The clock is rapidly winding down on the 2014 Utah Legislature, and there are still a couple of big issues still to be resolved before midnight Thursday.
The Budget
The House, Senate and Governor were still at an impasse on Friday night on how to fund Speaker Becky Lockhart’s school technology initiative. Lawmakers have cancelled six straight meetings of the Executive Appropriations Committee while they continue to negotiate. There are hopes that they will have a plan to present to lawmakers come Monday morning.
The current price tag for the program is hovering around $200 million.
Last week the Senate hijacked a bill meant to equalize funding between school districts in order to divert money into the technology plan.
Lockhart said during her Friday media availability that she knows the $200 million is not going to happen.
“The $200 million is just a placeholder,” said the Speaker. “It’s going to be less.” However, Lockhart declined to say how much less she was willing to accept.
Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-Logan) said the negotiations on the budget are moving forward, and the two sides are inching toward the middle.
“When we’re just talking money, it’s easy to solve,” he said. “When we are talking philosophy, that’s more difficult. We are trying to find ways to approach the same problem and solve it in a different way that doesn’t offend.”
Hillyard says the House doesn’t want to vote for any tax increase to pay for the Speaker’s education plan, while the Senate doesn’t want to take the money out of the transportation fund.
Both sides say they are confident they’ll come up with a plan before the session ends on Thursday.
The wild card in all of this is Gov. Herbert. He is on the record opposing spending more than $30 million for the program, and said he will likely veto any number north of that.
[UPDATE: The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Lockhart walked away from negotiations this weekend without securing any money for the program.]
Medicaid Expansion
It’s looking more and more like the 2014 session will end without any decision from lawmakers.
The House has put forward a plan to reject any federal money, while Sen. Brian Shiozawa (R-Cottonwood Heights) is changing his plan to expand Medicaid coverage to those at 100% of the poverty level in favor of the Governor’s proposal to seek waivers from the federal government to give Utah more flexibility in how the money is spent.
House Majority Whip Greg Hughes (R-Draper) said the House wants to take more time to study the issue before coming to a decision.
“This will change permanently the way we fund and access healthcare,” said Hughes. “There is no do-over. When we are making an irreversable decision, it should be made with as much information as we can possibly get. Our caucus feels much more comfortable making this decision at a later date.”
Gov. Herbert has asked legislators for guidance on how to proceed with the issue in negotiations with the federal government.
“If there’s a better way to do this coming from the House or the Senate, I want to hear about it,” said Herbert.
While it seems likely this decision will be left for a special session, Herbert hopes not.
“I hope it’s not months. Don’t tie my hands on this,” he said.
