Note: This year IFF rated maintenance bills according to a more refined system. This is an enhancement bill, and will be rated as a standalone bill. IFF will only consider enhancement line items in these ratings. This means that FTP reductions passed in maintenance legislation will not be evaluated here, among other things.

Bill Description: House Bill 919 is an enhancement of $72,507,300 and 0.00 new full-time positions for the Permanent Building Fund for fiscal year 2027. This legislation appropriates a total of $72,507,300 and 0.00 full-time positions to the agency.

Analyst Note: The Permanent Building Fund is a continuously appropriated account and does not receive appropriations as an agency would. This means projects appropriated last year are “off budget,” leaving only new projects visible each year. Therefore, there is no base or ongoing expenditures to measure, as is true with other appropriations. There are also no FTPs dedicated to this account.

Rating: 0

Does this budget incur any wasteful spending among discretionary funds, including new line items? Conversely, does this budget contain any provisions that serve to reduce spending where possible (i.e. base reductions, debt reconciliation, etc.)?

This legislation authorizes onetime spending from the Permanent Building Fund of $72,507,300, adding additional expenditures after last year’s (FY26) onetime spending of $122,861,900. This is budget as an increase or decrease in the amount of appropriations required to fund the projects from year-to-year. The fund is continuous, but the appropriations are onetime each year. Onetime spending is often even more volatile than ongoing spending, which is to be expected due to these onetime expenses generally being utilized for projects or capital outlay. This also calls for special scrutiny and discernment.

The onetime expenditure consists of repair projects ($31,422,500 DF) and building maintenance ($34,028,700 DF) as the largest line items. This legislation also includes money for the design of Bonneville County Readiness Center ($890,100 DF). The legislature already approved $5 million in utility work last year related to this project. Given that no other projects have been authorized, and the Permanent Building Fund cancelled over $33 million in projects to FY26 to help balance the budget, these design costs are minor and part of an ongoing project.

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