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GOPB highlights customer-experience work, seeks nonlapsing authority to finish multiyear projects
Summary
The Governor's Office of Planning and Budget told an appropriations subcommittee it is co‑leading a customer experience initiative, is seeking nonlapsing spending authority for multi‑year projects, and outlined the status of ARPA and CARES Act funds.
Officials from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget (GOPB) told a Utah Legislature appropriations subcommittee that a customer‑experience initiative now being implemented with the Department of Government Operations is producing feedback and program changes across state agencies.
The presentation also urged the subcommittee to consider statutory or intent language to allow agencies to carry forward unspent appropriations — known as nonlapsing authority — and summarized the state's remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and CARES Act obligations.
GOPB said the customer‑experience work includes tools on agency websites for feedback and proactive outreach to people served by state programs, and that agencies have implemented process improvements after receiving that feedback. "We're seeing good results from the type of feedback," a GOPB presenter told the committee.
GOPB asked staff to add intent language in the committee packet on several line items where the office has historically been granted nonlapsing authority. The presenter described past nonlapsing provisions, saying agencies have been allowed to carry forward limited amounts to avoid a year‑end "use it or lose it" rush of spending. The presenter said GOPB had $2,000,000 in nonlapsing authority last year and that historically the governor's office has had about $2.5 million in nonlapsing authority for planning and shared systems in some years.
On federal pandemic funding, GOPB said Utah received about $1.4 billion from ARPA's State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and has obligated those funds by the December 2024 deadline; roughly 70% of that money is spent and agencies have until December 2026 to complete work tied to those obligations. GOPB also said the state's ARPA capital projects fund totals about $138 million and that the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund obligations closed in September 2022. GOPB said the office maintains a public dashboard with spending and reporting information and that it will provide technical language to staff for continuing spending authority where needed.
GOPB noted that nonlapsing authority has been used for cross‑agency projects such as performance measure systems, fee processing, budgeting systems, planning, and training. The presenter said the office will coordinate with the Department of Government Operations and legislative staff to draft the technical language for any proposed nonlapsing intent or statutory language.
The committee did not take formal action on the GOPB budget during the exchange; GOPB staff said they would answer follow‑up questions and supply proposed language for committee consideration.
