Policy Institute showed Utah leading the nation in the rate of employers who have dropped medical-insurance coverage as an employee benefit.
Advocates for air-quality improvements reacted with delight to the governor's listing their concern as a top priority for the 2008 Legislature.
"We applaud him for doing so," said Dr. Brian Moench, an anesthesiologist who is president of the advocacy group Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. "Following through and actually implementing public policy that will improve the situation will take some real courage, because it will involve changing lifestyle."
Changes to help air quality will require modifying legislation that is "fairly entrenched and steeped in tradition," Moench said. "We want to do everything we can to help him succeed in that."
Together with other clean-air advocacy groups, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment plans to sponsor legislation to require the state to adopt a program in which a certain amount of in-state electricity comes from renewable energy. "We're thinking 20 percent," Moench said. Such a law would reduce or eliminate the need to build new coal-fired power plants, the group believes. "If we were to pick one priority piece of legislation, it would be that," Moench said.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; bau@desnews.com; jthalman@desnews.com
Recent comments
lackadaisical- adj. lazy; indolent; listless. I certainly hope...
to UhhHuh | Nov. 14, 2007 at 9:56 p.m.
reality-check out your figures. I got mine from the November 9th...
state man | Nov. 14, 2007 at 7:43 p.m.
I am a Republican and I applaud the governor for his concern for...
Air quality must improve! | Nov. 14, 2007 at 3:42 p.m.
