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SALT LAKE CITY — Since opening its doors in 1994, the Salt Lake City office of the International Rescue Committee has resettled over 12,000 refugees in Utah.
However, organization members worry that some possible budget cuts to services may impact how well they can help this vulnerable population.
"The IRC works with refugees resettled to the United States, many of whom have survived horrific circumstances and persecution but all of whom show resilience in their eagerness to build lives here in Utah," IRC health program manager Pamela Silberman said in a Thursday morning news conference.
Silberman joined a broad coalition of Utah nonprofits at the press conference via Zoom, calling on the Utah Legislature to dip into its ample rainy day funds rather than cut spending to services when it meets in a special session next week. The decrease in state revenues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing lawmakers to reevaluate the budget they passed during the general session early this year and could lead to significant spending decreases.
Silberman expressed concern that such cuts could negatively impact the health and education of the refugees the International Rescue Committee serves.
"We call upon the Executive Appropriations Committee to reconsider proposed cuts to two critical programs: Health Clinics of Utah and the School Turnaround and Leadership Development Fund," Silberman said, reading from a statement. "New American families in Utah will undoubtedly be negatively affected by the proposed cuts to these programs."
The Legislature is considering 2% across-the-board budget cuts, and appropriations committees were tasked with finding specific line items for the reductions. Silberman said the proposed 2% cut threatens to shutter the health clinics "completely"; there are currently three state-run medical and dental clinics in the state, she said.
"They serve, primarily, Medicaid recipients," Silberman said later in response to a question from KSL NewsRadio's Dan Bammes.
Under the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee 2% cut plan, the clinics are tasked with finding ways to lower their operating deficits or else close outright, saving the state up to $4,220,000.
All refugees receive Medicaid for their first eight months in America, Silberman explained, and often come to the country without having had previous access to quality health care or any dental care at all. The state clinics offer interpretation services, she said, making health care accessible and understandable to refugees.
Silberman expressed concern that if the clinics were shuttered, the state would never open them again.
"We see health care in the United States as a money-making opportunity rather than a right. ... COVID has revealed huge problems that we knew existed in our medical system, and this is just going to exacerbate that by limiting care for the most vulnerable."
In addition to the International Rescue Committee, Thursday's conference was joined by representatives from the Utah Housing Coalition, Comunidades Unidas, the Utah Rivers Council, Utahns Against Hunger, the Disability Law Center, the Utah Education Association, Voices for Utah Children and more.
It was wrapped up by comments from Rep. Suzanne Harrison and Rep. Dan Johnson, who penned a May 31 op-ed calling for legislators to leave education and social services untouched during the budgetary process.
"These budget cuts are a real threat to my patients and my community," said Harrison, D-Sandy, who is a practicing physician anesthesiologist.
She said one of the reasons she ran for office in the first place was concern about education funding in Utah.
"My daughter had 29 children in her kindergarten class," she said, "which is far too many."
Harrison called for the Legislature to be "smart and surgical" in its spending cuts and to consider alternatives.
Johnson, R-Logan, said it would be shortsighted to cut education funding when so much uncertainty hangs over the coming school year in the face of COVID-19.
"There's so much for us to consider as we move forward," he said. "I'm going to also encourage our legislators to make sure that we think deeply about what we're going to cut. Let's keep the things that we know, that are research-based, that make a difference in the well-being of a child."
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said Thursday the Legislature's budget proposals will be released early next week, probably Tuesday. He said the state will allocate $200 million in ongoing revenue — what he called "Rainy Day Fund 1," as opposed to the one-time money in "Rainy Day Fund 2" — for social services.
Adams said the state is trying to avoid spending one-time funds for ongoing expenses but hopes the $200 million will stave off the worst of the proposed cuts; in addition to the 2% reduction plan, appropriations commissions also created 5% and 10% budget reduction plans.
"The hesitation is that we can get to a program that's ongoing, or even salaries, with one-time money — that causes an immense amount of problems because, in a year, it's like falling off a cliff."
Matthew Weinstein of Voices for Utah Children said the state has $5.4 billion in budget reserves, which he sees as being more than enough for the state to dip into some of the one-time use funds in this instance.
"Utah could close the entire gap using just 20-30% of our rainy day reserves and still have 70-80% left over in case they are needed again a year from now," Weinstein said.
Adams, however, wants the state to be more conservative in its approach.
"The one-time money is truly money to be used for a catastrophic event that happens," Adams said. "We think the ongoing rainy day fund is a lot better to use, because it doesn't create that cliff."
