Utah Governor Gary Herbert calls it “butt-biting time.” That’s the next domino to fall from living beyond our means and striving to survive the sequestration.
Does it feel like we haven’t heard nearly as much about the sequestration as we have the fiscal cliff? Maybe because we haven’t. According to Chris Whatley, the director of The Council of State Government’s D.C. office, “I think in some ways, there’s a bit of detachment with what’s going on in Washington, in part because this is the fourth major deadline within 18 months,” he said. “There was the debt ceiling deadline, there was the late fall deadline of the super committee, there was the fiscal cliff deadline in December, now it’s the sequestration deadline March 1. … You can only say the sky is falling so much.” (Read the full article here)
Whatley says there is no getting around these cuts and that “more fiscal pain could be headed toward the states.” The sequestration evenly divides the budget cuts between domestic and defense spending for just the first two years. Come 2015, the cuts could have a bigger impact.
Although out state tends to get the pat on the back for doing things right, there is plenty of work that still needs to be done.
This poll post on Utahpolicy.com offers some insight here on how Utah’s lawmakers feel about the effects our state may feel.