Utah Legislature assures no state government shutdown games by passing ‘base budgets’

Utah legislators on Tuesday approved a series of safety-net “base budgets,” designed to prevent the sorts of shutdowns that the federal government is constantly flirting with when Congress and the president clash on spending.The federal government had a three-day shutdown last month, and worried about the possibility again this week. In 2013, a 16-day shutdown led to furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers. Utah, at the time, managed to reopen national parks here by guaranteeing