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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Arts Panel Makes Pitch To Override Batt Spending Proposal

Associated Press

Another relatively small state agency asked legislative budget writers on Friday to approve new spending that Republican Gov. Phil Batt denied in his tightfisted 1996 financial blueprint.

Idaho Commission on the Arts Director Margot Knight told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that her agency for the past five years has been using the zerobased budgeting method Batt wants to impose on the entire $1.35 billion general tax budget next year in a bid to further clamp down on spending.

For the commission, however, Knight indicated that it has justified increases in this year’s $1.7 million budget, half of which is underwritten by Idaho taxpayers.

“The arts are part of the solution,” Knight said in an impassioned plea to the budget panel. “The arts save lives. The arts build communities. We don’t want to see all your money go to building prisons. We want to see kids building communities they can be proud to live in.”

And House Appropriations Chairman Kathleen Gurnsey, R-Boise, admitted being overwhelmed by Knight’s presentation. But Gurnsey also pointed out that “our challenge is where to find the money.”

Even conservatives on the committee have expressed some concern about the governor’s spending recommendations. But after Batt’s $40 million property tax reduction plan won final approval on Thursday, they have little room to stray from his sometimes severe budget proposals.

But in an attempt to accommodate Batt’s intention to hold the line on spending, Knight said she would forgo the 5 percent pay raise Batt has proposed for state employees to retain her assistant director after Betty Randolph retires in January.

Randolph has been one of two people on the commission staff involved in financial management and responsible in large part of the spotless audit the agency had last year, Knight said.

Losing that position, she said, could jeopardize the financial integrity the commission has developed. If a new assistant director is hired at the low end of the pay scale, forgoing her pay raise would permit her to retain an assistant and still cut $7,000 of the $20,000 Batt originally proposed.

Above that, she asked the budget writers to approve $85,000 for three new programs targeted at young people, especially those at-risk. She pushed for another $40,000 to provide seed money to local communities for renovating theater facilities.