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According to the Federal Reserve, in 2015 the average home value in Utah was just over $230,000. Ten years later, the average home value has more than doubled to an average price of $530,000. While 2015 to 2020 provided steady, moderate growth, the last five years were marked by the profound impacts of the pandemic […]

During the 2025 General Session, the Legislature passed three major bills that impacted the state’s budget for transportation and infrastructure: The impact of these bills is an increase from Sales Tax for transportation and a simplified calculation for specific set asides. The following post summarizes the budgetary impact of these bills and explains how they […]

To provide a useful estimate of the year-to-date revenue for any state fund, collections must account for tax earmarks that are set aside for specific purposes and in some cases generated from specific subsets of a tax. The Tax Commission’s Revenue Summary (which informs the Revenue Snapshot’s contrast between collections and revenue estimates) provides a […]

In late March, the President issued an executive order to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). What impact will this action have on education in the states is one of many questions raised by lawmakers, school professionals, and parents nationwide. Potential closure of the DOE is in the early stages, and little information is […]

To accommodate an expected half a million new residents in the next decade, policymakers have undertaken a ‘power surge’ of policy and investment, aimed at securing the ample, affordable energy resources that support Utah’s quality of life. The 2025 General Session underscored this urgency, with lawmakers considering nearly 30 energy-related bills and allocating a $10.0 […]

We’ve all been there: the second trip to the home improvement store for a part we forgot earlier; stopping at the grocery store every day during the work week; taking a student back home because they forgot their project that’s due today. These extra trips not only come with direct costs (like fuel), but also […]

With only four more periods in the fiscal year (excluding close out), Legislative economists watch with anticipation to see how close their brackets revenue projections are to the yearend tally. In the latest Tax Commission Revenue Summary, a picture of mixed performance is seen across the state’s revenue streams, with some surprising upsets and strong […]

The Utah Legislature concluded its 2025 General Session with a budget of $30.8 billion for fiscal year 2026. The budget includes $12.7 billion from state funds (General Fund, Income Tax Fund, and Uniform School Fund). Top legislative budget priorities included state fund investments in:                                 As required by the Utah Constitution, legislators balanced the budget to projections […]

Ingredients: Instructions: Yield: one balanced budget. Recipe Notes: The reports referenced in this post are available at the following links:February Revenue Snapshot (FY 25)Tax Commission Revenue Summary (Period 7, FY 2025)Revenue Publications Archive

Every year, the Legislature passes a bill that adjusts the ongoing base funding for state employees’ compensation, sometimes referred to as the “compensation bill” or just the “comp bill.” This bill has a lot of moving parts, making its nickname very appropriate—it’s not just “comp-ensation,” it’s also “comp-licated!” Many factors (such as cost-of-living changes, adjustments […]

Passed on the 10th day of session, the base budget bills for state agencies provide important direction for state agencies in the upcoming budget year. Included for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 is intent language establishing line item performance measures for most line items of every agency. This post will serve as a refresher on what […]

In December, Legislative economists provided updated revenue estimates to the Executive Appropriations Committee, along with a summary of how current spending and statutorily required and recommended revenue set asides paints a narrow margin for new spending during the General Session. As discussed last week, recent trends in collections are likely attributable to timing, and February’s […]

A quick glance at the December Revenue Snapshot shows a relatively bleak picture of year-to-date (YTD) state revenue collections, particularly for Income Tax Fund (ITF) collections which indicated a -4.3% year over year (YoY) growth rate as of the date of the report. With what may appear to be a sleight of hand, a second […]

Loyal readers of budget.utah.gov may recall this post from last month, summarizing the latest technology upgrades for the Fiscal Note system (FiNS). As a reminder, FiNS is the vehicle for drafting the very popular financial impact analyses that are attached to every piece of proposed legislation. In preparation for for the upcoming General Session, the […]

2024 marked the third year for the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s Operations and Performance Team (Ops. Team). In addition to completing three efficiency evaluations for the Departments of Corrections, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture and Food, the team also worked to further improve budgetary performance measurement and idea sharing through cross-pollination with other states. Improving […]

