Batt Says Tight Budget May Need ‘Corrections’

Republican Gov. Phil Batt, whose tightfisted approach to government finances forced lawmakers into tough spending decisions last winter, is now warning that the general tax budget taking effect on Saturday may have to be cut.

“The 1996 Legislature, along with the governor, might have to make some mid-course corrections to stay within their budget,” Batt wrote in his most recent column distributed to Idaho’s weekly newspapers.

It was the first time the governor has raised the prospect of cuts in the 1995-1996 budget he convinced lawmakers to hold at just 6 percent growth. That compared to an increase of nearly 16 percent in the spending year that ends this week and of more than 7 percent the year before that.

Batt told the state’s business leaders three weeks ago that his economists expected revenues for the current budget year to fall short of the 10.3 percent increase policy makers had banked on, and several days later the Board of Examiners authorized the diversion of cash from a $33 million prison expansion.