Admin budget approved with deeper cuts

JFAC has voted 19-0 to set a budget for the state Department of Administration for next year that includes a 5.5 percent cut in its state general funds, and an 11.7 percent cut overall. Gov. Butch Otter had proposed just a 1.2 percent cut in general funds and a 3.9 percent cut overall. Among his proposals was to restore a $77,500 cut in personnel funds the department took this year; lawmakers declined to restore that money. Overall, the proposed general-fund budget for the department for next year would be $6.6 million, and $53 million in total funds.

In the intent language, or legal strings, that lawmakers attached to the budget, Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, noted that there’s no longer a requirement, as there was last year, to make state employees wait 90 days before they are eligible for health insurance coverage. “That 90-day waiting period in my opinion is a good thing in the private sector,” Cameron said. “It has not worked as well for government, because of a number of conflicts with some agencies and the universities.” He said he worked with the Otter Administration, and agreed not to attach that requirement to the budget for next year; that means the state reverts on July 1 back to a 30-day waiting period. The intent language also calls for the Department of Administration to maintain “grandfathered” status from the national health care reform law, which large employers have the option of doing, unless the director determines that it’s more cost-effective for the state to comply with the new law; if so, she’d have to submit a detailed analysis to the Legislature.