Lawmakers wrap up state agency budget-setting, focus on education; link to full Sun. column

The Legislature’s joint budget committee finished setting state agency budgets on Friday, appropriating more than $3.4 billion for next year, a 5.4 percent increase from this year’s budget. The numbers aren’t final, as a number of “trailer” appropriation bills still will need to be passed in committee to reflect the fiscal impact of various pieces of legislation that still are working their way through one house or another. (Those funding bills are so named because they “trail” behind the bills that prompt them.) But the timing puts the Legislature on track for its hoped-for March 24 adjournment date.

You can read my full Sunday column here , which includes the high-level view of the budget action – it focused on education, and so far fell $16.8 million below the governor’s recommended appropriations – along with Friday’s drama on the ITD budget; a proposed expansion of the Idaho Open Meeting Law; and House humor and glue stick.