GOP leaders scurrying to finalize $200 million in budget cuts

GOP legislative leaders were scurrying behind the scenes Wednesday to finalize what will end up being about $200 million in cuts to the current-year budget.

The list of cuts won't be made public until Thursday, after Republican House and Senate leaders and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. sign off, said Senate Budget Chairman Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan.

Then the cuts will need to be approved by both the House and Senate majority Republican caucuses, which will meet over lunch, and the Executive Appropriations Committee in the afternoon.

Hillyard said the reductions in spending through the budget year that ends June 30 will receive final approval by the full House and Senate either Friday or Monday, at the latest.

Both Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, and House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said the deal is just about done.

Clark said some small differences still exist between GOP legislators and Huntsman, who is also a Republican, "but we are close enough, we can jump that creek."

Hillyard warned that if state revenues continue to fall, lawmakers could end up having to return in special session in May or June to make even more cuts. Already, there's $1 billion less available than a year ago.

"We need to be prepared," Hillyard told senators from the floor Wednesday. He said the next set of revenue projections, due in late February, should give lawmakers a better idea of how much trouble the state is in.

He said it's actually $400 million that will be taken out of the current-year budget, but $200 million has been cobbled together from a variety of sources that will be used to "backfill" some of the cuts.

The Legislature's Democratic minority is waiting to see the cuts, too. "We look forward to seeing the numbers," Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, D-Holladay, said. "We're waiting for them anxiously."

All this means even less to spend in the upcoming budget year, which begins July 1. Huntsman's proposed $10.6 billion budget includes a 7 percent cut, while GOP lawmakers say it could be as much as 15 percent.

Approving cuts to the current-year budget allows a "base budget" bill for the upcoming budget year to be drafted and passed early next week.

Then another round of budget committee meetings must be held to decide if 15 percent really needs to be cut, or whether some money can be added back into next year's spending plan, as the governor hopes.