As the gavel falls and the 2026 General Session moves to adjourn Sine Die, we find ourselves humming a familiar tune. Before we say adieu, auf Wiedersehen, and goodbye to Capitol Hill for the session, let’s review the numbers. The following post details top legislative budget priorities, set to our favorite fiscal ‘notes’:
Do-llars and Sense
The Utah Legislature concluded its work with a total budget of $31.6 billion for fiscal year 2027. This includes $12.4 billion from state funds, comprised of the General Fund, Income Tax Fund, and Uniform School Fund. As required by the Utah Constitution, legislators balanced the budget to projections of available revenue.
Re–allocations and Tax Policy
Before looking at new spending, the Legislature examined existing resources, finding $364 million (3.2%) in state tax fund offsets, reductions, and program eliminations that were reinvested for better results. Major tax policy highlights include:
- Income Tax Decreases: $314 million in FY 2026 and $201 million ongoing in FY 2027 for state income tax decreases related to federal policy.
- Rate Cut: An income tax rate cut from 4.5% to 4.45% ($101 million ongoing and $23.3 million one-time).
- Targeted Credits: $7.1 million for expanding the nonrefundable child tax credit and $2.9 million for an expanded child care business credit.
- Adjustments: A $39.7 million one-time decrease for fuel tax rates , balanced by a $17.1 million ongoing increase from certain nicotine products and a $4 million one-time bump from state and local tax (SALT) deduction changes.
Mi-llions for Students
- WPU Value: $191.4 million to increase the WPU Value by 4.2% to $4,870 for FY 2027.
- Early Success: $25.6 million for Early Literacy and $25.0 million for the At-Risk Student WPU Weighting Phase-in.
- One-Time Projects: $404.9 million from the Public Education Economic Stabilization Restricted Account
Fa–cilitating Research and Training
- Innovation: $45.0 million for the Higher Education Research Funding Pilot Program and $33.6 million for artificial intelligence capacity building.
- Performance & Growth: $16.6 million for Performance Funding and $7.0 million for technical college capacity.
- Specialized Research: $5.0 million for cancer research , $4.5 million for outcome-based investment research, and $1.8 million for the medical school’s St. George campus.
So-cial Services
- Homelessness: $19 million ongoing and $25 million one-time for a law-and-order approach to homeless individuals with multiple criminal offenses – known as “high utilizsers.” State investment requires a dollar-for-dollar match from local governments.
- Affordable Housing: $10.0 million for First Time Home Buyer Program.
La-bor Force
- State Employee Salary Increases – $104.9 million ongoing to fund a 2.5% labor market increase for state agency and higher education employees.
- Benefit Rate Increases – $42.8 million ongoing to fund an 11.8% health benefit rate increase and 4.9% dental rate increase.
- Pay-for-Performance – $13.5 million one-time to fund pay-for-performance bonuses for eligible executive branch employees and discretionary bonuses for employees in the other branches.
- Workforce Modernization – $9.4 million ongoing, with a one-time offset of ($5.1) million in FY 2027, to implement changes to state employee benefit policies enacted in S.B. 229, State Employee Benefits Amendments.
- 401(k) match – $5.3 million ongoing to fund increases in employee 401(k) contribution matches.
Ti-cket to More Information
A complete, detailed listing of the most significant budget actions according to appropriations subcommittee can be found here: Spending Summary.
There are a number of additional resources available for the public and legislators to understand more about funding changes:
- Budget Quick Facts – A pocket-sized guide to the budget.
- DataViz – An interactive graphical representation of the budget. View the budget by sources, uses, and new money. Click a bubble to see how that item has changed over time, and in what bills it changed. Search for budget requests and find where it exists in appropriations bills.
- Compendium of Budget Information (COBI) – A complete guide to the Utah State budget. Find budget requests on the Issues tab, and Line item/program budgets on the Financials tab.
And that will bring us back to Do-ne with the 2026 General Session.