Lawmakers might cut $100,000 - or 12 percent - from the office's budget because it did not use all of its funding in the past couple of years.

The main budget committee approved the cut this week, just two days after the state's surplus estimate was boosted to $1.7 billion. The full Legislature still needs to act.

"[Ethnic Affairs] didn't seem to need [the funding], so we moved it somewhere else," said Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George. "We were looking at funds that were just sitting in savings accounts."

The committee did the same thing with other agencies, he said, though he couldn't name any.

Palmer DePaulis, executive director of the Utah Department of Community and Culture who oversees the office, said the proposed cut won't force any changes in the office.

"I'm not concerned about any of our programs or personnel for the next year," he said. "I'm fully confident we are funded for 2007."

The office's current budget is $837,300, about 80 percent of which is spent on salaries for the office's 10 employees, said spokeswoman Claudia Nakano. The budget also includes $50,700 for operating costs and $42,500 for programs, she said.

The proposed 2008 budget is about $737,300.

DePaulis said the money unused by the office was mostly from salaries left over from when there were longtime vacancies in 2005 and 2006. He said he wouldn't consider the $100,000 a budget cut, but a part of the state budget process.

"This will happen from time to time," he said.

The office is one of six agencies under the Department of Community and Culture. It includes the offices of Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino and Pacific Islander affairs and each office has a volunteer advisory council. The office's mission, according to its Web site, is to ensure the state "adequately meets the needs of Utah's ethnic community" and coordinate projects and events that improve the quality of services and outreach for the ethnic community through partnerships with other state agencies.

Former office directors said they're frustrated and can't believe after years of "fighting" for office funding that it's just being taken away when there is so much need in the community.

Betty Sawyer, former state director of Black Affairs from 1987 to 1996, remembers when the four offices had to share a secretary and there was no office director or policy analyst.

"How can you get that kind of budget cut and it not affect you?" asked Sawyer, now the president of NAACP Ogden chapter. "To have . . . a budget significantly cut can't help but be detrimental to the program and the people it serves."

Leticia Medina, a former state director for Hispanic Affairs 1997 to 2003, said she's shocked the office is not doing more to develop new programs or add staff, especially when the minority community continues to grow - now making up about 16 percent of the state's population.

"What the heck [have they] been doing?" Medina asked. "The value of that office is not recognized by the community or legislators. That's a sad state."

Former directors agreed one of the most important projects the money could be used for is opening satellite ethnic affairs offices in southern Utah and the Logan area. They said many minorities in those areas, from farm workers to college students, don't know where to go for services.

They also said funding could be used on grants to support community groups that are organizing educational workshops, job training and scholarships.

"There's a lot of work to be done," said Tony Yapias, a former state director for Hispanic Affairs. "The leadership there [in the Office of Ethnic Affairs] has failed to address the needs of our community. There's been a lack of vision in there."

jsanchez@sltrib.com

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* GLEN WARCHOL contributed to this article.