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Lisa Riley Roche
Guest
‘We’ve, in fact, delivered the money,’ Herbert says
SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday he’s recommending close to $4.9 billion for public education in the upcoming budget, saying he expects the 2020 Legislature to provide “robust” funding for schools even though tax reform slashed a key revenue source.
The governor told more than 100 business and political leaders gathered for the Utah Taxpayers Association’s annual pre-legislative session conference that there are misunderstandings about the tax reform lawmakers passed in a special session last month, including the impact on education.
“We’ve increased education funding dramatically over these last 10 years. When I came into office, we were spending about $2.6 billion on education. What we will be proposing here with the upcoming legislative session is going to be probably close to, the total will be around $4.9 billion,” he said.
Herbert, who is not seeking reelection after more than a decade as governor and will release his final budget recommendations on Wednesday, was quick to add more can be done.
“I’m not saying it’s enough, but we would want to continue that effort, and we will and should. But we’ve been pretty good to education. The results show, and I’ve said this often, it’s not all about the money, it’s some about the money,” he said, adding lawmakers have stepped up to make sure education is funded appropriately.
The tax reform package approved in December reduces incomes taxes that, under the Utah Constitution, must be spent on public and higher education. The package also raised sales taxes on food, gas and some services to adjust what’s seen as a budget imbalance caused by lagging growth in sales tax collections despite budget surpluses.
A referendum effort to repeal the new law is currently underway.
The governor, who had advocated for expanding sales taxes to more services while cutting the 4.85% state sales tax rate in his previous year’s budget recommendations, said what lawmakers ended up with is “not where I thought it was going to be or wanted it to be, but this is a first step.”
A bill last session that would have imposed new sales taxes on a wide range of services was pulled amid opposition from the business community, and a legislative task force was created that came up with the package giving an overall $160 million tax cut annually.
Herbert praised the Legislature’s efforts, saying the task force “spent time to get it right,” holding public hearings throughout the state over the summer before meeting. The work lawmakers did on tax reform, he said, was “not easy. It’s hard to do. But I appreciate the fact we have broadened the base and lowered the rate.”
After his presentation, the governor told the Deseret News that his budget recommendation, coming later than usual because of tax reform, “is going to be a significant, again, increase in funding. ... In this particular instance, we’ve, in fact, delivered the money.”
Herbert pointed out education is getting more money than what was sought by Our Schools Now, a group led by Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller that initially wanted to increase income and sales taxes for schools through a citizens initiative before reaching a compromise for a failed ballot question that would have raised gas taxes.
“Our Schools Now, for example, wanted to have $850 million in a five-year period of time. That was their request. And what we’ve done is a billion dollars in four years,” he said, referring to new money being spent on public education.
“So people should have a good, smiley grin on their face,” the governor told the newspaper. “If you care about education funding, I expect after the rollout of the budget tomorrow, they’ll have even a wide grin.”
Full Story from the Deseret News...
