Agency budget-setting now completed…

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has now set all agency budgets for next year. There’s still the question of transfers to reserve funds, but that won’t be taken up until next week. In total, JFAC has appropriated slightly less than Gov. Butch Otter recommended, $2.70 billion or a 6.8 percent increase from this year, vs. Otter’s $2.72 billion, which would’ve been a 7.4 percent increase from this year. Factors playing into the difference include a much lower figure for expected public school student growth, at 50 support units rather than 150. These figures consider only state general funds.

If no further action were taken, after the appropriations approved to date, the fiscal year 2013 budget would leave $61,796,200 on the table. That’s before any transfers to reserve funds or tax cuts.

Conventional wisdom holds that once JFAC has finished setting agency budgets, the legislative session will wrap up in two weeks.

Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, distributed a list of federal appropriations Idaho’s used for state programs for the past six years; it’s risen from $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $2.3 billion this year. Cameron noted that big federal budget cuts could be in store; that could affect future state funding needs for transportation, education and Medicaid. “This storm is coming, and it’s going to mean less money for the state, and we’d better be prepared for it,” he said.