Lawmakers Accept `Tacky Situation’ Budget Writers Agree To Not Increase Amount For Batt’s Living Expenses

Legislative budget writers have reluctantly acceded to Republican Gov. Phil Batt’s latest decision against accepting any public money for his Boise living expenses.

“I think that this is a tacky situation,” Republican Sen. Mary Hartung of Payette said Thursday. “But I certainly never would have done it if the governor had not been so emphatic about it.”

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted 16-2 to keep the current residence expense allowance for the governor at $10,000 a year. It rejected an earlier recommendation that the allowance be increased to $36,000 - $3,000 a month.

The action came after Batt, exasperated by negative publicity he has suffered over the living allowance issue, rejected the $3,000-a-month proposal made in January by administration Budget Director Dean Van Engelen. He said then that he - not Batt - came up with the recommendation because it seemed appropriate that the state pay expenses of governors who do not live in Boise. Batt is from Wilder and rents an apartment in Boise.

“I don’t care who the governor is, which party he belongs to. I think the Legislature is remiss if we don’t do something about providing living quarters,” Hartung said.

Several committee members urged Finance Chairman Atwell Parry, R-Melba, to launch another effort to secure a stateowned residence for the chief executive. Just over $1 million remains in an account earmarked for a residence.

Parry and House Appropriations Chairman Kathleen Gurnsey, R-Boise, led a similar effort two years ago that resulted in a recommendation that a residence be built on state-owned land near the Capitol.

But then Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus and all the candidates vying to succeed him - including Batt - blasted the proposal, saying the money could be spent for better purposes like education. Batt issued a statement in late 1993 saying he was against any state-owned residence and believed an expense allowance was sufficient.

“I know why he changed his mind, and I compliment him for that,” Democratic Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin of Orofino said of the political heat that has surrounded the issue. “But in all fairness, we should be providing his residence.”

While Batt has said he is taking himself out of the housing debate and will pay his rent from his own pocket, he has indicated that he probably would move into a residence if lawmakers decide to obtain one.