In a series of unanimous votes this morning, JFAC set budgets for the state’s Judicial Branch, Public Defense Commission, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction and more. Like budgets set in earlier unanimous votes on Friday, the budgets agreed on by the joint committee closely tracked the recommendations of Gov. Butch Otter, with few exceptions.

In the budget for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, there still was no agreement on how to proceed on development of a new Idaho Reading Indicator test; that issue will be addressed later, if legislation passes that’s in the works in the education committees. For now, the budget set for the superintendent’s office says, “No moneys shall be distributed or expended for a contract to redesign or replace the legacy Idaho Reading Indicator at this time.” If new legislation on that comes forward, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee could pass a “trailer” appropriation bill to fund it. Idaho EdNews reporter Kevin Richert has a full report on that here.

Lawmakers today agreed to add one additional investigator to the Attorney General’s office for the Internet Crimes Against Children program, compared to Gov. Butch Otter’s proposal. That difference meant the budget for the Attorney General’s office for next year shows a 2.2 percent increase in state general funds, compared to Otter’s proposed 1.7 percent increase. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden had requested an additional deputy attorney general for the Idaho Department of Correction, but neither the governor nor lawmakers agreed to that request.

For the courts, the budget set by JFAC came in lower than the request, but that’s largely because a line item requesting judicial raises comparable to those being funded for other state employees is in a separate bill; if that passes, a trailer appropriation bill would follow.

The joint committee agreed unanimously to maintenance budget requests from the office of the lieutenant governor and the state treasurer, and agreed with Otter’s recommendation for the Division of Human Resources, including adding one HR specialist and funding job classification salary surveys.

On Friday, JFAC set budgets for Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Commission for Libraries, three divisions of the Department of Health & Welfare and the state’s Catastrophic Health Care Fund. Again, all votes were unanimous, and the resulting budgets closely tracked Otter’s recommendations, though lawmakers added a small increase for the Talking Book Service at the Commission for Libraries, with the caveat that it’ll be paid back to the state’s general fund if federal grant funds come in. JFAC members said they’ve gotten lots of emails supporting the Talking Book Service for the visually impaired, which was funded with state funds before the recession, but since then has relied on federal grants that are becoming increasingly uncertain.

“I hope and pray they get that federal funding,” said Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise. “That’s a valuable service, and literacy is very important, whether we can see with our eyes or not.”

The budget that lawmakers set for the CAT fund for next year totals just under $10 million, and budget writers acknowledged that costs are rising and the fund likely will be back for an additional supplemental appropriation. The budget calls for spending down the fund’s cash balance to cover next year’s costs; current projections suggest a $7 million budget increase will be needed the following year.

“That’s where we are,” said Sen. Steven Bair, R-Blackfoot. “We always run a risk bringing the level of the CAT fund down, that we have to come back with a supplemental – we’ve done that before.”

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