Panel Continues To Slice Batt’s Budget Plan Money For New Vehicles, Senior Citizen Campground Discount Among Items Axed

Legislative budget writers continued slicing away at Gov. Phil Batt’s already pared-down 1998 spending blueprint on Monday in anticipation of what could be a showdown later over public school aid.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee clipped another $25,500 in general tax money from Batt’s proposal for the Commerce Department as conservatives stuck with their plan to save at least $10 million as a hedge against a weaker than expected economy.

The latest penny-pinching involved the department’s request for $20,000 to replace a van that has about 66,000 miles on it.

“We could probably go another year on that van, probably another two years,” Rupert Republican Dean Cameron, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said.

For good measure, the committee also denied cash for vehicles in the Insurance and Finance departments, even though those agencies get their operating money from fees charged on the industries they regulate and not from general tax collections.

And the majority rejected an attempt to expand the Commerce Department’s film bureau with general tax money. Instead, the program dedicated to attracting movie producers to Idaho will have to compete with the tourism industry for the money raised from tourism promotion.

Even though it was just $28,000, Republican Maxine Bell, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it “was not the year to make that move.”

GOP Rep. Don Pischner of Coeur d’Alene said the move essentially denies the expansion of the film bureau because there is not sufficient cash in the tourism fund.

In the Senate Resources and Environment Committee, meanwhile, another key piece of the 1998 patchwork state budget won approval.

The panel accepted Parks and Recreation Department regulations that increase fees to raise between $160,000 and $200,000 a year to pay for park staff.

The most controversial provision is the elimination of the senior citizens discount for a plan to provide low-cost access to needy elderly people.

Parks Director Yvonne Ferrell acknowledged the potential political problems the move creates, but she cited surveys showing that the bulk of America’s wealth is in the hands of senior citizens. Giving them discounts has only resulted in seniors filling up state park campgrounds at the expense of full-fee paying campers being turned away.

“We are losing money with every senior who camps in a state park,” Ferrell told the committee. “We don’t want to discourage them, but we want to encourage families. There’s no room for them now.”

The maneuvering among budget writers to date has only been a warm up for what could be a face off between the House and Senate over general tax state aid to public schools.

The governor has recommended a total of $705 million for the 1997-1998 school year. That would be a 3.8 percent increase over this year’s aid total following a $10.7 million cut lawmakers agreed to earlier this month. Only $7 million of that cut was restored with cash generated from the management of public lands.

But Batt’s proposed aid package was still $19 million less than what the Board of Education and a coalition of education interests sought.

The House has been toying with cutting Batt’s proposal by several million dollars in what Speaker Michael Simpson said would be an effort at equity with other agencies.

After refusing to come up with the money for Batt’s 2 percent state employee pay raise, Simpson suggested it would only be equitable to eliminate the 1.5 percent increase in the statewide teacher salary guidelines that Batt also proposed.

That translates into $9.6 million, although some of that would simply be directed away from salaries to classroom needs or other education programs rather than eliminated completed.

“It’s simply a matter of equity, and the fact that the money might not be there,” Simpson said on Monday.

But the Senate has dug its heels in behind the governor - some veteran members recalling the political blood that was shed in the 1980s during battles over cutting the school aid recommendation by just a few million dollars.