Idaho JFAC Lets Goodies Out of the Jar

By Sharon Fisher, 3-11-08

When you feel poor, if you’re smart, you go pay the mortgage and the utilities and buy groceries first, and then go see what you might have left to spend on goodies.

Today, after having finished last week setting tight budgets for state agencies, Idaho Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee went for the goodies, some of which had been passed over in the normal budget-setting process out of concern about declining state revenues, as well as wanting to leave room for a grocery tax credit. The committee also made appropriations to bills that had passed after it had already set budgets for those agencies; such appropriations are called “trailer bills.”

Items funded by the committee included:

- a digital repository for the Idaho Commission for Libraries;
- additional forensics scientists for the Idaho State Police;
- conversion of the Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) building to a drug treatment facility;
- bonding for a secure mental health facility;
- 3% raises for judges and commissioners, to match the 3% raise for other state employees;
- money for the 2009 Special Olympics.

Further meetings are “subject to the call of the Chair,” which means the committee is essentially done. “Gosh, I guess we’re ready to go home,” said co-chair Representative Maxine Bell, R-Jerome.