Call them stubborn.
House Democrats tried again Monday to win approval for their plan to give education, health and human services programs more money by cutting other state budgets.But their budget plan was about as popular with the Republican majority on the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee on Monday as it was on Friday.
The House Democrats did concede that the Corrections Department needs more money, after GOP leaders issued a dire warning Friday that failing to boost spending at the state prison would lead to the release of dangerous inmates.
"I take it the minority party has gotten religion," observed House Majority Whip Byron Harward, R-Provo. However, their conversion to the GOP belief that the Corrections budget has to go up wasn't enough to sway votes.
The committee that will recommend final budgets for all state agencies to the Legislature next week rejected the House Democrats' proposed budget for Corrections and several other state agencies Monday.
Why? In part because they didn't recommended as big a boost in Corrections spending as their Republican counterparts want, $5 million to cover the rising cost of providing medical care to inmates and other needs.
The latest Democratic effort would hike Corrections spending by just $4 million; public education by $14.9 million; higher education by $8.4 million; health by $13 million; and human services by $10 million.
The rest of the problem with the Democratic budget is that, except for money to pay for a 3 percent salary increase, all other state agencies would get the same amount as this year.