A decision on whether to extend the pilot four-day work week for state employees set to end in August will be delayed at least a few months, lawmakers were told Wednesday.

Information on how much the state is actually saving on energy costs by shutting down state offices on Fridays won't be ready until the Legislature's October interim meetings. Also expected then is a report on how well Utahns like state offices that provide services such as vehicle registrations being open longer hours Monday through Thursday but being closed on Fridays.

Both will be key factors in whether the program instituted by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. last August continues.

Rep. Craig Frank, R-Cedar Hills, chairman of the Legislature's Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, said he'd hoped the data would be ready by the end of the one-year pilot.

"We've been waiting anxiously. I think we've been pretty patient," Frank said.

But Mike Hansen of the governor's office of planning and budget said it's going to take some time to analyze the utility costs over the pilot period as they compare to previous years.

Although Huntsman had projected the state would save $3 million annually on utility bills by switching to the four-day schedule, initial reports suggest the savings will be considerably less. In some cases, that's because fewer state buildings could be shut down completely on Fridays.

Hansen told the committee there will be savings, but the question is how much. For example, he said, the state has cut the costs of emptying trash cans nightly in state offices by some $200,000. He said the state's air quality has also shown improvements because state employees no longer commute on Fridays.

Calculating the satisfaction level of the consumers of state services, however, is much harder, Hansen said. He said one possibility may be hiring a pollster to conduct a statewide survey, but that would require funding.

Although Huntsman started the program, he's likely to have stepped down before the information is available to decide its fate. Huntsman is awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as President Barack Obama's ambassador to China.

Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, who is set to become governor after Huntsman is confirmed and resigns, plans to continue the program until the new data can be assessed, his chief of staff, Joe Demma, said.

"The lieutenant governor believes it's important to wait until all the data is collected relative to the pilot project before moving it forward," Demma said. Like Huntsman, he said Herbert is interested in both the cost savings and whether Utahns believe customer service from the state has been improved.

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