We had record surplusses, hundreds of millions of dollars of surplusses. The Utah economy was booming at an unprecedented rate. Good King John decided not to give us our excess tax money back.

Good King John decided to grow the government supposing that the unusually strong economy would last forever. He shouldn't have done that. He should have listened to someone who has a little common sense, someone who knows that the economy goes up and down.

Now we have huge government expenses that we cannot pay for. Our taxes will go up. Our wonderful socialist governor who plays a Republican on TV did this to us. Let's all vote him out of office and put someone in who has a little common sense. Someone who has balanced a check book. Someone who has made a mortgage payment. Someone who wasn't born with a billion dollar golden spoon in their mouth.

pin this one on the Democrats!

Look what happens when you have one party rule.

Unfortunately, the Democrats and RINOs fought against the tax cuts. We could have been in even worse shape it we hadn't cut taxes as much as we did.

I am a life long forever Republican, and I agree with the first comment. I'll be voting for Bob Springmeyer. Not the greatest choice, but under the circumstances he is definitely the lesser of 2 evils. By far the lesser of 2 evils. Huntsman is not in any way shape or form a religious man either. He is an actor.

Even with the windfall property tax of millions of dollars this doesn't seem like our state government has been honest with the Utah citizens. Theis windfall tax was anticipated like the county auditors were told to raise property taxes with artificial property values. The days of a spend thrift government is over and it must come in line with reality of the economics. This is not a time to raise taxes or add more bonding to government projects. It's time to slow down and spend responsibly and pretend this money is coming out of your pockets (refering to legislators). Bonding means borrowing and as most of the nation knows, this is not the time to borrow money that doesn't exist. State projects are not in an emergency need and they can easily be put on hold until our economy gets more stable. Even education will have to be affected with all its freebee services that have nothing to do with education. Fraud, waste, and abuse in the education system is rampant and its time they get put on the chopping block and audited very closely and with a vengence. The one party Republican state is responsible for all finances.

I think some of the posters missed their civic lessons in school.

The legislature sets the state budget and allocates money - not the governor. He can make recommendations, but the legislature does not have to listen to him. They control the purse strings.

So, even though Governor Huntsman has called a special session to deal with the shortfall, the legislators are not required to allocate or re-allocate any monies. They literally can call themselves into session and then decide not to act at all – if that’s what they want. The governor does not control them. The final call is theirs.

What happened to the rainy day fund? I believe it is still there. Huntsman needs to be more of a leader not a puppeton a string.

Prediction....our taxes are going up. When is enough going to be enough? We are getting hit up everywhere. You want your house to be lit? Then pay more for electricity. Oh yah your heating bill is going up 15$ this Oct. and 15$ more this December. And lets not forget gas prices are still way up there. Oh yeah...and food prices.

And I suppose the typical consumer could easy say " Wait a second I just realized with all the increased prices my wallet is not even running on dry....... its running on negative."

Enough is Enough. Everyone stop taxing us to death and increasing prices so rapidly!!!

There is NO shortfall yet. The fiscal year is not three months old. What should be reported is the expected revenue, upon which the spending budgets were created last February, will not be as much as forecasted. So in order to scale backing spending to match the lower expected revenue the legislature is meeting now instead of waiting until January. Oh how I wish there was truthful reporting somewhere.

Republicans can run a huge debt larger. A trillion is nothing for Huntsman and the party that nationalizes.

Why not stop the Jordan District split. It is estimated to cost well over $100 million.

I'll gladly pay more taxes this year.

We have the lowest taxes of anywhere I have ever lived.

The problem with run-away tax spending is the forever growing need to keep supplying the non-producers from the coffers of those who work their tails off trying to provide for their own families. You can't keep taking from the productive and giving to the non-productive entitlement minded. What ever happened to self-reliance, self-responsibility, self-control and self-respect? The framers of the Constitution must be weeping as they watch socialism take over this great country they gave their lives for. When is enough going to be enough?

So much for the outstanding ability of Huntsman to keep our economy above the national average.
Even with all the gasoline taxes windfall they cant get it right.