Utah Legislature: Rallying cry at Capitol: If this isn’t rainy day, what would be?

SALT LAKE CITY — If there's a better time than now for lawmakers to reach deep into the state's Rainy Day Fund, a group of area education and social services representatives can't imagine when it would be.

Standing in the Capitol rotunda under umbrellas Thursday to make their point, the group of about 30 urged members of the Legislature's main budget-setting committee to use more of the fund.

The request comes a day after Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie asked lawmakers to take $50 million from the fund, telling them that it is raining now but the sun will come out on the economy and the funds won't be depleted for long.

Steve Erickson, longtime social services programs advocate, said while funds are being generated by implementing a $1 cigarette tax, and some programs for poor and disabled Utahns are likely to be backfilled, "there are still gaping holes in the state's social safety net."

The practice the past two years of "shaving programs here and there" keeps programs off-kilter and people hanging on. Many who have lives in which it's raining all the time need help just to barely get by, he and others said.

They said other programs benefit Utah children, whom lawmakers like to call the state's future and most important resource.

"The future is sitting in classrooms today," Utah Education Association President Kim Campbell said, urging lawmakers to look "in every nook and cranny and under the sofa cushions" for one-time funding to meet the immediate need rather than impose further cutbacks on public education.

And, once the crisis of the "great recession" is over, "we must repair Utah's broken tax system" and ensure that children in a recession are just as worthy of programs properly funded as children in times of prosperity.

Lawmakers on Thursday added funds back to the General Assistance program, which helps Utahns who become disabled bridge living expenses after an injury with state money until federal disability payments begin.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com