First budget decision today: A delay

As the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee continues budget-setting this morning, the first budget up was the special programs budget under the State Board of Education. Among its details: State funding for the Idaho Council for Economic Education would be eliminated, cutting $45,800; that council also has private funding. There’s also a shift of $1.59 million for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies into this special programs budget and out of the colleges and universities budget; that’s at the universities’ request, according to Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, and means a matching decrease in the college and university budget. The budget also skips over a $1 million recommendation from Gov. Butch Otter for additional Opportunity Scholarship funding; instead, there’d be no additional funding.

“Everything we’re doing this year has been reduced,” said Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, JFAC co-chair. Several JFAC members raised concerns about the implications of the shift from the college and university budget. Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, moved to delay the special programs budget until the higher ed budget is being set - that’s not ‘til Monday. “I just think we can do a better, more thorough job of not only this budget but the universities budget, if we can have this discussion at the same time as the university budgets,” he said. Brackett said he worried that the shift could prompt university tuition hikes or cuts in programs, because of the corresponding decrease in the higher ed budget. Mortimer argued against the delay, but it passed on a 10-9 vote.