Scott tries, fails to cut budgets for NIC, community colleges

North Idaho Rep. Heather Scott tried hard Tuesday to derail the community college budget – a third of which goes to fund North Idaho College – arguing that it was too generous, but failed, as the budget bill passed 48-22 and headed to the Senate.

“We are taking money from the general fund that we could be giving to our public schools and we’re putting them into the community colleges for programs such as ‘college outreach programs,’” Scott told the House. “Declining enrollment in our colleges? What about the enrollment in our schools?” she asked. “We’re maybe losing people from our state because their taxes keep going up because of their levies, when we’re worried about the colleges?”

She said, “I think there’s a lot of line items in this bill that are above and beyond, they can be removed.”

Ironically, community colleges charge local property taxes – so if their state funding were cut, they might actually charge more in local property tax levies/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here.