Who is driving the state train in Idaho?
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
Friday, March 13, 2009 11:52 AM PDT
BOISE — Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter has released his road map for wrapping up the 2009 session with his plan to spend Idaho’s $1.24 billion share of the federal stimulus. Now, the fight is on over whether lawmakers or Otter will wind up in the driver’s seat.
At a news conference Thursday, Otter said the economic outlook is so dire he’ll have to cut fiscal year 2010 public education spending by $109 million and stash away $200 million in reserves in case things get worse.
He aims to slash state agency personnel costs by 5 percent, too.
And rather than using stimulus money in 2010 to shore up government payrolls, he’d spend it on water and transportation projects to create construction jobs.
‘‘I hope that suggests the urgency,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘Every place on Main Street, we’re seeing employee costs reduced. We’re seeing people laid off. I think we have a responsibility to reflect that’’ in state government.’’
Members of the House and Senate from both parties see it differently.
Some labeled as misguided Otter’s focus on highways, with transportation due to get $229 million from the stimulus, on top of gas tax and vehicle registration fee increases he’s pushing.
They also resent his no-longer-veiled threat to dump roads projects like a new U.S. Interstate 84 interchange in Boise and a new Dover bridge near Sandpoint if they don’t support the next $125 million installment of Otter’s Connecting Idaho road funding bonds.
They argue that state agency and education budgets should benefit from at least some of the money Otter wants for sewer, water and highway projects, as well as rainy-day accounts.
‘‘We are extremely concerned about the major cuts to public education,’’ said Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise. ‘‘Transportation is certainly a priority. We also need to focus on education for our children. The ball is certainly in the Legislature’s court.’’
This year’s session has been complicated by the recession, plummeting state revenue and the arrival of the federal stimulus dollars.
The state expects tax revenue in fiscal year 2010, which starts in July, will drop by more than 12 percent to just $2.55 billion, compared to fiscal year 2009.
Lawmakers say they could finish up by mid-April, but won’t rule out detours.
‘‘We have a road map, but I have a feeling there may be a few forks in the road,’’ said House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star.
Otter began cutting state spending in September with a 2 percent holdback of the 2009 budget. But even more drastic austerity was needed, and he and lawmakers eventually lowered spending by about 6 percent.
Otter fears he may have to make similar moves in the coming fiscal year.
‘‘I want to have a pretty good cushion,’’ he said.
Cutting education and state personnel, however, doesn’t sit well with budget writers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee who met Thursday morning with Otter’s budget chief, Wayne Hammon.
‘‘I’m wondering if there are enough contractors out there that can really get the money on the ground, when we’re going to have caseworkers that are going to be furloughed,’’ Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome and co-chairwoman of the budget committee, told Hammon.
‘‘There will be challenges for employee morale,’’ Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said. ‘‘It’s a very surprising recommendation to me.’’
An exchange between Hammon and Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, over highway spending made it clear how tense the upcoming debate may be.
LeFavour, from the capital city’s largely Democratic North End neighborhood, lambasted the Republican governor’s recommendation Idaho use the stimulus on projects like landscaping near a U.S. Interstate 84 interchange, when some of that cash could instead go to bicycle paths.
‘‘You make it sound like (bike paths) are a frivolous thing,’’ she said, adding that ‘‘this emphasis on cars and roads, with a total lack of consideration of public transportation, is in my mind shortsighted.’’
Hammon shot back, ‘‘The future of Idaho is not contained in the North End.’’
Budget writers set their targets for 2010 spending on Friday.
‘‘The hardest part is getting the parameters on the table,’’ said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert and Bell’s co-chair. ‘‘Now, we can start putting it together to find that compromise.’’
