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By John Valentine
President of the Utah Senate

This isn't personal. When facts spill out that give citizens a misleading impression of our work on their behalf I believe we have a right - maybe a responsibility - to offer further perspective. In actuality, we let it slide most of the time but the current situation seems to be moving beyond the accidental slip-up by an otherwise professional, hard-working reporter.

That said, here are some quick observations on Bob Bernick Jr.'s latest column, published in the Deseret Morning News.

Bob Bernick, Jr. said

"The Office of Legislative Auditor General's budget grew by an astounding 80 percent over the past seven years,"

and that the Auditors . . .

"last year turned out 22 audits compared to 17 several years ago."

The 80 percent growth figure spans seven years, but the increase in audits from 17 to 22 (29%) only spans three years. Over the past seven years, the number of audits per year has gone from 11 to 22. Using a seven year span for both(which I believe is intuitive), the comparison should be: Budget Increase = 80%, Productivity Increase = 100%. I believe the people of Utah have been well served by this organization.

The Deseret Morning News also printed

"The Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel's budget grew by nearly 62 percent"

and that LRGC. . .

"hired five new employees over the past few years to deal with a greater workload."

That part is accurate. The workload has increased - particularly in areas like Information Technology and big-issue task forces. Two of the five new hires were IT staffers. Compare the web access and services we provide citizens to other state legislatures and I think you'll realize that this was money invested well.

As the state grows and becomes more complex we are seeing more big-issue task forces and more intensity in the legislature. Bigger issues require more analytical and legal staff.

A significant part (just under $400K) of the increase is due to the mobile communications program for the entire legislature housed in their office. My staff tells me that Mr. Bernick was informed of this, but it didn't turn up in his story.

Bob Bernick further reports . . .

"The other main legislative office - the Fiscal Analyst, which drafts the state's budget - grew by 49 percent over that time frame - the same growth as the executive branch's main tax funds."

The "executive branch's main tax funds", as the reporter puts it, are the General Fund and Education Fund. Notwithstanding significant tax cuts, those funds grew by about 49% from FY 2002 to FY 2009 - 50.1% to be exact. But comparing that to the Fiscal Analyst's budget is a little like comparing apples and oranges. A correct statement would be: Total General/Education Fund appropriations growth = 50.1%; Fiscal Analyst General/Education Fund appropriations growth = 37.5%.

Finally, Mr. Bernick says

"Over four years, the average state executive branch worker has seen a pay raise of 17.5 percent." He then says "With those numbers in mind, here are a few examples of some of the larger, or just odd, pay raises and pay scales in the Utah Legislature."

"Average" includes BOTH highs and lows and should not be compared to a handful of the higher-performing or "larger" outliers. For every person that earned a big increase, someone else retired or moved-on and was replaced by an individual with less experience and therefore lower pay.

An accurate comparison would be: Executive Branch compensation increases over seven years = 43%; Legislative Branch compensation increases over seven years = 44%.

Excellent staff is worth the investment. I can't count the number of times we have asked staff to provide hard-to-reach information and sophisticated analysis at the drop of a hat. Legislative staff has provided timely information and service in a consistent, credible, professional manner that should be the envy of any legislative body, anywhere.

My entire career as a tax attorney and (former) CPA has prepared me for this role and I take my job seriously. When I am no longer Senate President one of the legacies I will leave to this state is excellent legislative staff. They are not perfect, but they are smart, motivated, problem solvers. They are highly competent, hard working, and innovative and they work incredibly well as a team.

3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post. It's especially important that Republican politicians fight the misinformation produced by the media. Too many rank and file Republicans are becoming disenchanted with the party based on articles that purposely bend the truth to make the stories as sensational as possible, which I suspect is done for both political reasons and economic ones. We all know most journalists are Democrats and that sensationalism is what sells papers.

Anyways, please continue to fact check the press for the benefit of the party and voters in general.

8/27/2008 10:16 AM  

 TomG said...

I was a bit bothered by the article--it felt like the author was trying to make mountains out of molehills. (And given the recent spat between lege leaders and Bernick, that's unsurprising.) It's good to hear I'm not the only one who felt that way.

In particular, the salaries of auditors and lawyers were presented as excessive, but they seemed to me to be about the middle range for a highly qualified person. (I wondered how you ever had qualified applicants at some of those starting salaries.)

8/27/2008 12:34 PM  

 Anonymous said...

This is the type of reporting we've come to expect from the once decent D-News.

I've had personal experience with both reporters (Bernick & Davidson) and both have often times been short on facts and long on opinion.

Congrats to the the Senate Leadership for correcting the errors.

Mr. Cannon: How long are you going to stand for this?

8/29/2008 9:54 PM  

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