Idaho lawmakers will soon begin to figure out how to spend the nearly $3 billion they’ll get from taxpayers next year. Legislative services budget director Cathy Holland-Smith says they should be in a good position to do that without cuts to state agencies and programs. Holland-Smith briefed legislative leaders Friday on what they can expect when they sit down in January to write the 2014 budget. She maintains a positive outlook despite the fact that agency requests exceed projected revenue by almost $170 million.
“A substantial amount of the budget requests as presented here is now going to change,” she says. “Public schools budgets will have to be built according to the new formula.”
Holland-Smith says the budget request submitted by the state’s Department of Education has to be redone because it was based on the Students Come First laws. Voters repealed those this week through Propositions 1, 2 and 3. Holland-Smith expects the new request from the Ed Department to be smaller because it won’t include Students Come First items like extra money for pay for performance. Education makes up half of Idaho’s budget. Holland-Smith also expects one of the state’s other big expenditures, Medicaid, will require less money than previously forecast.