Proposed Budget Highlights
The governor’s budget recommendations invest in Utahns by cutting taxes, investing in families, creating pathways for success, ensuring water and resources are sustained, and making government services responsive and efficient. Budget priorities include inflation relief, teacher compensation, water conservation, housing affordability, and the state workforce.
K-12 Education
- $1.08 billion for public education, including a 5 percent increase to the WPU (weighted pupil unit).
- $200.7 million ongoing to provide a $6,000 annual compensation increase for every Utah classroom teacher and school specialist and an additional $200.7 million one-time to ensure the raise is enacted before the 2022-2023 school year ends.
- $70.7 million to continue to increase funding for students at risk of academic failure.
- $40.8 million to expand access to optional all-day kindergarten.
- $175 million of flexible one-time funding to address school capital infrastructure needs, including safety and technology upgrades.
- Additional $7.2 million for the Grow Your Own Teachers program that provides paraprofessionals with scholarships that encourage them to become teachers.
Higher Education and Workforce
- Recommends the Board of Higher Education freeze tuition at all the state’s public colleges and universities.
- Recommends increasing the state’s contribution to the compensation increase package to 87.5 percent to help offset the budgetary impact of a tuition freeze.
- $15.2 million to increase capacity at the state’s eight technical colleges.
- $12 million for competitive grants to colleges and universities through Talent Ready Utah for targeted workforce development needs in high-demand sectors.
Housing
- $500,000 to continue the Veterans First-Time Homebuyer Program, which provides a grant of $2,500.
- $11 million appropriation for a new down payment assistance program for educators and firefighters purchasing a home for the first time and who commit to working in Utah for five years, which will provide an average grant of $15,000.
- Recommends an additional $100 million one-time ($80 million American Rescue Plan Act funds and $20 million General Fund) for deeply affordable housing, resulting in an estimated additional 2,000 affordable units.
Social Services and Health Care
- $8.7 million to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to h 12 months.
- Transfer $36.4 million from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Health and Human Services to move and maintain the bureau that oversees health care for incarcerated individuals at the state prison.
- $4.9 million in additional one-time funds in fiscal 2023 and $13.9 million ($13.3 million ongoing and $659,000 one-time) in fiscal 2024 to ensure consistent and effective care for incarcerated individuals.
- $4.2 million to renovate three aging secure juvenile housing units.
- $5.4 million to cover an additional 258 individuals on the Division of Services for People with Disabilities waiting list.
- $1.1 million for the creation of a Utah Crime Victims Services Coordination Commission and $50 million toward supporting victims of crime, including lethality coordinators at shelters.
- $2.7 million in additional funds for the Health Care Workforce Loan Repayment Program, allowing for targeted funding to maternity health care professions.
Growth
- Budget recommendations include more than $561 million in water infrastructure, conservation, planning and management, agricultural water optimization, and Great Salt Lake interventions.
- $25 million for a one-year statewide zero fare transit pilot.
- $29.4 million to leverage federal funds at the state and local levels focused on energy infrastructure from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act.
Good Government
- Recommends $143 million ongoing and $34 million one-time to increase state employee compensation, including salary investments equivalent to a 12 percent cost of living adjustment on average.
- Includes $38 million in targeted salary increases for positions most significantly under market.
- $3.2 million to continue a customer experience pilot focused on improving customer assistance provided by the state.
- $27.1 million in non-cybersecurity technology enhancements, such as improving/expanding digital government services, enhanced technology programming at the prison, and additional telehealth services.
- Pre-funding an additional $157 million of building debt service and $400 million of transportation debt service.