Notes from the 1/29/13 Meeting of the Business, Economic Development, and Labor Appropriations Sub-Committee

BEDL NOTES 1/29/13

Sen. Brian E. Shiozawa, Senate Chairman
Rep. Jim Bird, House Chairman
Rep. Stewart E. Barlow, House Vice Chair
Sen. Curtis S. Bramble
Sen. Gene Davis
Sen. Wayne A. Harper
Sen. Scott K. Jenkins
Sen. Stuart C. Reid
Rep. Patrice M. Arent
Rep. Jeremy A. Peterson
Rep. Val L. Peterson
Rep. Angela Romero
Rep. V. Lowry Snow
Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox
Sen. Jerry W. Stevenson
Rep. James A. Dunnigan
Rep. Dixon M. Pitcher
Rep. Brad R. Wilson

Dr. Andrea Wilko, Chief Economist
Mr. Zackery King, Fiscal Analyst
Ms. Rosemary Young, Committee Secretary

1. Dr. Wilko gave a run down of the items available on le.utah.gov for the BEDL committee, shared how to find committee resources
1. Find all state budgets for last 5 years: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/lfa/cobi2013/COBI2013.htm
2. http://le.utah.gov/asp/lfa/lfareports.asp
3. state library: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000142.pdf
4. indian affairs: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000144.pdf
5. DHA: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000110.pdf
6. Arts & musums: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000106.pdf
7. state history: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000108.pdf
8. BEDL calendar: http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000076.pdf
9. le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00000106.pdf 
2. Chair Rep. Bird reiterated 15 key ?’s that the committee wants each agency to report on. Some of the main ?’s were: What is your program, Who are your customers?  What key results are expected from this tax payer funded project?  How are your programs evaluated?  (What are “performance measures”?)  What results would change if program increased by 5%, decreased by 5%?  
3. Andrea gave a run through of what the committee would be asked to do for each department
1. arts and museums: fiscal analyst recommends FY 2014 budget of $3,749,500
1. Rep. Jim Bird asked question to what level Tracy Aviary is funded by ZAP and does it therefore continue need to be funded | Sen. Davis clarified that it was for a one-time request for a building project, there was some explanation given that ZAP is a Salt Lake County program and not overseen by the legislature.
2. Senator Reid wanted to know if a $40 Million trust fund could be used to fund indian affairs at all. Julie Fisher, executive Director of the Department of Heritage and Arts (DHA) clarified that it is federally appropriated and they as a state agency cannot use that funding but do disperse it

1. Julie Fisher & Geoff Fatah (Public Information Officer, DHA) gave a presentation on DHA’s annual report.
1. Ms. Fisher gave an over view of their “optimization”

• removing positions: $280,000
• relocation of state-owned sspace: reduced lease costs by 76%
• additional personnel reduction 
• were given funds to conduct a rebranding intiative
• funds to develop an ROI report
• as a result of ?? $280,000 goes back to the fund
• Rep. Arent wanted to know about cutbacks to hours for some of the state museums operated by State Parks | Margaret Hunt of Utah Arts & Museums answered later in the meeting giving general information about museums and how they’ve been effected by the economy
• Ms. Fisher gave an overview of the digitization efforts and how the DHA has been applauded for its efforts by the State Optimization Committee

1. Mr. Fatah gave a report on what each department/division does
1. statutory authority for the dept of heritage and arts in found in UCA Title 9. Powers and duties include:
1. responsibility for preserving and promoting the heritage, arts, and cultural development within the state
2. perform heritage, arts, and cultural development planning for the state, and
3. coordinating of federal grants for heritage, arts, libraries, and volunteers
2. Goals for 2013:
1. measurably increase the quantity and quality of our publicly-available digital resources
2. refine our performance measurement portfolio
3. make strategic investments into improving grants management capability
4. develop new partnerships with community and nonprofit organizations
5. implement one significant intradepartmental collaboration (i.e. collections management)
3. Volunteers

• Utah is #1 in nation on terms of volunteer time
• estimated $3.8 Billion in saves
• on average, Utah’s volunteers give 177 million hours of service a year
• over 11,000 students have been tutored the the Utah Americorps literacy

1. Office of Multicultural Affairs

• 2010 1/5 of UT is minority
• by 2040, expected to be a majority
• tasked to find policy recommendations for key ethnicities

1. division of indian affairs

• facilitates 
• 25% of oil and gas wells exist on tribal reservation land (about 2.4 million acres)
• manages a celebration for indigenous day and NHMU with over 400 people in attendance

1. Library

• 2 out of 3 utahns has a library card (#3 of library usage per capita)
• residents made over 2 millino serces on USL’s Public PIONEER-Utah’s Online Library
• largest library of materials for the blind and sight-disabled in the country according to Library of Congress

1. Intra-state Agency Collaboration
1. state library: works with utah department of corrections in the reading for the blind program (they read stories that are recorded) | works with U of U’s center of excellence in women’s health to provide health information in rural libraries | Donna Morris gave an overview of the book mobile program (it takes a book mobile to rural areas of the state, we pay about 20% of it)
2. state history: support for numerous Utah heritage organization | works with state tax commission to offer tax credits to preserve historic residential-use buildings. 75-80 projects completed a year
3. arts & museums: works with state office of education through several arts education programs
4. works with veterans affairs to sponsor blue star museum day

1. Rep. Barlow commended Ms. Fisher on the hard work their department has done to optimize. He commended Ms. Fisher personally for her good work, and diligence in taking a fine tooth comb to this Department.  Art is a hard thing to evaluate in a ROI investment scale, but said that they have an obligation to the State to also maintain its heritage and culture.  No replacing it, no putting a value on that.  It’s something that HAS to be done.