By james art 
- Legislators approved the base budget of $ 28.1 billion this week, with $ 8.4 billion on social services and $ 8.3 billion for public education.
- Utah’s budget has increased from less than $ 7 billion to over $ 29 billion in the last 25 years.
- With already earmarked money for savings and tax reduction, legislators should be redirected from existing programs for financing new priorities.
Utah’s legislators approved over 90% of the budget this week with 35 days left in the legislative session in 2025.
The unique basic budget process of the state regulates the bigger part of the costs long before legislators fight for the remaining additional budget loans from new legislation.
But this year there will be no new revenue to fight. Just difficult solutions on where to reduce the old to finance the new.
“We have zero and zero-zero-zero one-time and zero continues,” said Budget Chairman Val Peterson, R-Olem. “So this is the number with which the committees work.”
December’s estimates revealed a disappointing tax revenue forecast for the upcoming fiscal year.
Legislators were left without money available for their policies in 2025 after $ 344 million was earmarked for new funds to compensate for the main budget shortage, $ 145 million for Rainy Day Funds, $ 231 million for an unspecified reduction Taxes, $ 112 million to cover any potential losses in “high -risk revenue” and $ 104 million for civil servants are raising.
“When you add all those at the end of the day, it does not leave any money so that committees can allocate,” Peterson said. “We are currently instructing committees that if they want to add different priorities, they must find within their existing budget money that they can redirect.”
This will mean that difficult decisions have to be made, Peterson said. If legislators are committed to fulfilling budgetary loans requests for homelessness, housing or public education, they will have to be cut from transport, research or higher ed.
What is in the budget?
The $ 28.1 billion base budget for the fiscal 2026 consists of nine cost accounts, including $ 8.4 billion for social services, $ 8.3 billion for public education, $ 3.7 billion for transport infrastructure, 2 , $ 9 billion for higher education and $ 1.3 billion for criminal justice.
The main sources of funding for government operations in Utah are over $ 10 billion from the income tax and $ 7.7 billion from the federal government.
The process of the basic budget, which began two decades ago, has become a way to bring “consistency and stability in the budgeting process” by quickly calling for budget loans from the previous session, Peterson said.
Federal funding for social services, transport and public education is a driving factor in the budget budget over the last quarter century, from less than $ 7 billion in the fiscal 2000, to over $ 29 billion in 2024, Peterson said.
However, the state still remains one of the best prepared in the country to withstand the fluctuations in federal funding, with countries confronted this week when the Trump administration briefly announced a break on financial assistance.
“Utah is one of the most dependent countries in the federal funding, which actually helps us in a bunch of situations that talk about freezing or stopping funds,” Peterson said.
One of the reasons for the fiscal resistance of the state is its emphasis on participating in the budget loan process, Peterson said. Utah is the only country that Peterson knows in the country that puts every legislator of a budget subcommittee.
“I think this brings a more careful examination to where we spend our dollars,” Peterson said.