Huntsman's spending plan
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ith the amount of spare tax revenue sloshing around in Utah's coffers -- expected to total $1.6 billion, including this year's actual surplus and next year's anticipated excess -- the 2007 legislative session should be a donnybrook. That's because the more money there is to play with, the meaner the politics.
You might think the opposite would be true. But you would be wrong. The last time Utahns glimpsed much statesmanlike conduct from lawmakers was during the lean years -- 2001 through 2003 -- when tax revenues plummeted and budgets had to be slashed.
That $1.6 billion surplus, a Utah record, will be the source of significant discord. Some lawmakers will want to rebate the tax money, while others will say it should be spent on education. Some will argue that we should use it to build roads. There are lawmakers who would like to see it spent on social programs to serve the disadvantaged. And, not out of the realm of possibility: At least one or two will probably want to use it to train school teachers how to use handguns, and perhaps even buy them guns to take to the classroom.
This is Utah, after all.
Although the Legislature does not convene in its regular 45-day session until Jan. 15, the debate began Tuesday when Gov. Jon Huntsman released his proposed $10.7 billion spending plan. As he told a representative of the Standard-Examiner's editorial board Monday in a budget-preview in his Capitol office, "Education is the heart and soul of this budget."
And so it is, with Huntsman recommending an all-time-high 7 percent increase ($153.7 million) in the Weighted Pupil Unit -- about 80 percent of which goes to teacher salaries and benefits. Overall, public education (K-12) would get an 18.2 percent increase in Huntsman's budget, compared to last year's actual increase of 10.6 percent. Huntsman's plan calls for lots of increases, including $7.5 million for full-day kindergarten, $28.7 million for class-size reduction, $25 million in one-time bonuses for Utah's 24,000 teachers, $22 million for teacher training and $67.3 million toward meeting enrollment growth.
Likewise, higher education comes in for a real bump in funding at 7.2 percent. The largest component of that increase will be $38.2 million for salaries, with a chunk of the money -- $13.2 million -- earmarked for key faculty retention, to keep professors from fleeing the state looking for higher pay.
But while the net increase for education is record-setting, there's also the matter of income tax reform. All income taxes fund education, per the Utah Constitution's instructions. Huntsman hopes to create a 5 percent flat tax that will, projections say, save Utah taxpayers $100 million next year; that's ongoing money removed from education's bottom line. Even so, the increases Huntsman is proposing for education would still be record-setting.
Those two objectives, we believe, will help to accomplish what Huntsman is trying to do: Improve Utah's system of public education -- most notably by retaining teachers that may otherwise leave the state or stop teaching altogether -- and lower income taxes to the point businesses and investment capital begin flowing into the state more rapidly, further boosting our already healthy economy.
Given such a large surplus, Huntsman's proposed budget also looks toward making good on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transportation projects -- including corridor preservation -- increased pay for correction workers and funding for law-enforcement initiatives, the preservation of open lands and the shoring up of the state's so-called "rainy-day funds."
But as we mentioned before, now begins the bare-knuckle fighting over all that money. The governor's proposal is one individual's vision of how that $10.7 billion should be spent. Now the task will be to negotiate the details with 104 strong-minded legislators who have their own way of looking at the budget.
As a blueprint for the months of work ahead, we think the governor's priorities make sense. We urge lawmakers to approach the task of endorsement and revision in good faith.
