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Appropriations
Last night the Executive Appropriations Committee (EAC) met and shared their Fiscal Year 2023 and 2024 budget actions. These funding items are based on the revised Consensus Revenue Estimates which were released on Tuesday of this week and indicated that legislators had just about as much revenue as they had originally anticipated. Therefore, EAC’s funding decisions were not significantly impacted by any meaningful decreases or increases in anticipated revenues.
During the Friday night EAC meeting Jonathan Ball, who is the Director of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst office, shared that the proposed funding includes investment of about $250M for housing, $500M for water, $1B for education, and $1.5B for transportation - in addition to significant funding for debt payment, tax relief, education, and tax cuts (as further explained in this press release from EAC). The Proposed Funding Items list, which totals $1.1B in ongoing funds and $4B in one-time funds, shows the appropriations for which the EAC has approved funding and will draft into the final appropriation bills (for those of you keeping track, these will be HB3 and SB2, not yet released). We do not anticipate that significant changes will be made to this list, but there may be additional items that are identified for funding over the next week. Furthermore, this list does not include most of the appropriations that would be needed to fund bills that have fiscal notes; those funding items that are approved will be included in the “bill of bills” that will come out next week.
You can find updated statuses of some of our priority funding items below, as well as a few other notable funding items* that the legislature included:
*note that because these are simply listed funding amounts, and the list lacks technical budgetary information or funding language, we may not know entirely what these appropriations are for or where they’ll go until we see the drafted appropriation bills
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(FUNDED) $45M one-time for the Utah Trails Network (item 222): EAC has included $45 million in one-time funding to seed the Active Transportation Investment Fund (ATIF) created in SB185 Transportation Amendments (which is being heard in committee Monday at 8:00am). The fiscal impact associated with SB185, which provides an ongoing, predictable, and stable funding source by transferring a portion of transportation dollars into the ATIF, should be funded in the final appropriations bill, otherwise known as the bill of bills. These one-time and ongoing funds will be used to build and maintain state-owned paved trails statewide.
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(FUNDED) $335M ongoing, and $440M one-time for Transportation Debt (item 205): The legislature has yet again put a significant amount of funding into transportation, with the intent to use this investment to pay for a portion of Utah’s outstanding general obligation transportation debt, thus freeing up existing Transportation Investment Funds (TIF) that are currently used to pay debt service. This funding is also considered “high-risk” funding, meaning that if there is an economic downturn, these funds could instead be used as potential working rainy day reserves.
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(FUNDED) $60 million one-time for Corridor Preservation (item 228): The request, proposed in the Governor’s Budget at $50 million by UDOT, was requested and ranked by IGG at $120 million. This appropriation would allow for additional funding to the Marda Dilree Corridor Preservation Fund for UDOT to purchase land and right-of-way now to better plan for and accommodate growth in our transportation system well into the future.
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(FUNDED) $1M one-time for Regional Roadway Grid Network Study (item 231): This funding would allow the State’s four Metropolitan Planning Organizations (including WFRC) to plan for greater connectivity in our existing and growing metropolitan areas with a roadway study.
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(FUNDED) $140M one-time for Cottonwood Canyons Transportation (item 226): funding for transportation in the Cottonwood Canyons.
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(FUNDED) $200M one-time for Commuter Rail (FrontRunner) Improvements (item 225): The Legislature has funded an additional $200M for commuter rail improvements, adding to the nearly $375M appropriated in years past.
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(FUNDED) $40M one-time for Rural B&C Roads (item 232): This funding is included in SB175, and will be deposited into the Rural Transportation Investment Fund (RTIF), and distributed like B&C formula funds for eligible counties (3rd-6th class counties that have implemented the 3rd or 4th “quarter” local option transportation sales taxes). This is a companion to ongoing funding that would be provided through $2 of a vehicle registration fee increase in HB301.
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(FUNDED) $800M for Transportation Enhancements (item 237): The Legislature is appropriating a significant additional amount of funding for transportation.
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(FUNDED) $6M one-time for the ASPIRE Institute at USU (item 155): This funding is included in SB125, and will allow ASPIRE to develop a transportation electrification master plan, in collaboration with transportation agencies and other public and private sector stakeholders.
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(NOT FUNDED) $25.5M one-time for a Statewide Zero Fare Pilot Program
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(NOT FUNDED) $100M one-time for State Infrastructure Bank funding (SIB)
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(NOT FUNDED) $1.58M ongoing for the Local Administrative Advisor program
There are a number of other notable appropriations included in the EAC list, such as funding for affordable housing, water conservation and infrastructure, infrastructure at the Point of the Mountain, and others. Though we haven’t listed all the appropriations, you can see how a number of other items fared in the EAC funding process by reviewing our WFRC Appropriations Tracker.
