Budgets approved by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee so far this morning for the departments of Lands, Water Resources and Parks & Recreation have mostly closely tracked Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendations.

At the Idaho Department of Water Resources, Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot, proposed an additional position for a planner, with the many additional projects IDWR is taking on. “We ran that to ground with the governor’s office and they were supportive,” Bair told JFAC. The IDWR budget also includes full funding for the Priest Lake project to improve the dam, breakwater and Thorofare on the North Idaho lake, with $2.4 million in state general funds and $2.4 million in dedicated funds from within the IDWR budget. “Both the dam and the Thorofare need some work done,” Bair said. “It should get us pretty well done with that Priest Lake project, we anticipate.”

For the state Department of Parks & Recreation, JFAC unanimously approved a budget that follows Otter’s recommendation, including substantial new development at the new Billingsley State Park, which is getting new campgrounds, trails and more.