Idaho lawmakers Friday took the first step in further cutting state agency budgets in both the current and upcoming fiscal years up to 5%.
The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee wants to slash $131 million from most government offices this year, excluding K-12 education, Medicaid, state police and Idaho’s prisons.
That’s on top of Gov. Brad Little’s 3% holdbacks implemented in August.
For the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1, most agencies would take another 5% under the plan totaling $143 million.
“We’re making the hard decisions to put us into a very slim position at this time,” said Rep. Josh Tanner (R-Eagle), a JFAC co-chair.
Tanner said the cuts give the committee “a fighting chance” to tactically balance the budget as the legislative session goes on.
“That approach is not [precise],” said Sen. Kevin Cook (R-Idaho Falls). “It is taking a chainsaw to the budget. It’s not looking at accountability.”
Cook said committee members should be given the chance to more neatly tailor cuts that don’t harm state residents or disproportionately affect certain state agencies – something he said they’ve been working on since last year.
“I’m not sure that the juice is worth the squeeze,” said Rep. James Petzke (R-Meridian).
The current year cuts, Petzke said, don’t address the structural issues of the state’s budget. “But in the process, we’re going to do a lot of damage,” he said.
Part of the reason for that is that the exempted agencies make up the largest share of the state’s expenses.
As Idaho Education News outlined Thursday, higher education has the most to lose under the plan.
University of Idaho and the College of Eastern Idaho said they would have to cap enrollment for in-demand career programs in engineering, health care and cybersecurity.
Boise State University said it would have to delay hiring nine faculty members for similar programs.
“This further limits course offerings in these programs, delaying graduation, potentially causing students to incur additional debt, and delaying their entry to the job market,” Boise State wrote in its updated budget plan.
Tanner and JFAC’s other co-chair, Sen. Scott Grow (R-Eagle), told committee members they could more finely sculpt next year’s budget by reintroducing higher spending in so-called enhanced budgets while the cuts will be built into the so-called maintenance budgets.
Several conservative legislators have pledged to not support enhancement budgets and have been instrumental in rejecting them in the past.
Friday’s proposals from JFAC must still pass both the House and Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Little to take effect.
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