State budget outlook remains depressing

State leaders say 292 state and higher education employees have been laid off because of severe budget shortfalls.

But considering that $1.8 billion was cut from state, higher and public education, transportation and other budgets over the last year or so, the loss of only 300 jobs can be a bit puzzling, legislative leaders said Tuesday afternoon.

And with all the budget pain, how come the state hired 1,500 people last year?

The state's budget/employment picture is complicated and depressing — that was one thing all members of the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee, made up of GOP and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, could agree on.

While the current year's budget (which started July 1) saw on average 8 percent cuts, next year's budget will start at further 9 percent cuts.

Utah won't have more than $1 billion in federal stimulus funds next year, money that buoyed state budgets in the current fiscal year.

"We originally feared there would be about 1,000" state employee layoffs, said fiscal analyst Gary Ricks. In the end, fewer than 300 lost their jobs.

In the budget-cutting process, however, 1,371 positions in state government and higher education were eliminated. Many of those positions came open through retirements and resignations starting last September when then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and the Legislature started putting the screws to state spending.

It is still unclear how many layoffs may come in public education or how many unfilled positions will ultimately be cut.

Each of the state's 41 school districts signs contracts with teachers and other school workers, and those numbers have not been calculated yet.

Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, D-Holladay, asked if any effort was being made to document how state services were being harmed with all the cuts.

For example, Jones said one of her constituents complained that he had called the Department of Workforce Services 40 times, trying to find out how to apply for unemployment, and no one had answered the phone.

"It is really important for citizens to know what should be their expectations. What kind of reduction in services" should be acceptable, Jones said.

If you thought things in state government were bad now, the 2010 Legislature will have even more difficult decisions to make, legislators were told.