Otter’s Budget: Will it Fly?

By Sharon Fisher, 1-09-07

Gov. Butch Otter presented his proposed budget to the legislature in his State of the State speech yesterday. Keep in mind that this is just his proposal – the legislature makes its own decisions.

Otter's proposed budget has some goodies for some groups. A 5% increase in salary for state employees is a big jump; most raises over the past few years have been in the 2 and 3% range, if that. So they should be happy - except that it will be offset by an almost 6.8% increase in what they pay for benefits.

Increasing the grocery sales tax from $25 to $90 per person is something, but it's not eliminating it and it's not the $100 suggested by Governor Jim Risch. But it's better than nothing.

Public education is taking a big jump, from $1 billion this year to $1.36 billion proposed.

College employees also should be happy, with $12.9 million put aside for salaries.

He proposed $38 million for an endowed scholarship fund. It's going to be interesting to see how well that goes over. Last year, every proposal for scholarships got shot down by the legislature.

He proposed $37 million in buildings for nurse training, but unlike Risch, he is placing it at Lewis & Clark.

He also proposed $10.9 million to set up a dairy research facility in the Magic Valley. I'm sure that the fact that much of the legislative leadership – including both heads of JFAC – are from Magic Valley have nothing to do with this.

There were some goodies for community colleges -- $5 million for setting up a new community college district, a commitment to provide an additional $5 million next year if a second one is formed, and reducing the supermajority from two-thirds to 60% -- if the vote is held during a general election.

For Connecting Idaho, the highways bonds project, he proposed $264 million.

Losers?

Illegal immigrants, who will have to present proof of residency to get services – presumably including medical care, though he said there were exceptions for 'humanitarian reasons.' But even if that's the case, illegal immigrants may be afraid to obtain even the services they're still entitled to – such as immunizations that can prevent the spread of disease and caring for people with communicable diseases and helping prevent further spread. Let's hope there's not an avian flu epidemic this year.

Rural Idahoans without broadband Internet access – he said nothing about a $10 million proposal that Risch supported.

Risch, Democrats, and legislators who have ideas about where roads should go – each got put in their place when Otter said, "we should leave that to the experts."







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