You can read my full story here at spokesman.com on today’s JFAC discussions, in which state lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee got a grim glimpse of the decision-making that awaits them when they convene in January, including a possible budget shortfall for next year…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A state budget analyst says Idaho could bank hefty savings from a new system designed to collect and monitor student test scores, attendance and other data from the time they enroll in kindergarten.…
A public school budget request for next year that would make this year’s historic $128 million funding cut for schools permanent – none of it would be restored - was reviewed by the Legislature’s joint budget committee this afternoon. The request is preliminary, having been…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A State Tax Commission official says the agency will request $2.7 million in the upcoming Legislature to permanently take on workers who were hired on a temporary basis to collect unpaid taxes. Randy…
Idaho’s public employee retirement system has been deluged by calls, email and visits from worried state retirees who are concerned that it’s going to be eliminated or cut back, but PERSI Director Don Drum said there’s no truth to the rumors driving those concerns. “I…
The Public Employee Retirement Fund of Idaho has gone from 78.9 percent funded in October of 2010 to 87.7 percent funded as of last Thursday, fund director Don Drum reported to lawmakers on the joint budget committee this morning. The system’s unfunded liability has dropped…
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said he’d put state economist Derek Santos on the spot, as JFAC often did to newly retired state chief economist Mike Ferguson, while recognizing that there’s always risk in economic forecasting: He asked him what his level of confidence…
Gov. Butch Otter’s Division of Financial Management is presenting its latest revenue figures to JFAC; in October, state tax revenues were up $8.8 million over projections, for a year-to-date total of $22.8 million ahead of projections. Both individual and corporate income taxes are running well…
Idaho Sen. Jim Hammond is back on dry ground and in the light, after a sojourn on a Carnival cruise ship that drifted powerless for days. Hammond, during a break in this morning’s JFAC hearing, said it was his first cruise in 15 years, and…
JFAC, the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, is holding its interim meeting in the state Capitol today, as lawmakers begin looking ahead to the budgeting task they’ll face in January when they convene. Among the figures reviewed thus far: One-time money used in setting the fiscal…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
