SHURTLEFF ASKS FOR $1 MILLION TO COVER DEFICITS

Utah's new attorney general asked lawmakers Wednesday for more than $1
million to cover a deficit and beef up drug enforcement efforts.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told a legislative budget committee that
his office will run a $325,000 deficit for the six months remaining in this
fiscal year because he hired his top deputies before he found out he could
not fire top advisers to his predecessor because they were in merit positions.

Merit positions, as opposed to political appointments, remain in place from
one administration to the next.

In the next fiscal year, that deficit will double to $650,000.

Shurtleff said there were three secretaries and six attorneys he now has to
find room for in his office, but no money in his budget to pay them.

"I am putting my money where my mouth is and doing everything I can to live
within my means," he said.

At the same time, Shurtleff asked lawmakers to expand those means by nearly
$600,000, so his office could go after Internet pornography, Medicaid fraud
and rampant methamphetamine use.

Committee co-chairman Rep. LaMont Tyler, R-Holladay, said he was concerned
by the size of Shurtleff's budget requests.