This fall, the leaves won’t be the only thing changing around the Capitol. During the 2024 General Session, the Legislature passed both a resolution and a bill that impact the appropriations process. This post summarizes how H.J.R. 23 and H.B. 335 will impact the budget even before the 2025 General Session gets underway.
H.J.R. 23 “Legislative Process Amendments”
This resolution added an eighth topical appropriations subcommittee and retitled two existing committees.* Starting in November, the following structure for appropriations subcommittees will be in place:
The renamed General Government committee will acquire regulatory entities from the subcommittee formerly known as Business, Economic Development and Labor (BEDL). These agencies include the Labor Commission, Financial Institutions, Tax Commission, Public Service Commission, Commerce, and Insurance. The plan is also for this committee to acquire the Executive Offices from the current EOCJ committee, including the budgets for the Governor’s Office and State Auditor.
This change allows the new BEDL to focus on Economic and Community Development. In that spirit, the committee will now include the Department of Workforce Services (reallocated from Social Services). As noted in the graphic above, two committees (Social Services and Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environmental Quality) will see slight adjustments to their respective budgets though no new titles were warranted.
In addition to being more narrowly focused on health and human services, the Social Services committee will go from two meetings to one each interim or session meeting day. This change aligns Social Services with the other appropriations subcommittee schedules, and accommodates the additional committee being added to the mix.
The new Transportation and Infrastructure committee will acquire pieces from the former “IGG” committee, such as (you guessed it) Transportation, Capital Budget, Utah Education and Telehealth Network, and Debt Service. To compliment this bond-loving-budget, the committee will also oversee the Treasurer’s Office. Membership for each of the committees will be determined by presiding officers, after Legislative leadership elections this fall.
The last and maybe most exciting change induced by H.J.R. 23 is that the fiscal note threshold for bills that do not need to be prioritized was increased from $15,000 to $20,000.
H.B. 335 “State Grant Process Amendments”
This legislation aims to improve the efficiency and accountability of state grant programs. The bill provides a ‘default’ for all grant appropriations being a “Competitive Grant”, which requires contractual agreement to performance measures, deliverables, and audit procedures. The process also outlines that each grant must determine a payment schedule and tie deliverables to each installment, only making final payment upon receipt of agreed upon work products.
UCA 63G-6b does not apply to grants that are specifically authorized in statute, but the processes are considered best practices for awarding state funds to pass-through entities. Legislators can request that the Executive Appropriations Committee authorize a “Direct Award Grant” which allows a recipient or class of recipients to be identified in intent language each fiscal year. The Request for Appropriations (RFA) process will offer legislators the option to request a Direct Award Grant on the application form.
*The Executive Office and Criminal Justice appropriations subcommittee was not renamed by this resolution, however a Technical Correction is expected during the 2025 General Session which would make this third retitled committee simply “Criminal Justice.”