JFAC, DFM clash over technology projects, ‘slush fund’ claim

The co-chairs of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee today pulled back a proposed bill designed to group together various technology upgrade funding requests that now appear in the budget requests of various state agencies and authorize the Legislative Services Office to hire consultants to help lawmakers vet the requests, after it was sharply criticized by Gov. Butch Otter’s budget director, Jani Revier.

In a letter to JFAC, Revier said she believed the proposal would conflict with or duplicate processes already in place in state government, and stymie current budget processes for agency requests and funding recommendations from the governor. Revier wrote that it’s “difficult to interpret this as anything but the attempt to create a slush fund for use by the Legislature.”

Revier apologized for that word choice to JFAC today; JFAC Co-Chairs Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, and Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, agreed to hold off on introducing the bill and make some changes to it.

“In retrospect, that may not have been the best terminology to use,” Revier told JFAC. “I apologize; no offense was meant.”

The measure sought to create a new dedicated fund, the Technology Infrastructure Stabilization Fund, as “a way to increase tracking capabilities and accountability for such projects.” It also would transfer $22 million, one-time, into the fund during the current fiscal year, fiscal year 2018.

“My co-chair and I are proposing to make some amendments,” Keough said. She said lawmakers need some help to vet highly technical technology budget proposals, and disputed that that duplicates review that already occurs in the executive branch.

Keough said a revised version of the bill will be proposed either Friday or next week.