With less than 20 minutes to go until the curtain fell on the Utah Legislature’s 2022 general session at midnight on Friday, lawmakers put their final stamp of approval on the state’s over $25 billion budget — one that legislative leaders called the largest in state history.
“It’s an eye-popping amount of money,” House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, told reporters in a media availability Friday. “But I think we’ve invested it well.”
Even though the Legislature had an extra $2 billion to spend this year, lawmakers complained that this year’s budget process was among the most difficult they’ve ever had to navigate, with budget requests far outpacing the amount of money lawmakers had to spend.
Legislative leaders opted to take a cautious and conservative approach with spending, wanting to ensure Utah would remain in a strong financial position if the economy ever hit a “financial cliff” as concerns about inflation continue to grip the nation.
“It’s been a challenge,” House Budget Chairman Brad Last, R-Hurricane, told the Deseret News. “We had unprecedented revenue … but all the federal money that’s been flowing in has been a complicating factor.”
On Thursday night, the Executive Appropriations Committee took a majority of the federal COVID-19 relief money that’s flowed to the state this year to fund an additional $1 billion in one-time funding for transportation infrastructure.
The move sets aside cash for major public transit and road projects. Some of that will be going toward transit projects, Last said, including double tracking of FrontRunner. Stevenson said it will allow many projects, prioritized by the state’s transportation commission, to be completed a year or more earlier, depending on the project.
Last week, lawmakers appropriated $2 billion more for a slew of priorities, including education, water, funding to preserve the Great Salt Lake, and more.
“There’s a lot of big winners. A lot of big numbers. Bigger than we’ve ever seen,” Senate Budget Chairman Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, told the Deseret News.
Gov. Spencer Cox discusses the 2022 legislative session on its last day during an interview at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 4, 2022.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Gov. Spencer Cox told the Deseret News in an interview Friday afternoon he’s thrilled with how this year’s budget shaped up.
“I feel great about it,” he said, noting that water was an especially important priority for him — along with tax cuts.
Although Cox had proposed a $160 million grocery tax credit in his budget recommendation, lawmakers opted to do a $193 million tax cut, including $163 million for an across-the-board income tax rate …….
