Anonymous says:

"This morning's committee meeting reminded me - kids in state custody are
covered by Medicaid, but if the parents have private insurance, they are
required to continue it. Here's the deal, though - they use Medicaid as the
primary payor, not the private insurance. I have a son that has been in
residential treatment for almost 2 1/2 years. He is taken to Medicaid
dentists, Medicaid docs and once when he went to the ER, Medicaid was
billed, not our insurance. You could save a ton of money I bet if you
required DCFS to take children to providers covered by their primary
insurance, with Medicaid as the back-up."

Janice W. says:

The senators might as well be writing for the tabloids as their accusations on waste in some departments have no truth and they are not required to substantiate inappropriate posts. It is deplorable they they can attempt to cost people jobs on false pretenses.

Steve says:

I know there is talk about getting rid of the DPS helios. I however have seen those birds save lives.

I vote keep the heilos and get rid of the motorcycles. DPS motors are only even useable half the year. And those that do ride motors are still assigned cars. There is NOTHING they do on motors that can not be done in a car. Except for parades.

HollyontheHill says:

Too late now, but did the state really need to pay for signs to notify us that the unshoveled, unsalted walkways at the Capitol are closed during inclement weather?

BenJoeM says:

SB 199 is a waste of tax payer money. Why are we even considering a piece of legislation that would potentially take money away from schools. Waste!

Michael P. says:

Tammi makes some good points.

In 1996, before ramping up for TRAX, the bus system had a good growth rate and most of the valley had fair to good bus service, with Salt Lake and the U of U having A- transit service.
Now, Salt Lake and the U of U have A+ transit bus and rail service, but over a third of the valley has dropped to F or F+ bus service, with UTA's FastBus routes in the suburbs that only serve work trips to downtown and the U of U.
UTA has cut over 2,000 bus stops and dozens of routes, mostly in the suburbs. In the TRAX EIS, UTA promised a big jump in the number of bus routes and the number of bus stops in the Sandy-Draper area. Surprise! That's not what they have given us.
In Draper and Sandy, there only a dozen bus stops in a 14 square-mile area. The one bus route here runs only six times in each direction to those stops that are nearly a mile apart. It carries less than 25 people a day each way.
Now UTA wants to replace its worst SL-County bus route with a TRAX line that will cost over $1/2 billion.
Sandy and Draper really need the Highland Drive extension out to Bangerter for less than the cost of this ditsy TRAX line.

This is poor planning.
This is irrational.
This is foolishly wasteful, especially now.

Sue says:

I support the Obama administration in recinding all of the last minute oil leases that the Bush administration approved in Dec. 08. It was more of Bush's tactics to do whatever damage they could do to the environment in the name of money. Thank goodness their damage could be undone this time.

Sue says:

The "class" that needs to be gotten rid of is the homeroom class in middle school. Depending on the teacher, the kids are supposed to listen to Channel One and then write some sort of short report on it, to demonstrate that they were listening. My daughter, who is a straight A student, uses that 25 min. to read or do homework, but then gets a non-passing grade in that class. She is using her time wisely, and the non-pass grade doesn't affect her GPA, but what a waste of time that class is. Either call it study hall and let the kids do homework in there, or add 5 min. to their other classes.

utahnonldsnative says:

Comparasions of utah budget vs ny states. NY spends a bit more than Utah does but provides more direct care services to more people. Why?
http://publications.budget.state.ny.us/eBudget0910/ExecutiveBudget.html

http://le.utah.gov/lfa/reports/cobi2009/cobi2009.htm

Scott says:

A close look should be taken at the efficiency of road construction projects.
e.g. - The project at 106th So. and State which ended last year had that intersection under construction from ~Oct/Nov 2006 through ~Feb/Mar of 2008! I drive through there every day on my way to/from work. Some areas of the road sat coned off, empty, with no holes or construction going on for several weeks at a stretch. Anyone with minimal project management skills should be able to dramatically improve this situation. I am afraid this is typical for many construction projects and the cost is immense.

Scott says:

The TLC class that the legislature requires 7th graders to take is a waste of time. Get rid of this requirement so that real classes can be taught.

