From Deseret News archives:
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."
What is not included, and what will be the main focus of budget debates during the upcoming session, is how to spend approximately $1 billion in new money. Among the main proposals for that funding are tax cuts or increasing transportation and education funding.
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.
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