Hoffman Defends ‘Big Spender Report’

I’m getting a lot of flak in recent days about a report we did in April adding up the amount of money each legislator spent as part of the appropriations process during the last legislative session. We called it the “Big Spender Report.” And I was content to ignore the whining until a few days ago when Betsy Russell, a reporter for the Spokesman-Review newspaper, scoffed at our review, noting that the Legislature has a House-Senate budget panel that sets budgets. Writes Russell, “Once (budget bills) leave that panel, they rarely change, and the few ‘no’ votes generally are mere protests that they’re too high or too low. Setting a budget for the state is the Legislature’s main job; if all lawmakers voted against budget bills when they’re up for final votes, the Legislature would fail in its main task.” Russell is saying that we’re asking lawmakers to vote against every budget presented to them — always and forever. Rubbish/ Wayne Hoffman , Idaho Freedom Foundation. More here.

Thoughts?