Eye On Boise

It’s anything but simple…

Feb. 26, 2009 8:19 a.m. • 11 comments

A bewildering array of numbers, federal programs, individual titles and sections of the stimulus bill and changing rules was spun out to legislative budget writers this morning as they heard the first details on what the stimulus legislation means for Idaho’s health and human services programs. Among them: Idaho will automatically receive a huge boost in funding for low-income home weatherization - jumping the funding up from about $5 million a year to $31 million over two years. That program has been weatherizing about 1,400 Idaho homes a year; now funding will triple for two years. Legislative budget analyst Amy Castro said if the work were targeted to homes where families receive federal LIHEAP energy assistance help, it could reduce future costs for that and allow that aid to go to more families.

The biggest impact is a large increase to the federal match rate for Idaho’s Medicaid program. Idaho will qualify for a boost from just under 70 percent federal funding to just over 79 percent. That should save the state’s general fund $52 million in the current fiscal year, and $73 million in 2010 - but those figures are only after the budget cuts that already have been imposed in Medicaid. Castro also described numerous other sections of the stimulus bill and their potential impacts on Idaho, which vary and are quite complex. “I think what you have here is job security,” JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told Castro. “There’s not a person in this room that knows what you were saying - perhaps one senator.”

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

thomg57 on February 26 at 8:48 a.m.
“There’s not a person in this room knows what you were saying…?”

Really? Perhaps we need smarter legislators. Or would that be elitist?
Sisyphus on February 26 at 9:46 a.m.
Yeah, and she heads up JFAC. But go ahead and cut her benefits, Maxine.
slfisher on February 26 at 10:09 a.m.
That was Representative Bell being nice to the JFAC analysts. Something like that gets said a dozen times during the session. The budget analysts are there to explain this stuff to the legislators, and they really are sharp, and the legislators depend on them a lot.
BJ_ on February 26 at 3:09 p.m.
Rep. Bell could have just said “check out the big brain on Amy! She’s with us!!”
ace_joker on February 26 at 3:38 p.m.
Well said BJ. Amy spent many, many hours getting all the impacts of that stimulus bill together for her presentation. She’s a smart woman. JFAC and LSO are lucky to have her and so am I. I married her 12 days ago.
(I sure will be glad when this session is over).
slfisher on February 27 at 12:56 p.m.
congratulations! I can’t believe she scheduled a wedding during the session! :)

(It’s not unusual for budget analysts to pull all-nighters during the session — and I’m sure that’s even more the case this year.)