Pub. 9 2019-2020 Issue 2

6 Session Wrap Up T he 2020 Session hasn’t been done for a week, and economic changes have already made some of the “big” leg- islative accomplishments outdated. At the end of the session, the public education community, the Governor’s Office and the Legislature joined arms in celebrating an agreement on a package to stabilize and increase education funding. This agreement on SJR 9 and HB 357 is likely the most significant funding and policy decision of the 2020 General Session. Among other things, those bills • increased the value of the WPU by 6%, which represents about $200 million in new, unrestricted funding • set aside another $75 million ongoing to be used to help fundpublic educationwhen the economy goes into recession • created an automatic statutory increase in annual public education funding of at least inflation plus growth • proposed an amendment to the Utah Constitution permit- ting income tax to be spent on children and the disabled. All told, the Legislature appropriated about an additional $335 million (ongoing and one-time combined) to public education this year.