Concerned says:

How is it even remotely possible, in this day and age of budget cuts and cracking down on frivilous spending the Utah Army National Guard can find it ok to purchase a pontoon party boat of all things? I cant imagine what that cost. I can only imagine this is the tip of the iceberg in careless spending of taxpayer money.

Anonymous Says:

With the economy going the way it is....why doesn't Utah build a bigger better prison and then in turn take prisoners from other states or areas to help pay for it??

Doug B says:

Yesterday morning I saw a legislator on the morning news and he said that we are cutting the frivolous programs and making the state budget more efficient.

Isn't this what you were supposed to be doing all along!! At some point all these programs were worth it, atleast according to our lawmakers. And if they were not worth it why did you spend the money on them in the first place??? We in Utah have gotten complacent with many years of budget surpluses and if our lawmakers spent the money efficiently we should be in better shape now. There is nothing better to spend spend spend and not worry about the future but that is not why we elect leaders.

Nan says:

The centralization of IT in the state into DTS has been an absolute nightmare and a costly one at that. Programs are now paying a great deal more for connectivity, desktop support and programming staff, yet the staff do ot necessarily see the rate that programs pay too support their salaaries. Someone needs to do an audit on DTS - when DTS "took over" all State IT services, it didn't even have the billing structure in place to ensure that the proper programs were billed for services used. Charges were made without an understanding of the impact on budgets, many of which are federal funded. When charges significantly increase as they did with DTS, no one ever considered the impact the increased costs would have on programs. DTS employees got an across the board increase (only DTS employees, not the rest of state employees, no one! talked with Departments to assess the impact those increases would have on programs, services, etc. I do not think that we are any better off with a "centralized" system than we were before with a decentralized system. Surely there is a better way to provide IT services.

Cecilia says:

I am amazed that a legislator would propose to break up a state department with little information. The Utah Department of Health has a very fine reputation nationally for its work in a number of areas, such as information technology, innovative programs, results. One of the problems with public health is that people who work in the field do not advocate well for what they do every day to improve the public's health and well-being. Also, I do not think that most people know that federal funding is the majority of funding for many public health programs. Federal funding often has match requirements which means that non-federal funds have to be allocated to match the federal funds. Loss of the state general funds for a federal grant results in loss of the federal funding. I think that legislators should leave the micromanagement of Departments and budgets up to the Executive branch to determine where the cuts can be made with the least possible negative impact. I cannot understand why a legislator would cut services to citizens (that they themselves represent, so they say) in need at the expense of roads, etc. I believe that it says a lot about a society that is not willing, and in fact is punitive, to fund services for those in need. There is not way that any legislator has enough time to fully understand any Department's programs and work - so leave it up to those who do.

Utah Peach says:

Before you finalize the budget cuts, you need to look in your own shop for waste as there is waste in the legislature. Examples I can think of are the cushy new offices, the benefits that you bequeath yourselves, such as health insurance, etc. You need to look at the accuracy of the information that you consider in making decisions as it may not be true or accurate.

Nan says:

I have a response to "Amy": One always has to remember that things are not always as they seem. Could it be that the person who surfs the net all day is reseaching information about birth defects? I know enough about the work that the Birth Defects Network does to say that much of their work requires research into factors that may be associated with a particular birth defect, such as folic acid and neural tube defects. The science of birth defects and associated factors is just that, a science. People use the internet all the time to research issues that relate to their work. Don't be so quick to judge.

Allen says:

We need to get rid of the State Liquor Store system. It was dated back to prohabition. We do not need to employ state workers to be store keepers. I know they produce money for the state, but take away the building overhead, health, and retirement. We need to make loquor stores public business, increase employment, increase tax dollars and allow business people to run a business. We also need to get rid of the 3.2 rule. It causes citizens to cross state lines to buy real beer. 3.2 was left over from prohabition which was repealed in 29, most beers are the same from state to state as a 3.2 works our to between 4 to 5%. Let Utah come out of the dark ages and give back the freedoms to the citizens. I have found no evidence that state run stores reduce DUI, underage drinking, or alcholism, it is only control of Utah citiiz! ens, heck we can't even advertise so a person from out of state could find one. I think private business whould increase revenue from business license, loquor license, sales taxes, income taxes from employees,jobs, availibility of product. Private business liquor stores would be evenmore careful on selling to of age people or fear loss of license. when the State store sells to a minor, we can't remove their license!

