School Officials Buck Batt’s 2 Percent Budget Cut Agencies Should Consider The Holdback Permanent, Budget Director Says

As the Idaho Association of School Administrators put the final touches on a resolution against Gov. Phil Batt’s temporary 2 percent holdback for state agencies, his budget director warned the reductions may be permanent.

“We are on record as saying those cuts won’t work for schools,” Whitepine School Superintendent Harold Ott said Wednesday.

The resolution will be delivered to Batt, state schools Superintendent Anne Fox and legislators next week, association executive director Mike Friend said.

Dean Van Engelen, Batt’s budget director, said public schools had to be included in the hold-back or it would have amounted to a 4 percent slice for all state agencies.

“It’s wise for the districts to be tightening their budgets now. Revenues are up and down but the trend has been a little weakness the last three months,” he said.

“We’re instructing the agencies of the state to consider this a permanent hold-back because our revenue stream at the moment looks like it is permanent.”

The Legislature can choose to take money from the rainy-day fund, a reserve account, or find the money elsewhere for the school districts.

But if neither of those choices are made, Van Engelen said, legislators can reduce the appropriations, which will make the holdback permanent. Or the burden could shift to property taxes.

Many school districts are trimming budgets in anticipation of weak economic news. The Moscow School District excised $134,000 from its budget Wednesday. The Whitepine School District would lose $45,000.

Most administrators say they are waiting to see if the Legislature will replace the money in the spring.

The Lewiston School District could lose about $290,000 to the holdback, but it has enough money to absorb that if necessary, school board member Daniel Hundrup said.

The Lapwai School Board was coping with the loss of up to $300,000 last spring, the result of changes in federal funding.

The 2 percent holdback could add another $30,000 to that deficit, Superintendent Dennis Kachelmier said.

“We’re going to try and wait and keep a tight fiscal rein on things and hope it doesn’t come through,” he said.

The last time schools were affected by a budgetary holdback was 1984, said Rhonda Edmiston of Fox’s office.