From Deseret News archives:
Leaders beat budget deadline
House, Senate bills to arrive one day early
One day after complaining of deadlocked Republican caucuses in both the House and Senate on the budget for coming fiscal year, legislative leaders approved two supplemental appropriations bills in the Executive Appropriations Committee Wednesday night.
The bills, which will be introduced as SB1 and HB301 for floor debate one day ahead of the Friday deadline for approving the budget, spend the majority of the $415 million in new revenue that had not been budgeted in two previously approved budget bills.
"We've come to agreement with the House and with the governor on the next round of budgets," Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said Wednesday after that day's second closed-door caucus had essentially resolved disputes between Republican legislators, who control both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Although ahead of the Friday deadline, legislative leaders did not have a budget as early as some had hoped, and most predictions Tuesday were that Executive Appropriations would not even meet until Thursday because of Wednesday evening's planned fund-raiser for southern Utah flood victims. Despite that event, as well as an apparent major split within the caucuses only 24 hours earlier, leaders were able to get their early budget.
As with the initial "base budget" bills signed by Huntsman Tuesday, HB1 and HB3, the funding approved Wednesday evening includes a heap of cash for transportation, with an additional $30 million in one-time funding and $20 million in ongoing funding — bringing the grand total for new transportation funding this year to $120 million. That is well above the $85 million House leaders were pushing for earlier in the session or the $95 million approved by the Transportation, Environmental and National Guard Appropriations Subcommittee two weeks earlier — and more than triple the $33 million proposed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
"I would urge them to look at I-15 in Utah County, if I had my say," Valentine said.
If the bills are approved without amendment, legislators will also get $108 million in one-time money and $35 million in ongoing funding for building construction, including $48 million for the Marriott Library restoration and earthquake-proofing. There is also $5 million appropriated for agriculture buildings at Utah State University.
