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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Divided votes in JFAC on funding for courts…

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee had two divided votes on the budget for the Judicial Branch this morning, finally approving a motion from Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, that Gibbs described as the “nuclear option,” on a 15-5 vote. While funding two new magistrate judges in Kootenai and Canyon counties, and covering costs for the next phases of the court’s big technology change-over project and already-in-process building upgrades, the budget slices out $40,000 requested for a small expansion of the Guardian Ad Litem program to serve more abused and neglected children, and most of the $373,700 the courts requested for a new “Judicial Excellence & Education” program that would, for the first time, have each judge receive an evaluation every year, along with adding mentoring and other judicial improvement programs. Gibbs’ motion provides only enough funding for the annual judicial conference, at $80,300.

Overall, the budget set for the Judicial Branch by the joint committee shows a 2.9 percent decrease in state general funds, though legislative budget analyst Richard Burns noted that those numbers are skewed by the technology phase-in and other one-time expenses, which were bigger this year. The base budget without those one-time costs reflects a 10 percent increase overall, Burns said, though it’s $215,700 less than the request.

Prior to approving that motion, JFAC voted down a motion from Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, to remove the funding for the new Canyon County magistrate judge; that failed on a 6-14 vote.

There was less dissent on the budget for the Idaho State Police, for which JFAC generally followed Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendation. ISP requested 21 new officers next year – 15 for patrol and six investigators; Otter recommended just six, all for patrol. JFAC did go slightly beyond Otter’s proposal to allow ISP to dip into its Project Choice fund, which comes from a dedicated vehicle registration fee, for $100,000 to advance officers on a career ladder next year; that’s the purpose of the fund.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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