JFAC Limits 2009 Budget Increase to 3.7%

By Sharon Fisher, 2-18-08

In an effort to leave a space to allow for a grocery tax credit, the Idaho Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted this morning to hold increases in the 2009 budget to 3.7%.

“This will make our job fairly difficult,” said co-chair Senator Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. “A lot of items that are important will not be able to be funded.”

This seriously limits the ability of the Legislature to approve any new programs, said Division Administrator Cathy Holland-Smith. While the committee could have set a higher spending target, that would have made a decrease in the grocery tax impossible, she said.

Items left off, for example, include a bond payoff that Governor Butch Otter had requested in his budget—but which also requires an additional $4 million this year to pay those bonds, since they won’t be paid off altogether.

The committee also voted to accept the 3% salary increase recommendation and Otter’s budget projections overall, but the 3.7% increase uses a lower figure for an ongoing revenue projection than Otter’s. “We could be erring on the side of caution, but I would rather do that,” Cameron said.