Idaho Lawmakers Weigh Costs of Drug Abuse Prevention

By Sharon Fisher, 1-21-08

Members of the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee are facing a difficult decision: Is it worth spending $25 million now in the hopes of eventually saving more than $67 million later?

Those are the figures presented by the Office of Drug Policy, which saw its $25 million budget request slashed to $3 million by Governor Butch Otter in his budget recommendation.

Representative Fred Wood, R-Burley, noted that 6,700 individuals need drug treatment, according to the Department of Health and Welfare, at a cost of $8.59 a day. In comparison, incarcerating those individuals costs $55.84 a day, said Brent Reinke, director of the Department of Corrections. That would result in savings of $316,575.

Or, put another way, Director Debbie Field noted that it cost $67 million annually to keep men with meth problems in prison. Percentages of prisoners with drug problems varied from 75% to 85%.

Representative Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, also asked the office to project cost savings in foster care, because a large percentage of children in foster care is due to drug problems with the parents.

But JFAC Co-Chair Senator Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, warned committee members that even if the cost returns worked out, it would still mean finding a large amount of recurring money for the budget each year.

Otter came under some criticism from JFAC for not funding much of the group’s requests. “We are starting to see a flattening of the prison population,” Henbest said. With no recommendation to continue to fund the current effort this year or next year, “we will literally fall off a cliff,” she said. “How is that fiscally sound?”

Wood agreed, calling drug prevention the most important line item in the budget. “It is markedly killing the fabric of our society,” he said, adding that it doesn’t do any good to put money into scholarships if kids are in prison.

Repeating a theme that’s been heard several times so far this session, Division of Financial Management Administrator Wayne Hammon said Otter believed it wasn’t wise to continue to spend money without clear results, and that many of the results the Office of Drug Policy presented to JFAC weren’t given to the Governor’s office til December and January, when he made his budget decisions in October. “To have something show up in January is unacceptable,” he said.

The hearing also featured the return to the JFAC chambers of Kathy Skippen, former representative from Emmett, who lost in the 2006 Republican primary to 1950s throwback Steven Thayn because she was spending time with her dying father instead of campaigning. She works in the Office of Drug Policy, focusing on certification and training.