OCR Text |
Show Foundation predicts Utah likely to end fiscal year with no funds expanded spending pror' excess of these ten-year or any resumption of i stantial building progral yond that financed fro 1965 bond sale proceeds' further complicate the j shortage prospect duriji coming year. 'j Mrs. Ellen Murray h unus-u.-U hobby. She hai lected 1,400 salt and sets without a single duj Her collection has come far and wide. Even though Utah ended the 1967-68 fiscal year with balances bal-ances of $4,735,000 in the general gen-eral fund and $60,000 in the school fund on June 30, 1968, Utah Foundation predicts that the State is likely to conclude the present 1968-69 fiscal year with no general fund balance and a sizeable deficit in the uniform school fund. Among the factors mentioned saved the State $2.5 million in fiscal 1968 and will save an added $2.7 million if they are continued throughout the remainder re-mainder of the 1968-69 fiscal year. Even if these 4 cuts are continued throughout the balance bal-ance of the fiscal year, however how-ever ,the Foundation report points out that Utah is likely to conclude the fiscal period with a deficit that could ap proach $7 million. The study notes that any deficit in the present period must be carried over into the next fiscal year and met from revenues collected collec-ted in the 1969-70 fiscal year. This, of course, will reduce the funds that will be available to meet the expenditure needs of next year. The Utah Foundation .concludes .con-cludes by observing that "Utah will experience some financial problems during the coming fiscal year." Even if spending Increases are held to the trend of the past ten years, general fund and uniform school fund expenditures could exceed revenues from present tax sources by $1S million during the 1969-70 fiscal year. The study emphasizes that the above forecasts are based on continuation of the trends of the past decade. Any new or in the report for "this apparent appar-ent reversal of Utah's financial condition" are the following. 1. Regular general fund operating op-erating costs were increased by $6.3 million and school operating operat-ing costs went up $4.8 million in fiscal 1969. 2. An appropropriation of $5,250,000 to meet bond retirement retire-ment on July 1, 1969, must be set up as an expenditure item this year. 3. Additional deficit or supple- mental appropriations of $900,-000 $900,-000 for welfare purposes and $7,000,000 for debt retirement probably will be required during dur-ing the 1968-69 fiscal year. 4. Part of the 1967-68 appropriation ap-propriation for local school building aid was held up and will be paid during the current fiscal year. 5. Utah's resources for last year (1967-68) included a nonrecurring $5.5 million transfer trans-fer of "suspense" funds plus $535,000 resulting . from the consolidation of funds. Despite the improvement in tax collections during recent months, Utah Foundation analysts ana-lysts predict that "revenues for the 1967-69 biennial period will fall far short of the estimates contained in the budget document docu-ment for the current bienni-um." bienni-um." When it became apparent that there would be a revenue shortage in the 1967-68 and 1958-69 fiscal years, the Governor Gov-ernor ordered a 4 cut in most general fund and some uniform school fund appropriation allotments. al-lotments. These allotment cuts |