Of budget-setting, priorities, and yo-yos…

With state agency budget-setting now complete, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has appropriated $3.448 billion for next year, a 5.4 percent increase from this year’s budget and $16.8 million less than the 5.9 percent increase reflected in the latest revised version of the governor’s budget proposals. The numbers aren’t final, however, as a number of “trailer” appropriation bills still will need to be passed in JFAC to reflect the fiscal impact, either up or down, of various pieces of legislation that still are working their way through one house or another.

JFAC Co-Chair Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said, “Overall, I think the budget committee worked really hard at it, going through the numbers with a fine-toothed comb and recognizing that we still have holes in places after the recession, and I think we methodically took a look at those and tried to plug those back in when it was needed.”

Keough said the budget overall “recognizes the value in K-12 education and higher education, and a continued emphasis on career-technical education, all of which will provide Idahoans that choose to stay in the state with some good-paying jobs, and that’s a good thing for all of us.”

JFAC members spoke out in praise of Keough and her co-chair, longtime Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, whom Sen. Fred Martin called the “queen” of the Legislature, praising her long service. She returned the praise to the members of the 20-member joint committee. “I tell everybody it’s the best committee I’ve worked with, and I have a long memory,” Bell said. “We had some real yo-yos.”