DSmith says:

Why are you looking at furloughs before you look at making every department lay off retired state employees who have gone back to work? These are the people who should be laid off first and see what the savings is, then if needed look at an early out. Let those who are close to retirement be motivated to retire early without a penalty. Do not backfill those positions unless critical to the agency. Those should be the first priorities before making state employees take a furlough. Many state employees barely make above minimum wage, contrary to what the public perceives. A loss of one days pay may not seem like much but when you see a fellow colleage who is getting retirement and an additional paycheck that hurts. One days salary a couple of times a month could mean the difference of whether that person can make their hou! se payment or utility payments or not. The legislature should preach by example and cut their health benefits and play by the rules they make state employees follow. Maybe they should not get paid for this session or next year. If your so dedicated to doing this because you want to help then volunteer your time like your always trying to get everyone else to do!!! They are not losing any pay from their regular job, if they were they wouldn't have ever run for office. Start putting your money where your mouth is legislature!

Teresa says:

I have listened to several of the hearings, including the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee. I haven't seen the level of bullying that I heard in that committee meeting since junior high school! What a waste of time and money. Mr. Liljenquist - you should be ashamed of yourself and so should your constituents for voting for you. This website is a crock and a waste of time and resources. I have had the opportunity to work with several state employees and departments. They have dedicated their lives to work in the public sector - despite the fact that they could take their degrees and make more in the private sector. They do this because they really want to make a difference and they care about what they do - yet you create this website - why? So you make it easier for yourselves to sleep at night? Start with the legislature - that's the only place I see waste!

Steve R. says:

We should not pay ill informed, self-serving legislators (the sponsors of this site included). I have lived all my life, and have never seen as big a waste as is our Utah Legislature.

Doug B. says:

I think you should furlough state employees to save money. Maybe a couple days a month so they could take them on different days and our services would be available to us during regular business hours. Or change their hours to 36 hours per week like some other states do.

B says:

Why was the SCHIP van in Evanston over Labor Day weekend?

GM says:

Why is it that "higher" education always needs to hire from outside the state? Do we have inferior schools? Most professors from outside of the state are higher at a premium because they are use to the cost of living from where they are from. On top of that, the new employee usually gets spousal accommodation, or in other words, a second job that could be filled with someone from Utah.
Tenure costs the state when a faculty decide they are to good to teach and their research is not innovative, but it is cheaper to keep them on rather than terminate their contract.
Furloughs only hurt professional and classified employees. This is a bad policy. First most faculty have a wife with a second job thus better able to with stand 2% - 4% cut in pay. Second with tenure, a university cannot trim deadwood because it takes a year plus to terminate a tenured faculty member.

Allen says:

We don't need 15 police depts inSalt Lake Counry. We need a Sheriff to do civil and the jail as under the state constitution. We need a Salt Lake county Police Dept with 1 Chief of Police, I deputy chief of police and maybe 15 sub-stations based in the various cities staffed by a commander (major or Capt) depending on population of the city and the same with numbers of patrol and middle management. Cities could pay for additional officers if they feel the need. This would reduce the price of service due to reducing the amount of overhead and greater effort can be placed on special units like SWAT, Gang, Bomb and such without duplicating.

Allen says:

Our elected legislature should have to follow the same rules for health insurance as all the other state employees. The legislature are part-time employees and not entitled to a better deal than any other state employee. If they want healthcare the should have to go to the private system. I knon this will not pass, but why are they entitled to special treatment on healthcare. If they want healthcare then pay the same as a regular state employee and get it only when on active duty. Retirement should be a 401K plan that we the taxpayer may contribute the sams as regular businesses about 5% matching upt to a 100 dollars a month.

Offices should be furnished with furnishings provided by the Utah Dept of Corrections, TV's could be around 125 dollars. If you wan to get rid of waste then look at yourselvs first.

Drug Sense says:

The war on drugs is a costly failure, and causes more harm than the drugs themselves.

James says:

You need to publicize this page. I saw it on the KSL website for one day and then it disappeared. How are you going to get good feedback if no one knows this page exists?

