JFAC overrides Millenium Fund committee

Idaho’s Joint Millenium Fund Committee went through 11 motions this year before it settled on a recommendation for how to divvy up Millenium Fund money among health and substance-abuse programs next year. But today, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee overrode the plan the other joint committee had painstakingly put together, instead voting 12-8 in favor of a competing motion to enact Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendation. The key differences: The Idaho Meth Project would get $500,000 from the Millenium Fund next year, instead of $250,000; and state tobacco cessation programs would get less than half what they requested - $650,000 for Project Filter, Quitnet, Quitline and programs that provide nicotine replacement therapy and counseling through the state Department of Health & Welfare, down from $1.25 million; and $250,000 for tobacco-cessation programs through public health districts, which target pregnant women, rather than $560,000.

There also would be a larger fund shift from the Millenium Fund to state substance-abuse programs, by close to $1 million, something Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, who pushed the alternate plan, said was key.