Budgeting by Huntsman
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As he spoke with the Standard-Examiner's editorial board Tuesday, Gov. Huntsman uttered the words we're guessing most Utah teachers thought they might never hear. Remarking on a series of years in which lawmakers and his office have teamed to increase public education spending by 7 percent each budget cycle, he said: "Our goal, in case you're wondering what we're up to, is over the next three to four years is to continue this rate, because having run the numbers, there's light at the end of the tunnel. If we continue at 7 percent, we'll catch the national average within four years. And that is our goal."
Spending money on teachers -- what Huntsman refers to as addressing "compensation" and "capacity building" among the ranks of teachers -- will be necessary just to keep pace with the exploding need for additional teachers in public ed. The need is painfully obvious, he noted, pointing to the Beehive State's 400-teacher shortfall at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.
And so far, it's looking like Utah government will be able to deliver on that boost to public education, as well as higher-ed, transportation needs, air quality initiatives and a host of additional items in Huntsman's proposed state budget. The governor, who refers to these needs, and others, as "fundamental pillars of growth," says the state should enjoy about $1.1 billion in ongoing and one-time revenue surpluses this year.
The national economic outlook may be questionable, he says, but Utah's economy is still chugging along -- with 2.8 percent unemployment, which he describes as essentially full employment; lots of companies in the state would like to expand, he explains, but finding the employees to staff those positions is increasingly difficult.
This rosy outlook is part and parcel of Huntsman's budget, which will now be forwarded on to the Legislature for its election year ritual of slicing and dicing. With that kind of additional revenue -- some $431 million in ongoing tax growth alone -- Huntsman is recommending to lawmakers that they should boost corrections funding by 13 percent to retain officers and help counties maintain secure jails, pay college and university faculty a lot more in order to keep them working in Utah, significantly boost money for roads and corridor preservation, and pump another $40 million into the state's Rainy Day Fund, bringing its total to almost $400 million.
We doubt the Legislature will share his dewy-eyed optimism concerning the long-term economic outlook, but time will tell.
We're also intrigued by Huntsman's so-called "health system reform" initiative. He proposes to spend more than $30 million to "develop comprehensive health system reform," which would include everything from patient treatment and diagnostics to getting health insurance for 306,000 Utahns who don't have it. He'd also like to save the estimated 25 percent to 50 percent of total health care expenditures that are wasteful for one reason or another. Huntsman hasn't yet revealed many details of this ambitious proposal, but it's definitely an issue of enormous consequence to all Utahns.
On the whole, Huntsman's proposal -- view all 168 pages on the Web at http://governor.utah.gov/gopb/budgetrecommendations09.html -- seems balanced and reasonable to us. We'll comment more on its specifics in the coming weeks, and as it moves through the sausage-grinder of the legislative session that begins in January.
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