While money going into programs and salaries increased by 6.5 percent, cash going into buildings and roads plummeted by 74 percent, which is not surprising as revenue estimates came in $340 million lower than anticipated.

However, the state still spent nearly $11.5 billion this year, down from $12 billion last year.

But the change comes because in the past several years with record revenue, the Legislature voted to fund buildings and roads instead of putting money into budgets with annually increasing needs, said Jonathan Ball, director of the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst.

The decrease made Royce Van Tassell, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, want to "applaud the Legislature" this year, but he was still disappointed in past years' spending.

"What I see is that the Legislature did a good job in restraining themselves this year, but the tale has been a dramatic increase in the size of government," Van Tassell said. "Taxpayers need to be wary of where tax dollars are going."

But for some, such as Linda Hilton, director of the Coalition for Religious Communities, the downturn simply gave the Legislature an excuse for not funding programs for low-income residents.

"The needs of people with low income, the elderly and disabled are always sidelined for tourism, economic development and roads," Hilton said. "So in some ways, this year is just more of the same. People are not their priorities."

Legislators voted to put $100 million away in a savings account for public education funding to brace for a worsening economy, and severely dropped their funding of roads and buildings - from $1 billion last year to $237 million this year.

Ball said the Legislature guarded against the possibility of an economic downturn by spending money in areas that don't need long-term investment.

"The Legislature wisely deposited those windfalls into rainy day funds or invested them in capital acquisition projects [such as] roads and buildings rather than build them into ongoing programs," Ball said. "Now that we no longer have windfalls, the [building and road] investment slows."

smcfarland@sltrib.com