When my husband and I were in college, our budget rule was, “every dollar has a job”. We’d assign the dollars needed for rent, groceries, gas, and savings, but even the “leftover” dollars got jobs, usually for our vacation and date funds. There was no surplus, and no deficit. Perfectly balanced, our budget was designed to make sure we fulfilled our obligations, saved for emergencies and the future, and still had room to meet some of our wants.
This is exactly how a state budget should work – and revenue forecasts indicate that Utah is close to this equilibrium. After consecutive years of revenue growth followed by tax cuts, revenue projections for this year are relatively flat, or very comparable to last year’s figures. Rather than being concerning, this suggests that “every dollar has a job”. It means that the state will be able to spend about the same as it did last year – while costing individuals and businesses less – but not more.
For the Utah Taxpayers Association, this is the ideal. We, as a state, do not need a bigger government, more spending or any more in our fully-funded rainy day accounts. Rather, individual families need this money in their pockets to provide for themselves, and businesses need this money at their disposal to make investments and grow. Not every worthy cause needs to be taxpayer-funded, and it is much easier for the Legislature to say “no” if the money simply isn’t at their disposal.
Utah’s flat revenue projections are not a cause for concern: we continue to have a very optimistic economic outlook; there are guarantees in place to fully fund public education and other necessary services. Rather, it is the product of a job well done, of a budget well balanced. Still we hope to see the Legislature find opportunities to spend less than previous years.
In our December 1923 newsletter, we wrote, “when new sources of revenue are found, additional ways of spending the public’s money will likewise appear”. This has certainly been the case. But perhaps now we can begin a new era of finding ways to reduce revenues, and allowing opportunities to economize to likewise appear.