Statehouse leaders acknowledged Monday that slashing about $175 million from this year’s budget will quickly impact many departments.
“It will be felt immediately,” said Rep. David Litvack, a Salt Lake City Democrat.
Litvack warned that “the cuts we are making are ongoing.”
“We are going to impact services and some people’s employment,” said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City. “That does not mean that the world is ending.”
The appropriations legislation approved Monday cuts more than three percent across-the-board from most state budgets, said Rep. Christine Johnson, a Salt Lake City Democrat who serves the Snyderville Basin.
“In as much as all of the Democrats’ priorities were not agreed upon, I thought that in order to be supportive of this cooperative effort and supportive of the governor, I would support [the cuts,]” Johnson said in a telephone interview. “At some point we have to say, ‘It’s not just good guys and bad guys; it’s trying to find a compromise.'”
But with about $414 million in the state Rainy Day Fund, Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said he voted against the cuts.
“What we have here is a temporary revenue problem,” King said on the House floor Monday. “We don’t have a spending problem.”
Tapping coffers set aside for emergencies could lessen the blow of budget cuts on education, King said.
“If we don’t cut education, if we don’t cut public and higher ed we’re going to be looked at as a model with this legislation,” King said. “What we’ve got here is a failure to tap to any degree the Rainy Day Fund.”
Utah lawmakers are ignoring money the state should receive from a roughly $800 billion federal stimulus package, he said.
“I don’t understand why we’re not more willing to bond,” King said. The budget cuts could mean hundreds of state employees are laid off, he said.
“I believe we can balance (the budget) more fairly on the backs of all Utah citizens,” King said about using Rainy Day funds to avoid cutting staff.
Legislation that helped balance the 2009 budget this week needed votes from two-thirds of lawmakers to immediately take effect.
“Things can always be different,” said Rep. Mel Brown, a Coalville Republican who represents Park City. “If I were king for a day, I might have made a few budget adjustments.”
He and Johnson voted for the cuts.
Since last year lawmakers have cut about 11 percent from the budget for fiscal year 2009, Brown explained.
“It’s going to be an impact on this next six months,” Brown said in a telephone interview. “Higher education is dealing with some fairly serious problems. Every budget is dealing with some serious problems.”
But lawmakers helped lessen the impact of Monday’s cuts on education and health by using about $100 million of one-time money to patch the budget gaps, Brown said.
“There was money pulled from the budgets and then there was one-time money pulled as backfill,” he said.
Should revenue projections fall short for fiscal year 2010, which begins July 1, Brown said up to 3,100 state jobs could hit the chopping block. About half of those positions would be eliminated at state colleges and universities, he added.
“That’s a ripple that comes down through our entire system of education, and the entire state,” Brown said. “I wonder if there are enough statesmen left in the Legislature that if taxes need to be raised, we have enough votes to do it.”
A major budget shortfall is expected again next year, but lawmakers haven’t spent any of the state’s roughly $100 million education reserve fund, Brown said.
“Rainy Day money is for a rainy day,” Brown said. “I don’t think there is any question that some of the Rainy Day Fund will be used, but you can’t use it all.”
Still, with deep funding cuts expected next year, Johnson said lawmakers should keep critical budgets intact by bonding for road projects in the state.
“I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will really consider using bonding and Rainy Day funds,” Johnson said. “A real balance is saying, ‘Where can we cut back without losing too many jobs? Where can we cut back without sacrificing the basic critical function of programs?'”
Where public and higher education budgets are concerned: “I frankly don’t think there is money to trim,” Johnson said.
“My constituents are very concerned about the quality of our public education system,” she said.