Gov. Butch Otter didn't sound too upset this morning at lawmakers yesterday setting their revenue estimate for next year's budget at $33.3 million less than his. "We can still fund all of my priorities within that," Otter told the Idaho Press Club this morning, at his annual address to the group. "My revenue projection was 5.8 (percent growth), but my budget was set at 5." Still, he said he'll be talking with lawmakers about their reasoning and sources for going below his projections, provided by the state's chief economist, in the interest of reaching a compromise.

Otter said it's still important to him to refill rainy-day funds - his budget calls for transferring $60 million into those funds, beyond his 5 percent spending cap. "If we have a second run at this recession," he said, "we'll have the money just like we did in '08 and '09 and '10 - we'll have a little meat on our ribs."