Constituent Newsletter, March 8, 2012

Final Gavel of 2012 We did it! Our $13 billion budget is balanced, we debated nearly 1,000 bills, and now we are adjourned until January 2013— unless, of course, the Governor calls the Legislature back into a special session at some point during the year. We were able to address the financial needs of the State without any tax increases and managed to put $11 million back into our Rainy Day Fund. Public education received the lion’s share of additional funding this year. Some of the funding items were included because our revenue estimates have grown from what was originally projected at about $280 million to now about $422 million. Here is a list of new spending items for Public Education over and above the Public Education base budget: • $41 million for enrollment growth for the 12,500 new students that will start school next year, • $5 million for teacher supplies, • $7 million for computer adaptive testing, • $5 million for small, rural schools, • Nearly $22 million increase in per pupil spending, • $5 million for online testing, • $2.5 million for charter schools, • Over $1 million for special education students, • $5 million for school buildings I wanted to provide some brief updates on some of the notable bills during the session. Two bills, SB 66 and HB 354, deal with some reforms to our State’s alcohol management policy. Legislative audits last fall revealed mismanagement and possible criminal malfeasance within the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC). Together these bills would make changes to the management and operations of the DABC. The bills would expand the number of commissioners, provide for internal auditors, and for Senate approval of commissioners appointed by the Governor. The bills would also move the management of money from alcohol sales and alcohol mark-ups to the State Tax Commission in order to provide for better account checks and balances of these critical funds. The Department of Public Safety is also charged, under these bills, with collecting data about alcohol abuse, underage drinking, DUI rates, over-serving, and over-consumption. Currently, the data used is either outdated or based on historical precedent.This information would allow for more correct and appropriate policy creation in the future. HB 173, Transportation Funding Modifications, is another important bill that will reduce our State bonding authorization for roads by $130 million. Essentially this means we are self-imposing a lower credit limit so we eliminate the possibility of over extending ourselves with road debt. Rather than have outside financial entities or economic circumstances dictate our credit and debt, we are self-regulating our credit limit. The best guarantee against future economic crisis is to ensure our budgets are sustainable. The bill also gives UDOT increased flexibility to move funding around within their budget for various projects by extending the road budget process out for a period of 3-fiscal years. Often projects on the list are in different phases of readiness due to design, environmental impacts and other factors. This will also allow UDOT to move projects ahead that are shovel ready over other projects that still need design; resulting in lower construction costs and other savings with the flexibility. It is anticipated that with this flexibility, UDOT will be able to complete additional transportation projects while at the same time reducing our overall bonding debt. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to represent you at the Legislature. I appreciate all the feedback I received during the session and hope you will continue to reach out to me with your views and issues.