Budget Zooms Past Batt’s Austere Plan Package Is Approximately $1.4 Million Above Proposal

Red ink began pooling around legislative budget writers on Wednesday as they moved toward finalizing the state’s general tax spending priorities for 1997.

Despite making reductions in some areas of Gov. Phil Batt’s already austere budget proposal and otherwise following Batt’s plan rather closely, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has added cash in several areas.

The upshot is a budget package nearly $1.4 million above the governor’s financial blueprint.

The main reason for straying from Batt’s bottom line was the $2.5 million the committee dumped into high-technology improvements in the higher education system that the governor had not recommended.

And even that would have all but been covered had the committee handled differently its restoration of the $13 million holdback in this year’s state aid to public schools.

Batt had anticipated the current spending year would end with about $1.3 million in unspent cash that could be used to balance the 1997 budget. But lawmakers used that cash to reduce the size of the withdraw from the budget reserve account to make up the difference.

Budget committee leaders have been even more concerned that the revenue estimate they have been relying on could be overly optimistic, creating an even bigger gap between tax collections and authorized spending.

Anticipating problems, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kathleen Gurnsey last week secured approval to make the final issue for review the state’s $10.5 million commitment to catastrophic health care bills generated by the poor.

That spending commitment could be shorted now to keep the budget in the black, although lawmakers would have to come up with any withheld cash next winter, and that would only complicate drafting a 1998 budget.

On Wednesday, the committee ignored the governor’s request to eliminate state support for the Council for Economic Education, spearheaded by Boise State University. The committee unanimously restored $54,000 to keep the council running. It earlier rejected Batt’s attempt to eliminate the state’s $69,000 contribution to the Epilepsy League of Idaho.

Budget writers also approved twice the money Batt had proposed for upgrading the state court system’s computerized record system. They also provided $10,000 for the Judicial Council to begin a program of evaluating judges’ performance.