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Show Utah could end year with deficit Despite efforts to trim expenditures and transfer funds. Utah could end the present fiscal year with a deficit unless additional action is taken by the Legislature of the administration. This was the conclusion reached by Utah Foundation, the private research organization, in their latest analysis of state finances. Primary cause of the problem, according ac-cording to the Foundation, is that revenues have failed to meet expectations expecta-tions beause of the length and severity severi-ty of the recession. Last year when the 1982-83 budget was set, it was expected that free revenues in the general fund and the uniform school fund would total $996 million, and Foundation analysts note that even this drastically drastical-ly reduced figure may be too high. The study points out that a number of things were done over the past year to try to keep the budget in balance: 1. Spending for most general fund and school fund agencies was reduced reduc-ed by 2 percent. 2. Transfers of $30 million from state land accounts and $5.5 million from lapsed mineral leasing funds were authorized. 3. The governor asked state agencies voluntarily to trim their budgets by another 1'2 percent. Even with all of the above measures, the Foundation report indicates that added savings andor transfers must be found if a deficit is to be avoided. In this regard the 1983 Utah Legislature did set aside $10 million from bonus oil shale mineral royalty funds to meet possible budget deficits. The legislative budget for 1983-84 assumes that an economic recovery is underway and that this will provide a substantial boost to state revenue collections. col-lections. If the recovery is less than anticipated, an-ticipated, however, revenues again could fail to meet expectations and I Utah's financial problems would continue. con-tinue. Moreover, the budget passed earlier this year did not take into consideration con-sideration the emergency problem caused by flooding and mud slides this spring. A special session has been called call-ed for this week to deal with that problem. Despite the multitude of problems that faced the 1983 Utah Legislature, it was able to pass a balanced budget for 1983-84 without a major increase in taxes. There were, however, some minor tax increases for special purposes. Total spending authorized by the 1983 Utah Legislature for the 1983-84 fiscal year amounted to more than $2 billion. As has been the case through most of Utah's history, the bulk of the state spending will be for education. State educational expenditures for next year will total more than $1 billion, or about half of all state spending. spen-ding. Authorized expenditures for public education in 1983-84 will total $753 million, while higher education expenditures will amount to $267 million. One bright spot in Utah's financial picture, according to the Foundation, as the surplus that developed in the state retirement fund. Because the investment in-vestment yield from fund assests has been greater than the actuarial assumptions used a number of years ago when the contribution rates were established, a surplus was being generated in the fund. This allowed the Legislature to reduce employee and employer contributions to the fund without jeopardizing any of the benefit commitments in the program. As a result, state costs for retirement were reduced and state and school employees will receive either an increase in-crease in take-home pay or added fringe benefits. |