This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Former Gov. Mike Leavitt warned Utah legislators Monday that they may be about to repeat a mistake that cost the state dearly 20 years ago by not adequately funding programs to protect abused children.

Specifically, he is worried about money for the Utah Foster Care Foundation, which the state set up in 1998 to work with churches to recruit quality foster families. He said the foundation has announced it will close June 30 unless it is given a contract adequate to meet its costs.

"High quality foster families are hard to find, even more difficult to keep, and in the early 1990s the state of Utah was failing at it," Leavitt told members of a budget committee. "We had too few, and too many of those we had were in it for all the wrong reasons. The results were often tragic for children."

So the foundation was set up and given a contract to work with churches to recruit foster families for the state. However, he said the state has given the foundation flat funding since 2004, while "the demands on the system have markedly increased during that period."

He added, "This isn't a nonprofit entity hoping to get business from the state — it is the state of Utah meeting its obligation" by combining resources and abilities with churches, Leavitt said. He noted the state recently sought bids from others to offer similar services, but no one replied.

It was the former three-term governor's first Capitol appearance during a legislative session in a decade. After leaving office midway through his final term in 2003, he served in the administration of President George W. Bush, including as secretary of Health and Human Services.

The foster-foundation issue was important enough that he returned to Utah's Capitol to send up signals against repeating a painful history.

That history included the state being sued just before he became governor for inadequately protecting abused children.

"This was among the most difficult and hurtful problems state government dealt with during my time of service and it should never be repeated," he said.

Because of the lawsuit, Leavitt said the state "retooled Utah statutes, appropriately increased budgets, and recommitted itself to carry out this most basic of state government obligations. Our state went from being highly inadequate in its protection of abused children, to one that is admired."

An important part of the solution was creation of the Foster Care Foundation, he said.

"I fear the state of Utah is in danger of making the same mistakes it did 25 years ago" if it doesn't adequately fund the foundation.

"The failure of the Utah Foster Care Foundation would set back foster care in our state two decades," he said. "It would require the Department of Human Services to assume responsibility for this function again and history will repeat itself."