From Deseret News archives:
House Republicans issue budget proposal
Speaker-elect Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said after the closed meeting that lawmakers are facing unprecedented short- and long-term fiscal challenges — including a $350 million shortfall for the current fiscal quarter — and that immediate legislative action is required.
"We've asked the governor to call another special session," Clark said. "We're seeing (revenue) losses across the board, corporate and personal income tax, sales tax ... I'd like to be in special session right now."
Clark said state operations are faced with essentially the same financial circumstances that led to an emergency session called earlier this fall. At that session, lawmakers found a necessary $354 million in savings and achieved, as it turned out, only a short-term solution to balancing the books.
Clark said the caucus heard dire reports from four different economists at the meeting, all of whom posited continued economic sluggishness through at least the middle of next year. As a foil against those declining numbers, Clark said he and his fellow House party members sided with their Senate brethren in a plan to ask state agencies to start computing next years budgets at 85 percent of their last budget. Clark noted that that reduced figure will become the starting point for budget discussions, also known as the base budgets, during the upcoming session.
A 15 percent cut from last year's $13 billion dollar budget is almost double the $1 billion-plus that the state is currently expected to lose, so GOP legislators hope that the cuts will not be that drastic. The final budget can be set following updated revenue numbers, which are due in mid-February.
"We're contracting state government," Clark said. "We're hoping this is a little more than we need to cut, and we can come back and add to it."
The GOP legislators proposal diverges from the package Huntsman presented earlier this month that asks for agency reductions in the range of 4-7 percent and a call for bonding to keep transportation projects viable as part of an "economic kick-start" package. His budget proposal, however, encompasses all of the state money for the next fiscal year, not just the base budget appropriations.
Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said Monday that the governor is also not in favor of an additional special session.
"The governor does not feel (a special session) is necessary at this time, being that we're so close to the scheduled session and agencies are already implementing reductions," she said.
