Natural resources report prioritizes water projects, cloud seeding and restricted-fund purchases
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Summary
The Natural Resources subcommittee prioritized water-related requests (60% of state fund requests), continued cloud seeding in the Great Salt Lake Basin, and recommended restricted-fund items such as the East Carbon coke oven land purchase while trimming some state fund requests to fit 2027 needs.
The Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee presented its prioritized list of requests, emphasizing water-related needs across state agencies.
The subcommittee reported prioritizing six ongoing state fund requests totaling $8,000,000 and 18 one-time state fund requests totaling $40,100,000. Members noted that roughly 60% of state fund requests were water related, and they specifically recommended continuing cloud seeding efforts in the Great Salt Lake Basin. The subcommittee also recommended restricting funds for several legislator requests, including an East Carbon coke oven land purchase and intent language for multiple items.
Faced with a small general fund budget and direction to consider reductions, the subcommittee applied a 3.7% ongoing reduction target (plus $150,000 one-time reductions) while prioritizing only amounts needed for the 2027 year and limiting staff reductions to vacant positions.
Committee members emphasized the trade-offs the smaller budget required and described prioritization choices as difficult but necessary; the transcript records no full-committee vote on specific natural-resources appropriations at this meeting.