Idaho wraps up tough budget year
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how Idaho closed the books on a tough budget year today. Overall, revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was $86.5 million below the state's official forecast, at $2.26 billion - lower even than the $2.28 billion figure lawmakers adopted at the start of this year's legislative session. Returns of unspent money from various agencies helped make up part of the shortfall; an $8.26 million transfer from the state's permanent building fund brought Idaho to a zero balance at fiscal year-end. The transfer, Gov. Butch Otter said, "could have been a whole lot more if we wouldn’t have gone out to the state agencies earlier and said, 'If you don’t absolutely have to spend the money don’t spend it.'”