Legislators get first look at budget
Meeting in their respective appropriations subcommittees, they essentially reviewed last year's budgets for state agencies. Unlike last year, however, they are not being given the opportunity to propose increases to those "base budgets" beyond what is already approved by legislative leaders.
The only approved increases, in fact, were "noncontroversial" increases, said House budget manager Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley. Most notably, those increases included $75 million for school enrollment growth, as well as additional funding for inflationary growth in the Health and Human Services budget.
"These are the issues when, if we were to vote on them separately, everybody votes for without really discussing," Bigelow said. "Anything that people want to debate is not included."
The base budgets, which have already been released as SB1 for general funds and SB3 for school funding, would spend $4.1 billion in state revenues, which was approved by the Executive Appropriations committee on Dec. 14. There is also more than $4 billion that comes from federal funds or dedicated money and simply "passes through" the state budget to various agencies or local governments, Bigelow said.
In only its second year, the "base budget" process is still evolving. Last year, the Executive Appropriations Committee, which is made up of Senate and House leaders from both parties, asked the appropriations subcommittees to submit their base budgets — including any proposed changes— within the first couple of weeks for approval. But this year, the leaders simply approved the base budgets, and any changes that need to be made can be tackled later in the session.
The top-down approach taken by Executive Appropriations will probably prevent a repeat of last year, when the Transportation and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee submitted their base budget, plus $85 million for roads.
That money had been the focus of debate between House and Senate Republicans and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and was supposed to be part of a later bill. Instead, it became part of the supposedly noncontroversial base budgets and would have forced the governor's hand if higher revenue projections were not released shortly after the bill was passed.
This year, the bills are expected to be debated in the first two weeks, Bigelow said, and to pass without "anything the governor is opposed" to funding.
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