Boise News

Idaho Politics: Governor

Otter’s State of Idaho Speech Long on Platitudes, Short on Specifics

By Sharon Fisher, 1-12-09

Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter gave his annual State of the State budget address to the Idaho legislature today, presenting an overview of a budget that he said was 7% less than that proposed for fiscal year 2009.

However, though Otter gave some percentages for cuts in individual departments, he gave few details about what was actually cut, particularly for those departments subjected to the first year of his so-called zero-based budgeting initiative.

Technically, zero-based budgeting starts from zero and adds programs on. What the Governor is doing, along with the Division of Financial Management (DFM), is looking in detail in each department’s budget, through fiscal 2015, to compare what the department is currently doing with what it is required to do by statute, and eliminating programs that are not required by statute, even if they have been done for a long time.

According to a presentation scheduled to be given to Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) tomorrow by DFM, departments were cut as follows:

*Parks & Recreation -55.83%
*Public Broadcasting -51.40%
Commerce -40.83%
*Agriculture -31.24%
*Financial Management -13.84%
*Water Resources -11.90%
Correction -11.64%
Military -10.70%
Colleges & Universities - 9.75%
Public School Support - 5.34%

*On 2010 zero-based budgeting calendar

At least thus far, it is difficult to figure out exactly which programs are gone.

Even the details of the Governor’s actual budget are skimpy on what programs have been cut, apparently leaving it to JFAC hearings to tease out the details.

The code phrase for fiscal 2010—which runs from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010—appears to be “Whether it falls within the sphere of the necessary and proper role of taxpayer-funded government services.” Under that aegis, it appears that any number of programs may be cut—regardless of the eventual cost to government in the long run.

For example, though the Governor touted his Project 60 plan—intended to increase Idaho’s Gross Domestic Product from $51 billion to $60 billion over the next six years—he cut funding for small business grants and TechConnect, a business catalyst program for the high-tech industry, and instead promoted large companies such as Areva, the French nuclear company that received large tax cuts in order to encourage it to build a uranium enrichment plant in Idaho.

“Guv wants to grow entrepreneurs and biz, cuts commerce and higher ed. What?” Twittered one member of the Boise technology community.

Otter’s proposed budget also includes a number of fee and tax increases in transportation to fund what he calls a more-than-$200-million-a-year shortfall in road maintenance. (In point of fact, this number has never been defined; Otter obtained it by taking the alleged value of the roads in Idaho, saying that a certain percent each year should be devoted to maintenance, and declaring from then on that there was a “shortfall” in roads maintenance of that amount—but where the total value and the annual percentage number came from is unclear.) The fuel tax will be raised 2 cents per gallon over the next five years. Registration fees will be increased in an unspecified manner that takes the age of the vehicles into account. There will be a 6% tax on rental vehicles. The ethanol exemption will be dropped, and the fuel tax paid by Idaho State Police will go toward road and bridge maintenance. In addition, the Governor said he would start separately tracking the sales tax spent on autos, parts, and tires, presaging an eventual shift of this sales tax toward transportation.

As with most Otter speeches these days, he included a shout-out to Spencer, the autistic boy whose training hours are getting cut from 30 hours to 22 hours weekly due to the 4% budget holdback Otter imposed for the 2009 fiscal year. He also took umbrage to the fact that Spencer’s mom had said he didn’t care. He did care, he said. On the other hand, the funds appear to still be gone, though he exhorted the Legislature to “look forward to the day when we can give those eight hours back.”

Finally, Otter encouraged all Idahoans to support the Special Olympics—the budget request for which, incidentally, he cut from this year’s Department of Parks and Recreation budget.

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