A decision to slash budgets in state human services agencies has forced them to play the Utah Legislature's version of that popular new game show, "Greed."
There's only so much money, and not everyone can have it. In fact, some are going to have to give up what they already have so others can have more.
The Joint Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee is trimming 5 percent from budgets in the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, which contains six divisions that provide help for some of the state's most vulnerable residents. Lawmakers intend to give what money they find to fund the state Division of Services for People with Disabilities waiting list. Some 1,800 people can't get much-needed assistance through the perennially underfunded agency.
"The only way we're going to be able to do that is to cut some budgets," said Rep. Matt Throckmorton, R-Springville. "Even as conservatives, this is one place we don't balk at welfare."
The Executive Appropriations Committee's decision to withhold all new state money from the various appropriations subcommittees this year spurred the budget reductions. The money is being earmarked for education.
"There's still money out there. We know there's money out there," said Rep. Loretta Baca, D-Salt Lake. "Why are we doing this now?"
And while no one argues that people on the waiting list aren't deserving, the mentally disturbed or drug users or the aged have just as pressing needs. Cutbacks pit those folks against each other.
"That's the unfortunate consequence of a tight budget situation and this kind of exercise," said Robin Arnold-Williams, Human Services executive director. "To say one's more worthy of funding than the other, that's difficult to do."
Advocates for people with disabilities bring wheelchair-bound residents and sick children to the Capitol with real-life stories that tug at lawmakers' heartstrings and in turn, the purse strings they control. Mental health care providers like Jack Tanner, executive director of the Utah Behavioral Healthcare Network, say they're at a disadvantage because the can't and won't "parade" already-stigmatized mentally ill people before the subcommittee.
Arnold-Williams estimated a 5 percent cut would take $18 million from the two departments, which also depend heavily on federal dollars. One of the dangers in cutting state money is that federal matching funds, which are two to three times greater than the state portion, will also diminish, she said.
Throckmorton said legislators don't intend to cut programs and services. "Thus far, we've only gone after bureaucracy," he said after an appropriations subcommittee meeting Monday. "If it's where the rubber meets the road, we're not touching it."