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!