Lawmakers Consider Impact of Last Year’s Cuts, More Cuts Loom

10.19.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) The state legislature’s top budget committee meets tomorrow at the Capitol to hear from several state agencies about how they implemented last year’s budget cuts.  Executive Appropriations Committee Co-chairman Senator Lyle Hillyard says it will help lawmakers see a more complete picture of how the budget cuts affected state services.

“It will be helpful for us to see what really actually happened,” Hillyard says. “You know, it’s one thing, and I think this is something that will be more difficult for us as legislators is last year we talked about cuts and implemented cuts but didn’t have a chance to be out in our districts and see what it really meant.”

Last year, the Legislature approved more than $1 billion in budget cuts, but softened the blow with one-time appropriations from reserve funds and federal stimulus money. However, the programs saved last year by this roughly $450 million appropriation are vulnerable to cuts this year. Meanwhile, revenues have continued to decrease, and enrollment in Utah’s public schools and Medicaid have increased.

Hillyard says the bottom line is that lawmakers might face up to a $900 million budget shortfall this session. And while some claim there is no more fat left to trim from certain areas, Hillyard says some agencies are finding new, more efficient ways of operating.

“There’s some interesting things being done to try to minimize the cuts in services by changing how services are delivered. And it’s interesting to see that. And I feel very encouraged to talk to agencies who are struggling to do that,” Hillyard says. “And that is really what the backfill was for, was to give them a year’s time to try to work things out.”

Hillyard says more cuts are likely, because even if a tobacco tax increase passes, the grocery tax is reinstated and the $420 million Rainy Day Fund is depleted, it wouldn’t be enough to bridge the anticipated budget shortfall.