Utah Senate advances a slate of base budgets, technical fixes and a pay-scale resolution in one-day session

The Utah State Senate on day nine of the 60th Legislature moved a series of base budget bills and technical amendments through final passage and returned them to the House for consideration.

Senate Bill 1, the higher education base budget, was presented by Senator Grover, who summarized the major funding sources: “This bill will take 312 from the general fund — that's 312,000,000 — 904 million from the education fund, and then 889,000,000 from dedicated credits,” money he said is mostly from tuition and that will “keep the lights on and keep things going” for institutions including Weber State, Dixie State, Utah Valley University, the University of Utah, Snow College and Utah State. The Senate approved SB 1 after three procedural motions (suspend the rules; suspend the three‑reading requirement; read under suspension) and a roll‑call resulting in 26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent; the bill will be transmitted to the House for its consideration.

Lawmakers used the same suspension procedure to pass several other agency base budgets. Senator Sandahl presented Senate Bill 4, the business, economic development and labor budget, describing consolidations of line items and new appropriations for items such as a percent‑for‑the‑arts program; SB 4 passed on a recorded vote (27 yea, 1 nay, 1 absent). Senator Harper led Senate Bill 5 (retirement and…