SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ After three days of fighting with each other and the governor, the Utah Legislature late Tuesday evening approved a new, tightened budget to fix a $173 million deficit.
To get to that point, the Republican majority agreed to compromise with Gov. Mike Leavitt and ease its planned cuts to education.
The GOP plan originally proposed $101 million in state program cuts, including $35 million to public and higher education.
The compromise resulted in $73.3 million cut from programs for the fiscal year that began July 1. Public education was cut by $10 million, or 0.6 percent, and $2.3 million, or 0.56 percent, was sliced from higher education.
The Senate passed the budget bill 18-8. House followed suit, approving the matter 43-25 at 11:41 p.m. Tuesday.
"This is, I think, a sad day in Utah," said House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake City. He said lawmakers should have looked at options including more bonding for buildings instead of cutting education and programs for the disabled and elderly.
"It's a shame that we let ideological principles stand in the way of practical results," he said.
Not counting Tuesday's trimming, public education has had $42 million in cuts in the 2002 and 2003 budgets, according to the Utah Education Association.
GOP lawmakers also agreed to put back $6 million into the pot for some human services and corrections programs the governor had balked at cutting.
Republican senators adopted the plan as presented. But House Republicans endorsed the compromise only after voting that $2 million in water subsidies should be funneled into the general fund one time only, not on an ongoing basis as the governor had wanted.
Leavitt said that this change wouldn't be a budget deal breaker and he would not use his power of line item veto to block the change.
"I stood with the deal and I continue to. I was disappointed that the House didn't," Leavitt said.
The new budget will spend $17.8 million from the tobacco settlement fund. It needed approval from three-fourths of the Legislature to pass, which meant support from the minority party.
The Republicans control the Legislature by a two-thirds margin in the House and Senate.
Democrats had hoped to use their votes as a bargaining chip to push some of their budget ideas that were previously ignored, but instead went along with the Republican plan.
"I don't think it was worth the gamble," said Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price. "It was the only chip we had."
He said he believes that leverage did help in reducing cuts in public education.
The legislators said they were worried that after patching this budget hole, there is no more money left for future rainy days.
The new budget digs into the state's highway fund, taking a total of $66.4 million. Only about $5 million more in undedicated money remains in the fund.
Along with another $10 million in the state's rainy day fund, there is just $15 million in revenue to use if another budget shortfall crops up.
Senate President Al Mansell, R-Sandy, said lawmakers were leery of dredging the state's shallow reserves.
"The Legislature is not quite convinced we've seen our last deficit," he said.
Even the compromise plan dangerously drains the state's emergency fund, he said. That could mean tax increases or severe program cuts if the state's finances continue to slide.
The special session on the latest budget shortfall began June 26 and continued Monday and Tuesday. By law, the state's budget must be balanced.
Utah's budget has been taking hits as tax collections come in lower than expected. In May, the Legislature had to fix a $138 million budget deficit in the previous fiscal year.
That's when lawmakers voted to take $68 million from the state's rainy day fund, leaving $10 million in an account that at the start of the year had $120 million.
In other work, the lawmakers voted to cut their own pay from $120 to $100 a day for the rest of the year, saving the state $25,000. That's about as much as it costs for one day of a legislative special session.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