Legislation
An update on where WFRC priority legislative process:
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(IN HOUSE COMMITTEE MONDAY 8:00am) SB185, Transportation Revisions (Harper) most notably includes the creation of the Active Transportation Investment Fund (ATIF) which provides the ongoing, stable funding source for the Utah Trail Network proposed by UDOT and the Governor. This bill still needs to be heard and approved by the House Transportation Committee before it receives a vote by the House of Representatives. Next week, Utah’s Unified Transportation partners will share the Utah Trail Network Support letter, which now has close to 500 signatures, with the members of the House. You can find WFRC’s comprehensive summary of SB185 HERE.
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(NEEDS HOUSE + SENATE VOTE) HB500, County Sales Tax Amendments (Christofferson) modifies the .20% local option transportation sales tax, also known as the “5th 5th”, which currently is exclusively eligible to be used for transit capital and service. HB500 would allow counties to impose the .20% to go all to transit or to divide the funds between transit, cities, and counties. This bill passed out of House committee yesterday. Notably, SB260, Transportation Funding Requirements (Cullimore) makes changes to the 5th 5th. We anticipate that one of these bills will pass upon final compromise. You can find WFRC’s comprehensive summary of HB500 HERE.
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(NEEDS SENATE VOTE) HB301, Transportation Tax Amendments (Schultz) provides temporary gas tax relief over the next few years, while also establishing a 12.5% tax on the retail sale of electricity at an electric vehicle charging station, and increases vehicle registration fees by $7 ($5 to be distributed per the standard 70% UDOT and 30% B&C split, and $2 into the Rural Transportation Investment Fund created by SB175 for 3rd-6th class counties. The bill passed Senate Committee this week and now will be voted on by the Senate.
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(NEEDS HOUSE VOTE) SB175, Rural Transportation Infrastructure Fund (Owens) creates the Rural Transportation Investment Fund (RTIF) with a $40M one-time General Funds appropriation, and roughly $6M in ongoing funds from a $2 increase in vehicle registration fees from HB301. RTIF funds would be apportioned out to cities and counties in rural areas based on the B&C formula of weighted lane miles and population, in 3rd-6th class counties that have imposed the 3rd or 4th “quarter” local option transportation sales tax. This bill passed the Senate and now waits in the House.
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(NEEDS SENATE VOTE) HB433, Public Land Geographic Data Amendments (Spendlove) would require the Utah Geospatial Resource Center to annually compile a statewide GIS database of all government-owned property parcels in internet-accessible, searchable, and map format. This bill passed the House on consent.
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(PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE) HB44, Corridor Preservation Amendments (Christofferson): allows UDOT to preserve corridors 40 years ahead of the need (instead of the current 30-year timeline), and use corridor preservation funds for administrative costs.
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(PASSED SENATE AND HOUSE) SB84, HTRZ Amendments (Harper) makes a number of changes to the Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone statute, enhancing HTRZ proposal requirements and clarifying eligible transit stations. See the WFRC summary HERE.
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(PASSED SENATE AND HOUSE) SB27, Transportation Revisions (Harper) reduces the local match requirement for the Transit Transportation Investment Fund (TTIF) from 40% to 30% and clarifies provisions for station area planning (SAP) requirements. SAPs were instituted in HB462 of the 2022 legislature, and require cities to plan for development around their fixed-guideway public transit stations. The bill still needs concurrence from the Senate.
The Week Ahead
Much remains to be determined in terms of funding and legislation over the next few days. Here are a few things to expect:
- We will see some of the appropriation bills released mid-week next week which include the funding items prioritized by the EAC, as mentioned in this update. There are usually three omnibus funding bills that contain these appropriations; (1) Current Fiscal Year Supplemental Appropriations (which is expected to be HB3), (2) New Fiscal Year Supplemental Appropriations (which is expected to be SB 2), and (3) Appropriations Adjustments, otherwise known as the bill of bills.
- Bills will be moving through the process very quickly. In order to consider a large number of these bills, the legislature will forgo additional committee hearings after Tuesday, and meet almost exclusively in floor time, often until late in the evening.
- The last day of the legislative session is Friday, March 3rd. In years past, the legislature has worked up until the stroke of midnight, though they have occasionally ended the night a bit early. Regardless of when sine-die occurs, the clock is ticking to pass the hundreds of bills that remain.
- You can expect our comprehensive 2023 Legislative Wrap Up Summary which will give highlights about this year’s legislative session shortly after the legislature adjourns.
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