A new study of state government spending the past decade adds a note of reality to an old joke among education and social services advocates: "How do you get a Utah legislator to support more funding for low-income Utahns? Put a road in your budget."

Spending for education, health care and services for the poor and disabled has increased, but lawmakers lean heavily toward investing taxpayer dollars in capital improvements, particularly highway construction, according to a study by Voices for Utah Children, the state's leading child advocacy group.

During the past decade as Utah's population grew by 23 percent, Utahns' annual income increased by 26 percent and the state's annual budget increased by 27 percent, spending for highway construction and transportation improvements increased by 53 percent.

When funding for school buildings and new prison space is combined with transportation, capital expenditures in Utah increased by 77 percent.

Spending on all other programs, including public education, higher education and other state agencies combined, rose by 1 percent.

The report shows that funding for public health services and health care-related and social services programs for Utah's low-income, senior and disabled residents — spending that many legislators have warned will bankrupt the state eventually if not controlled — increased by 30 percent the past 10 years but still only accounts for 6 percent of the state's overall spending package.

Public education — the single-largest portion of the budget — has received significant increases in spending the past 10 years but receives a smaller share of state dollars now than it did in 1999, according to the report.

Overall, since 1999, state agencies "have tightened their belts" while at the same time dealing with increasing demand for services, Rowland said.

"It would be illogical to expect government expenditures to remain unchanged in the midst of the rapid demographic and economic expansion the past 10 years," she said, "but the great increases in transportation spending, which is already a substantial portion of the budget already, has come at the expense of public and higher education."

Lawmakers have limited growth in operations spending as a strategy in the coming years as Utah's economic boom tapers off, she said.

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E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com