Budget: Schools, state worker pay raise, homeless shelters

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah lawmakers are using their final week of the legislative session to settle a budget that will top $15 billion.

The budget legislators are circling around this week includes $68 million to pay for 10,000 extra students in schools, $116 million for districts to raise teacher pay and a 2 percent pay increase for most state workers.

Utah legislators are also setting aside nearly $6 million for prison worker pay, a priority from Gov. Gary Herbert to try to stem high turnover among guards and correction workers.

To help address problems associated with Salt Lake City’s overflowing homeless shelter, legislators are looking to set aside about $10.1 million for two Salt Lake City homeless shelters — one for women-only — and a third shelter elsewhere in Salt Lake County.