State Budget Writers Ready To Divide Revenue Pie

After nearly a month of hearing pleas for money, legislative budget writers this week begin divvying up cash from what most agree is an inadequate revenue pool.

“We have our work cut out for us,” House Appropriations Chairman Bob Geddes admits.

But the tightfisted course legislative leaders have tentatively charted - a course that cuts into the already meager 1998 budget blueprint of Gov. Phil Batt - should not pose major philosophical problems for the most conservative Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee in more than a decade.

Two straight years of budget cuts to cope with slowing growth in tax receipts, preliminary figures suggesting that situation worsened in January and fear of more damage from potential spring flooding may be solidifying lawmakers’ behind their leaders.

“There’s pretty good support for doing the tinkering to make sure we don’t come back next year with a hold back,” Geddes, a Preston Republican, said.

Some have argued that the state’s current financial problems are the direct result of the 1995 decision for the state to pick up a quarter of the basic property tax support for public schools. It was a $40 million drain on the treasury then that will hit $50 million in the coming year.

But advocates of the plan Batt championed claim that property tax relief was a major reason voters again rejected the dramatically more disruptive One Percent Initiative last fall.

The new fiscal campaign begins Monday when the committee is expected to reduce general tax support for education in the current school year by $10.7 million and replace only $7 million of that with money from special funds.

The tactic will keep the budget reserve account - the state’s insurance fund to cover emergency expenditures - at about $20 million.

But critics maintain hard-pressed school districts statewide could have used that extra $3.7 million being completely eliminated for books, instructional materials and other classroom expenses. And most of the $7 million being restored from nontax funds, they say, would have been included in the 1998 budget anyway since it can only be spent on schools.

The reduction in overall support - the first ever made by lawmakers - reflects a smaller enrollment increase and a larger number of less experienced teachers.

But $20 million in the reserve is still short of the $30 million the Legislature had tucked away for emergencies when it convened last month, and the 1998 budget will be pared down to make up the difference.

The first thing to go - possibly on Monday as well - is the $8 million Batt earmarked for a 2 percent state employee pay raise. State workers were stiffed three times during the economic depression of the mid-1980s. This time around some are alling the decision “the state employee flood tax.”

Also on the block is the $1.5 million Batt included to help close the gap between the salaries Idaho pays its higher education professionals and those paid by other states at similar institutions. The so-called salary equity money was intended to help attract the best people to the state’s schools and keep those already there.

A third of the $6 million the governor earmarked for replacing worn-out things like cars, computers and educational equipment is to be deleted, and $2.4 million in new spending recommended by Batt will be nixed. Analysts say both categories include a large number of smaller targets that spread the pain across much of state government.

With conservatives holding 15 of the 20 budget-writing seats, the handful of moderates fear they may be irrelevant to the deliberations.

“But I haven’t given up,” says Republican Sen. John Hansen of Idaho Falls.

Getting organized and carefully picking their spots - higher education and agricultural research to name two - where a half-dozen or more conservatives have a special interest can give them a few chances to have an impact.

“We won’t be able to get top dollar, but I think we can moderate what they otherwise would do,” said Democratic Floor Leader Marguerite McLaughlin of Orofino.

Digging into special funds where the cash is dedicated to a specific purpose and using it to finance spending currently covered by general tax revenue is one way to free up extra money for projects or programs the majority would otherwise reject out of hand.