GOP legislative leaders are moving toward adopting what they call a "base budget," even before the 2006 Legislature actually convenes in early January.
They believe shifting to an early-action approach to setting the state's budget will allow the 104 part-time lawmakers to better concentrate on how to spend "new money" each session.
But the change — while perhaps more time-efficient — could have long-term political impacts, some veterans of the legislative process say. For example, the governor's office budget recommendations, released each December, could be marginalized; minority Democratic legislators' spending ideas and/or public debate over state spending might be curtailed.
In short, critics are concerned that early action could make the bulk of the budget and the major state spending priorities subject to quick votes the first week of each 45-day general session.
House budget chair Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, proposed the "base budget" to the Legislative Process Committee recently, saying that appropriations subcommittee members devote hours reviewing expenditures by state government agencies while knowing full well that current year spending is routinely approved for the following year.
Rarely, if ever, are programs or staff trimmed, Bigelow said. The review is essentially a dog-and-pony show of department leaders' justifying to subcommittees their agency's current spending.
"The process can be improved," Bigelow said, by having lawmakers better spend their time on how to allocate "new money" — growth in tax revenues.
In a way, legislators did that in the 2005 Legislature when they, for the first time, approved what they called a "base budget" bill in mid-session. Supplemental appropriation acts were then debated and approved in the session's final days. "Almost everyone has said they liked that process," said Bigelow, whose proposal would put that newly-tried budgeting system into law and legislative rule.
But, critics wonder, what will happen if final February revenue estimates for the next budget year actually come in lower than the estimates a governor uses to set recommendations two months earlier, or are lower than the numbers legislative leaders are relying on just before lawmakers convene the third Monday in January?
"That has happened before," said Lynne Ward, who put together 12 annual budgets for former Govs. Mike Leavitt and Olene Walker. "Then you would have to go back (in supplemental bills) and cut the budgets that you approved just weeks before. That's not more efficient," Ward said.
And what happens if a majority of lawmakers amend the huge bill in floor debate, putting in extra spending that wasn't in the previous budget?
While that would not be the intent, says Bigelow, that's what happened in the 2005 session.
If you recall, conservative GOP lawmakers wanted to spend nearly $100 million more on roads from state sales tax collections — money that some Democrats and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said should go to public education or other non-road needs.
As HB1 — the "base budget" bill — was being drafted mid-session, the House and Senate GOP caucuses put $70 million more in sales tax revenue into roads. A few more extra spending items were also included, and HB1 — with $116.4 million in additional spending — was then passed despite some objection.
Luckily, late-February revenue estimate updates found $400 million dollars more would be coming into the state, so Huntsman and lawmakers could afford to put that $70 million into roads while still spending more on education and other state needs.
But if that extra money hadn't come, Huntsman would have been in the political pickle of either vetoing HB1 in mid-session or approving spending he initially didn't like. A veto could have been overridden by conservative Republican legislators, still in session and still united and fortified by their road-building desires.
Formally adopting Bigelow's new process "does change the dynamics" of budget-setting between the executive and legislative branches, believes House Minority Whip Brad King, D-Price, who for more than a decade has watched the budget process for Democrats.
"Some day we will have a Democratic governor in Utah," said King, who noted Bigelow's ideas would help the Legislature budget. "In general, I support that effort."
But procedurally, adopting a huge budget bill that contains 98 percent of state spending the first week of the session "could change the balance of power between the governor and Legislature. And in that sense, I'm not sure that is in all of our best interests," said King.
Huntsman will support Bigelow's efforts, assuming the governor and leaders can agree on a definition of "base budget" and that the definition will be adhered to in adopting the main budget bill, said Neil Ashdown, Huntsman's deputy chief of staff.
"Most years this will work," Ashdown added. "If there's a change in the governor's office (a Democrat takes over) or a change in leadership" and the base-budget understanding were breached, "maybe it won't work," said Ashdown.
If understandings broke down, the governor would then have to veto parts or all of the budget bill during the session. "And it is a lot easier to override a veto in session than after session, when you have to call a special session to do it," notes King.
"We will count on" legislators not amending the base budget bill to include new spending — thus breaking any gentleman's agreement, said Ashdown.
Finally, Ward said the new budget-setting scheme does something else: "We believed it was always better to examine the whole budget at one time. What if you want to trim back one program to help a new, growing program that is working — like drug courts? With one main budget bill, (formerly) adopted at the end of each session, it allows you to weigh programs against each other," Ward said.
Bigelow believes even if a base budget bill were passed the first week of a session, the final supplemental appropriations bill lawmakers could vote to amend the first to their liking.
The reality of the Legislature is that Republicans never let Democrats reallocate spending approved by the Republican caucuses.
If one huge budget bill had been approved the first week of the session, King said, and debate then turned to how to spend new tax revenue, there would be little political will to go back and fight "settled" budget decisions.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com