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Utah House leaders say base budgets passed; emphasize cross‑party review and fiscal preparedness
Summary
House leadership told reporters the House passed base budgets and sent them to the Senate, arguing the practice of broad appropriations participation and regular meetings with minority leaders and the governor supports fiscal stability and transparency.
House Republican leadership said the Utah House passed its base budgets and sent them to the Senate as part of the regular legislative process, framing the move as preparation for end‑of‑session negotiations.
"Yesterday, we passed the base budgets," said Speaker 2, noting the House will continue work in appropriations and on standing committees before final budgets are adopted. He emphasized the state’s approach, in which many lawmakers participate in appropriations work, as a reason for Utah’s record of fiscal management.
The leadership described regular cross‑party meetings in which House leadership and minority leaders review budgets; Speaker 4 said those meetings and outreach to the governor are an important part of crafting balanced spending plans. "There's a lot of collaboration even across the aisle as we're putting these base budgets and the rest of the budget together," Speaker 4 said.
Leaders said the intent of sending base budgets to the Senate is to ensure the state can operate if negotiations stretch into late session and to avoid the kinds of breakdowns they criticized in federal budgeting. The briefing did not include line‑item budget details or new funding amounts; staff and appropriations committees were cited as continuing to work through allocations.
Looking ahead, officials said they expect to finish appropriation work later in the week and will move from base budgets to final budgets after interbranch and interchamber coordination.
