Utah’s Budget Process, Pt. 2

The Bee’s “Utah’s Budget Process, Part 1,” concluded with the observation that the Governor enjoys significant power to shape Utah’s budget, because of his authority to veto specific lines of the Legislature’s budget bills without vetoing the bills in their entirety. This authority means that the Legislature must include the Governor and Governor’s recommendations in its budget deliberations. The first part of the Governor’s participation in the budgeting process is the December release of the Governor’s recommended budget.

The clear winner in the Governor’s recommended budget for the 2018 General Session is education, which would receive 72% of the State’s projected revenue increase of $382 million. In the Governor’s recommendations, K-12 public education would receive an increase of $208 million and higher education would receive $77 million. To stay level, the K-12 public education budget would need to increase approximately $35 million just to match enrollment growth of 7,700 additional students. On top of that, for teacher salaries to stay level, tens of millions also would be required to meet increased health insurance costs.

Informal, arm-around-the-shoulder-training of new legislators often consists of veteran legislators showing new legislators how to deal with the Governor’s budget recommendations by dropping the thick document into a trash can. Rolling into the 2018 session, however, it seems that the Legislative branch is largely in agreement with the Governor’s budget recommendations, given the favorable comments of Senate President Wayne Neiderhauser and House Speaker Greg Hughes. However, as described in Part 1, budget subcommittees and rank-and-file membership of the Legislature have significant sway in Utah’s budgeting process.