January revenues are down

Idaho legislators are expressing fears about whether they can fund Gov. Butch Otter’s proposed budget due to anticipated worsening economic conditions – and they got the first numbers today that bolster that fear. Though preliminary, state revenue figures for January show a sharp drop, coming in $36 million below projections. It’s the first such shortfall – December’s figures met projections, and November was the last of five straight months in which state tax revenues exceeded the state’s projections. “While we’re not raising the panic flag or a red flag, we certainly are raising the orange flag of caution,” said JFAC Co-Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.

Gov. Butch Otter continues to maintain that a $78 million proposal to grant average 5 percent merit increases for state employees is his top priority for next year’s budget. But Cameron said, “It’s unclear at this stage whether we can actually fit the 5 percent CEC into our budget.”