During the 2020 General Session, the Legislature passed H.B. 357, “Public Education Funding Stabilization.” The bill, which was contingent on the passage of Constitutional Amendment G, laid the foundation for the annual adjustments of the Public Education budget framework. The framework includes mechanisms to address three areas of volatility in the public education budget: enrollment […]

During the 2024 interim, the Legislative staff have been hard at work designing and testing a new fiscal note system, intended to improve the user experience for policymakers, staff, and state agencies. The updated system, dubbed “FiNS” (Fiscal Note System), is in the final stages of deployment in preparation for the 2025 General Session. The […]

On Thursday, December 5th, Governor Spencer Cox released his Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Recommendations, and in doing so formally kicked off the budget season. In the state government rendition of letters sent to Santa, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget submits the statutorily required list of recommended investments to the Legislative Fiscal Analyst (LFA) […]

On Wednesday, November 20th, legislative and executive branch economists released the revenue update for November, detailing collections for the first four months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The Revenue Summary (TC-23) published by the Tax Commission tallies funds collected by the state, while the impact of those collections is interpreted in the Revenue Snapshot co-produced […]

The tax generated by the sale of oil and natural gas, and the mining of various compounds is a complicated, and widely discussed piece of the state budget. Severance tax applies to the “upstream” activity within the extractive industries, where the resource is severed from the land. Any oil, gas, or mining production in the […]

You may recall last August when we discussed Internal Service Funds (ISFs) as they relate to the Attorney General’s Office.  Today, we take a step back and review how Internal Service Funds play a role in the state’s budget. Function and Purpose of ISFs The purpose of an ISF is for an agency to provide […]

The Transportation Investment Fund of 2005 (or TIF for short) is one of the largest accounts in the state budget, with revenues of over $3.2 billion in FY 2025. While appropriations for transportation projects represent a significant part of the state’s budget, the funding sources for these projects can be a bit confusing. In committees, […]

During the Legislative “off season,” appropriations subcommittees are hard at work diving into the nitty-gritty, budgetary details that no General Session allows enough time to explore. These deep dives are organized under the Accountable Budget Process, a statutory requirement set in motion by H.J.R. 18 from the 2019 General Session. This process allows subcommittees to […]

Within the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), the Legislature actively funds 13 scholarship programs centrally located and overseen by the Utah Board of Higher Education (UBHE) and the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education. Each of these programs was created statutorily, and are budgeted under the USBE Student Assistance line item. Each of […]

The Fiscal Health Dashboard is a one-stop shop for legislators and constituents to answer questions about Utah’s current and long-term financial position. The Legislative Fiscal Analyst developed the dashboard in compliance with both UCA 36-12-13(2)(h) and J.R. 3-2-402. Though the statutory and rule requirements are to prepare the legislature for an upcoming General Session, the […]

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 […]

When the Legislature appropriates new funding for a project, it’s kind of like your family setting out on a road trip to your favorite theme park—if the journey is successful, you’ll make it to the place where all your dreams come true. Appropriating the funding is like getting on the freeway, it’s a starting point […]

In the 2021 General Session, the Legislature separated the Divisions of State Parks and Outdoor Recreation which were previously a single line item housed in the Department of Natural Resources. The following year, the Office of Outdoor Recreation in the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity was combined with the new division to complete a single […]

When conjuring a picture of the state’s budget, appropriations (authorized spending) and expenditures (actual spending) jump to the front of mind. However, both appropriations and expenditures hinge on revenues, both forecasted and collected. This flip side of the budget coin provides a unique challenge for policy makers, since revenues in the short term are largely […]

In July we covered the Statewide Master Plan, a guide for state office space planning and investments. In that post, it was discussed how both the 2023 and 2024 General Sessions contingently put money towards the Plan, if certain revenue collections materialized. The shortfall in FY 2023 resulted in a rescinded $125.0 million appropriation. During […]

In June, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS) opened the doors on its latest store, an upgrade for the Salt Lake City Downtown location which was considered out of date and undersized. This first ever two-story location featuring nearly 40 doors of refrigerated products is perhaps the latest example of the shift initiated by […]

According to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, average rental prices along the Wasatch Front climbed more than 20% from 2020 to 2021. While the State of Utah’s Housing Market Report (report) does note contraction in the housing market in 2023, the implications of interest rates and the pandemic on Utah’s housing market are enduring: […]