Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred has issued a response to Gov. Butch Otter's press conference today on the state budget, saying "Otter's still missing the point." Allred said he agreed that the Legislature was right to hold the line on spending in the 2010 fiscal year. "I've never argued otherwise," he said. "Second, as I've said all along, the governor was wrong to build next year's budget based on the assumption that it will be as bad economically as this year. ... Instead of building fiscal year 2011's budget based on sound evidence and good planning, he's chosen to go down in history as the first governor to cut funding to our schools." Click below to read Allred's full statement.

Otter did discuss education funding during his press conference today, saying, "We would've liked to have given them more. We took from many other areas, including an unprecedented reach into the endowment fund." He added, "We've made that commitment that as the economy recovers, education in Idaho is going to be our No. 1 priority," and then said, "It looks like we're in a recovery mode right now."

Asked if, in that case, he wants to rethink the budgeting decisions for next year that call for an unprecedented $128 million cut to public schools, Otter said, "If we exceed the revenues that we had anticipated ... obviously we'll go back and revisit that budget and see if there's room to revisit that $128 million. We're doing that process all the time."

July 13, 2010
    
ALLRED: OTTER'S STILL MISSING THE POINT
A statement from Keith Allred, candidate for governor

"The revenue figures reinforce two things: One, that the Legislature was right to hold the line on spending for the fiscal year 2010. I've never argued otherwise.
 
Second, as I've said all along, the governor was wrong to build next year's budget based on the assumption that it will be as bad economically as this year. Butch Otter has shown us that he's out of ideas for how to lead Idahoans out of this economy. Instead of building fiscal year 2011's budget based on sound evidence and good planning, he's chosen to go down in history as the first governor to cut funding to our schools.
 
At a time when Idahoans are trying to dig themselves out of this economy, Otter has his head stuck in the past, and our kids are paying for it. It's time for a change in leadership that sees Idaho's bright future, not just its difficult past."

Keith Allred is a fifth-generation Idahoan who grew up working on his family's ranches. He has been the leader of The Common Interest, a citizens' advocate group that helped lower property taxes and fight proposals to raise car and pickup registration fees.
 
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