Carolyn M. says:

We have wasted tax payers dollars far too long favoring illegal immigration on the backs of Utah taxpayers.
With the economy worsening we need the tax revenues and jobs for our own citizens.
We can no longer afford to pay the cost for services to maintain "illegals" such as education, healthcare, law enforcement,foodstamps, welfare, jobs, etc. etc.
Immigration is great when done legally.We must enforce legal immigration law. We simply can not afford to ignore this issue (Proposition 81) any longer.
It is the duty of our elected officials to protect and uphold the law for our citizens.

Tammi D. says:

UTA is trying to get other "ENTITIES" more involved in Public Transportation for the Disabled and the Elderly. With the Economy is very likely Property Taxes would be Increased and Services for the Disabled and the Elderly would be cut. These ENTITIES would be Responsible for Drivers, Gas, Maintenance and the Purchase of more Vehicles in order to meet all the needs. UTA has Good Bus Service in Down Town Salt Lake City, in the Avenues and the University of Utah. UTA has Destroyed the Bus System in the rest of Salt Lake County. UTA needs to get Accessible Vans and Small Buses to go into Neighborhoods to Help Encourage People to take the Bus would take Individuals to the Main Bus Routes and Trax. UTA needs to work on Barrier Free, Benches and also Increase the Frequency of Buses. This would reduce the need for Paratransit and bring down the cost of Paratransit. This would be Transportation for all. A Good Bus System does not bring in Huge Bonuses for the High Paid Executives.

Utahnonldsnative says:

Valley Mental health is a waste of money. They suck in the money and except for the rep payee program has not been substanial in helping anyone else. THy take medicaid for a ride and refer most people elsewhere full well knowing anyone on medicaid will be denied mental health care. They are the only contract provider in the SL valley. They have a monopoly!

Ann P. says:

I'm concerned about the 'waste' in education in the substitute policy in the Jordan District. There are 900 substitutes that can be from a high school grad to a Associates Degree, to a certified teacher, to a retired teacher, etc. in the same pool of teachers that the district sends to the schools. UNLESS a teacher or school prefers a substitute, the school may be getting a substitute who just wants the money and is not qualified to teach. YES, they have passed the background check and the fingerprinting, but that does not mean they are qualified to teach in a classroom! I've heard substitutes who did a puppet show, or who hardly spoke English, or who did not do anything the teacher requested to do while absent. This is a very poor way of spending money in the district's education! There are quality substitutes who a! re certified, in the process of re-certifying, or who can prove they are a good source to be used for substitutes! And YES this is a big deal, because on the average there are 250 substitutes used in a day just in Jordan District alone. And they are making $82/day, unless certified at $90/day. That means $20,500 a day for the $82 day rate. Let's make sure they are quality substitutes!

Brandon says:

I nominate THIS WEBSITE -- you should investigate this website's creation and maintenance for wasteful government spending. The reason I say that is because I don't honestly believe that any of you are honestly going to look into the SIGNIFICANT issues the people have brought up here. What you are going to do, instead, is to look for "pet projects"... issues that are easy to sway people and easy to solve but that probably don't amount to a serious cost-savings when compared to many of the other, larger, problems also presented here that you will just skip over. You will find "problems" here which don't solve a whole lot but sound nice and make people who vote for you "FEEL BETTER" (about you). This website is a scam, a political tactic, a device to mask the public's eyes to what it is you are REALLY doing. The guy who posted the furniture you guys bought and the prices you guys paid for each item is the example I draw from to demonstrate that this is true. If you guys cared so much about wasteful spending, you wouldn't be the ones holding the reins for that furniture! Also, if you were TRULY interested in wasteful spending you wouldn't be looking for advice from citizens about such small expenses (by comparison) when we have a looming $800BILLION dollar waste of government money being created right now as I type this on the federal level -- instead, you'd be spending your time and resources gathering citizen's groups, lawyers, politicians, etc. together at the state level and trying to determine (in a very big and public way that EVERYONE in the state would know about) how, exactly, the people of the state of Utah can absolve ourselves of this national fiscal abuse. Just a few days ago the legislature of Vermont got tired of the heavy-handedness of the federal gov't and passed a bill declaring that any further encroachment of Rights by the federal government would be construed by VT as a final violation of the constitutional contract and reason enough for VT to secede from the union. If VT can do this, surely UT can draft something saying we absolutely refuse to accept the federal pork-barrel spending bills and absolutely refuse to pay anything in higher taxes, EVER, to pay off that portion of the federal deficit. But no... instead of spending your time educating the public of Utah and doing your best to DEFEND us against our aggressors at the federal level, you are trying to hide from the real problems we face by asking us to "turn in" a police department who maybe spent too much on a new car or something. Instead of trying to save us BILLIONS of future debt you are trying to make us "FEEL GOOD" by helping us to save $10,000. You guys are a shame, a mockery, and are disgusting. Stop trying to hide your own scams by hunting down other scammers. This isn't Salem and we shouldn't be helping you find "witches" -- YOU ARE THE WITCHES!

