Two alternatives on personnel cuts…

Here are the two competing motions JFAC is debating: The original motion, from Reps. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell, and Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, sets a 5 percent personnel cost cut for state employees - excluding public schools and higher education, which already have been set - but allows the governor to reduce that cut to 3 percent midway through the year if state revenues improve. He’d be able to tap $6.2 million from the budget stabilization fund to make that up, with the rest of the $15.7 million coming from federal and dedicated spending authority. The substitute motion, from Sens. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, and Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, would instead tap $6.2 million from the $44.5 million in still-unexpended federal stimulus funds to reduce the cut from 5 percent to 3 percent right away for the coming year. Cameron said he feared the “trigger” plan would create “false expectations and false hope.” Bayer said his motion would allow the governor “to be the good guy.”