How the Sausage Is Un-Made
(Pictured: the various budgets of the appropriations subcommittees)
We often encourage people to come to the legislature to see “how the sausage is made,” but this week the sausage is being UN-MADE in our various appropriations subcommittee meetings due to coronavirus.
I think appropriating (and now un-appropriating) money is the least understood part of the legislative process. I found it very interesting today, so I thought I’d share this for people who might wonder about it.
In Utah, every legislator is involved in the appropriations process. My subcommittee is responsible for Executive Offices and Criminal Justice.
We asked each of the entities in our wedge of the pie to list expenditures they could reduce by 2%, 5% and 10%. We discussed these lists in a very long meeting today, rearranging and substituting a few items here and there, to arrive at one final recommendation, which will now go to the Executive Appropriations Committee (EAC). They will make the final decisions for the entire state budget.
Before the meeting, one constituent wrote to say we should make these cuts permanent to reduce taxes. Some of them probably will be permanent, depending on the economy. We make cuts every year, but increases also, so this was different. All cuts. Some things just couldn’t be cut any further, but are on the chopping block anyway, waiting to see how deep the cuts will need to be.
The courts, for example, did not want to eliminate any judges, because they are very difficult to replace and already have huge workloads. They’re facing an enormous backlog. In April, they were supposed to have 90 trials, half civil, half criminal, but because of the virus, they had none.
The Department of Corrections is already chronically underfunded, making it very difficult to find cuts. Guards, who work in very dangerous, stressful environments (did you know that they are not armed?!), are severely underpaid and have to work mandatory overtime. Do we release inmates early, reduce sex offender and substance abuse treatment programs, or give them less supervision by parole officers after release? No good options there. Nonetheless, we approved a 2%, 5% and 10% list.
The Department of Public Safety is already stretched thin also. The Board of Pardons as well. The AG’s office has been underfunded for years. If we do not fund the guardian ad litem sufficiently, a child’s welfare could fall through the cracks and the state could incur another lawsuit. The Treasurer and the Auditors’ offices are already frugally managed. Even the governor’s office is pretty lean, especially the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
So it was really difficult to find cuts in EO&CJ.
So back to my constituent’s plea – I wish we could cut taxes by making the state budget smaller permanently. We will cut them now due to the crisis, but most of them will probably be re-funded as the economy recovers in a year or two or three.
It might be pie in the sky, but if we could radically reduce the inclination to commit crimes, our courts, corrections, juvenile justice, the AG, and lots of other budgets could be greatly reduced. It’s amazing to me how much crime costs – not only in terms of victim losses (which are huge and paramount), but also funding police, prosecutors, judges, jails and prisons, parole boards and officers, treatment programs...all of it! Criminals oppress all of us. I get angrier about crime every day and its effect on our daily lives in a thousand different ways.
More pie in the sky – social services recently eclipsed education as our state's largest expense. If we could help individuals prepare for higher-paying jobs and take greater personal responsibility for their lives, they would be much happier (the primary benefit, in my view) and taxes could be reduced. Of course, we would continue to have a societal responsibility to care for the truly needy whose options are limited by age or disabilities.