John H. says:

When asked about the money spent on new office furniture for legislators Sen. Valentine said, "It doesn't seem to be astonishingly high." I beg to differ. Too much was spent. All the furniture in the elementary school where I teach is 10+ years old. When we need to replace a student desk a used one is pulled out of storage.

Does it matter says:

Who is funding this blog?
And why was this made on January 21?
Personally, I think it is irresponsible to provide a forum for public opinion that prominently displays figures of public office without any information regarding who is paying for it.
The lack of information reguarding the creation and funding of this website should certainly be available.
I think it would provide a better and more informed forum, if this website included budget information for Utah.

Rod says:

Stop giving to illegal aliens and they will leave. Take away the reason for being here and they will leave. This should save a lot of money. Illegal is ILLEGAL!!!!

Doug B. says

It is unbelievable that you are considering breaking up the Dept. of Health. 20 years ago it and Human Services became to large to keep as one so it split. Here we are 20 years later wanting to go backwards and put them together again. You guys seem like you in a panic. Slow down and consider what you are doing. After all, we elect people we believe are going to be strong leaders, but sometimes you don't seem to be leaders at all. A few years back you considered doing away with DCFS and giving it to a private company. Anymore thoughts on that? Why don't we get rid of the State Police and turn it over to the local police. Cuts are needed and they need to be thought through very carefully.It seems that we never save as much money as we thought we would save. What about the General Fund? These slow times are not going to last forever.

Doug B. says:

You people seem to spend time passing laws that don't mean anything. Such as texting or email while driving. This isn't going to stop anyone. Why not make it a felony punishable with jailtime or large fines for anyone who causes an accident while doing these things. If the punishment is strong it may just stop a few people from doing it.

Rufus B. says:

I saw a report in Box Elder County where a teacher took a Spanish class to SLC to a Mexican Restaurant so they could experience the culture. How ab sured. Teachers seem to spend MORE time trying to figure out how to AVOID teaching than teaching.
Also, when students are allowed (encouraged by the teachers union) to take off from school to PROTEST to the Legislature or anything else, the school should be heavily FINED the first time, and charged with defrauding the tax payers the next time. The students should have to pay for the missing funds.

Rufus B. says:

I attended a Hunter Education Instructor class and was APPALLED by the fact that the Wildlife dept. is offering the Hunter Ed. Safety class in SPANISH. Why the hell do we need to waste money printing information in Spanish or teach in Spanish. If the person wanting to HUNT in Utah does not READ, SPEAK, OR UNDERSTAND ENGLISH, THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE SAFE WITH A FIREARM OR DRIVING. Again, the Wildlife Dept. can not get a grip on LOGIC.

Rufus B. says:

The Wildlife dept. (as well as most departments in the state) wastes money by having their own in house background checks. The BCI is better equipped to do this and would save duplication of services and a lot of wasted money and time.

Rufus B. says:

The Wildlife dept. is wasting thousands of dollars on helicopters moving animals around. Much worse they give animals to Mexico and do not even know what they are can get back. I talked to the program director for giving antelope to Mexico and he could not tell me what WE the People of this State will get for them. Let's just stop funding silly projects like this and if there are too many animals in an area, let hunters have more tags. Last winter (2008) the feeding program did not start soon enough and the wildlife dept. told land owners NOT to feed the deer and elk. As a result hundreds of deer died and many elk. The 2008 hunting season was the worst I have seen in 15 years of hunting in Utah. Why not issue special tags (for Money of coarse) to hunters to take starving animals. This makes too much sense for the Wildlife de! pt. to accomplish.

