Ball
At the Utah Legislature, it’s like the E.F. Hutton TV ad from the 1970s: When fiscal analyst Jonathan Ball talks, people listen.
“Jonathan’s kind of the E.F. Hutton of our day,” says Rep. Val Peterson (R), referring to the late co-founder of the Wall Street brokerage firm that bore his name. Peterson has worked with Ball for 25 years, first as a legislative liaison for higher education, then as a state representative. “He’s built up an amazing reputation for being a great strategic thinker.”
Ball caught the “bug for budgeting” as an intern for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress in the 1990s, and he later worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
His wife, Samantha, lured him to Utah, her home state, and Ball started working for the Legislature in 1998. “I started out as a junior analyst doing the Y2K budget,” says Ball, 57. “The world was going to melt down.”
It didn’t, of course, but Ball got a breakneck education on Utah’s budgeting process. He found it invigorating to be closer to the impact of budget decisions than he was in the federal government. “Working in state budget, you actually get to see real things happen,” he says. “New state parks get created, teachers get raises and that sort of thing.”
He adds, “The best part is helping lawmakers solve problems. I think that part is more palpable in the state legislature than it is in D.C.”
The feeling is mutual, says Utah Sen. Jerry Stevenson (R). “I’m very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to play on his team,” he says. “It’s hard to describe what an amazing manager that he is, and how he manages the budget of the state of Utah. It’s been my privilege to help him go through that process.”
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Stevenson commends Ball’s leadership and management skills. “I’ve probably learned as much about management and putting together my teams from Jonathan as anyone I’ve ever worked with. A lot of people hire people because they don’t want to be threatened. And Jonathan is not that way. He wants people better than he is.”
Stevenson also commends Ball’s unexpectedly funny personality. “His sense of humor is incredible,” he says. “During COVID, we would do a Zoom conference, and he might be dressed up like the Minnesota woodsman, with a beard and a ball cap from his kitchen in Park City.”
Andrea Wilko, the Utah Legislature’s chief economist, says Ball’s technology skills originally set him apart as he “modernized the office and brought it into the current century.” As director of the office, Ball has evolved from IT guru to a true leader, she adds.
“When he started, he was very task-oriented, but as he’s moved up through the management ranks, he’s actually almost changed his focus to be more people-oriented,” Wilko says. “He’s still task-focused, but he’s also focused on improving the morale of the office, making people feel welcome and wanted, and seizing opportunities for them to shine.”
Not that IT isn’t still central to the job. Ball says technology has transformed budgeting work over the course of his career. “We used to line up behind the secretary to write the appropriations bill and take turns dictating,” he says. “Now we interface with databases, and everybody’s doing it simultaneously, and decisions are made at a much quicker pace and with more information than we had back then.”
In 2025, AI is the next frontier. “What happens now is legislators call with questions, and our meat and potatoes is answering the questions. But the next goal is about how we empower them to answer their own questions using AI, and then we can focus on even more analysis,” Ball says.
That focus is increasingly long term. “We thought in one-year tranches for the budget and two-year tranches for the election cycle,” Ball says. “We’re now thinking in 20- and 30-year tranches. What’s the best tax policy for 30 years from now? Or what’s the best public ed spending formula for 30 years from now?”
Peterson says he and his fellow legislators in Salt Lake City can balance the state budget because of the tools developed during Ball’s tenure. “He works for all 104 legislators, not just for us co-chairs of the Executive Appropriations Committee, and he’s a great advisor, making sure that we understand what the policy issues are that we are dealing with and giving us options,” Peterson says. “He is very careful not to overstep his lane. It’s our responsibility to make those policy decisions, not his, but it’s his responsibility to make sure that we know what the options are and what the possible ramifications are of each decision.”
Ball credits NCSL and the National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices, or NALFO, for providing him guidance when he’s needed it. “Through NALFO and NCSL, I’ve had opportunities to meet some of the best and brightest in my field nationwide and worldwide,” Ball says. “You can’t solve problems without ideas and NCSL is where ideas thrive.”
He adds, “There’s only one legislative budget director or legislative fiscal analyst in each state, usually. There are very few of us, and it’s kind of lonely, frankly. With NALFO, you realize you’re not alone. Other people face the same problems that you face, and not only can they empathize with you, but they can help you solve those problems.”
Ball’s biggest career lesson was forgetting to add a line item to a bill transferring money from Utah’s rainy day fund to the general fund in the wake of the 2001 dot-com bust. “Don’t ever be the guy that forces the governor to call a special session of the legislature,” he laughs.
Eric Peterson is a Denver-based freelance writer.