Rufus B. says:

Stop sending money to farmers and ranchers to NOT grow or produce something.

Robin M says:

I read an article in the Daily Herald about the lawmakers having $10,000.00 spent on their office furniture. It made me spitting mad!!!! Why can't they go to an office supply and buy their furniture OR go to Desert Industries like the rest of us ? The inmates that are at Corrections are there for a reason. You can't tell me that the materials used for the desks were that expensive. Are we actually paying the inmates to make the furniture????? What is wrong with the furniture they had? Could that furniture not been refurbished? Could they not have gone to the discount store ,Habitat For Humanity?
My word----it is only a chair and a table. We pay the lawmakers and buying their furniture-----do they not make enough to buy their own furniture? Did they forget that we are in a bad economic situation?

Utahnonldsnative says:

To much is being wasted on charter schools for a few. To many public schools are not following spec ed laws and working with the state board of ed to do a better job. To many teachers are never even trained in special ed. I had to tell a friends granddaughter's school psychologiist about temp IEP and section 504!
For spec ed help and info and the process and complaint process, go to www.idea.ed.gov

Michael S. says:

What do we elect senators and representatives for when they dont listen to the people that voted them in and instead are swayed by lobbyists and groups that have big wallets? I havent talked to one person that thought the first bailout was a good idea, and reports stated that 80-90 percent of Americans felt the auto makers shouldnt get a bail out and now we're talking of another almost trilllion dollar bailout that once again no one I have talked to wants. We wont make deals with terrorists because its a never ending cycle once you do give in to their demands. Is this so different? These companies obviously overextended themselves once, do we think that they learned anything here? Well except that the next time we will be eager to give them more. Lets get back to the basics, and make our representatives do just that and represen! t our wishes.

Michael S. says:

I'm fed up with both our local and federal government trying to coddle the illegal immigrant population and try to find ways to not step on anyones toes and upset them. Recently in the Salt Lake Tribune I read where on the one hand we have a bill that has already been passed, and rightly so I might add, about letting local and state police take more of a stand on illegal immigrants, but now soome representatives want to postpone it and make sure we dont hurt their feelings. Then it lists a couple more bills that I believe is encouraging more illegal immigrants to come here with "guest worker programs" and "driving cards" etc. We already have laws and programs for this, they are called green cards and visas, if they really want the benefits of being Americans and to help the country and themselves they would go through the steps t! hat all our forefathers went through when they landed at Ellis Island and actually learned English and became American citizens to better their lives. What makes them any different that they should get a free ride when the rest of us are here because of hard work and determination? If we would ship the illegals out and heavily penalize those companies that hire them, then our jobless rate wouldnt be so high because there would be alot more jobs for AMERICANS!! The first step this country needs to make is change the law that says just because a child is born here that makes them an American citizen, no other country believes that and thats why our social security and welfare and retirement benefits will not be there for those that really need it in the future.

James says:

Utah's higher ed system is a joke. There VP's and assistants for everything. Most of them do absolutely nothing but create paper work for those that teach. Several more simply have offices with titles but no real job because they have been "promoted" to get them out of the way. I have taught for over 20 years at the both the community college and university levels and just because an administrator has a PHD doesn't mean they have any common sense. What it means is that they can make a mountain out of a mole hill and whine like a little child when they don't get their way. Why is a person with a PHD even allowed to teach lower division classes? Most of them have the personality of a pot hole and look down at everyone that does not belong to their elite group. PHD professors should be hired to research. Schools should hire BS and ! at the most MS degree people to actually teach the classes; besides, you wouldn't have to pay them as much. Take UVU for example. Now that it is a university, they ONLY hire PHD professors and they aren't even a research school. How stupid! Paying PHD professors to teach community college level courses is like IHOP hiring expensive French chefs to make pancakes. I know I could eliminate 25 million from where I work and the students would be better served. The problem is if I ever said anything in public, I'd be fired before the day was over.

JL says:

When does a Community College get too big to be student friendly? look at SLCC and you'll see it is way beyond that. Smaller schools deliver better education and encourage students rather than intimidate them. SLCC should be broken up and downsized back to a managable institution.