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Mar 11, 2003 The Idaho Legislature recently passed a $43 million cut in the state’s budget to enable the state to arrive at a constitutionally mandated balanced budget. Although small by comparison to massive states such as California, Idaho’s budget cut is slicing to the bone. Education has been pared way down, and the various state agencies are losing employee slots as well as much needed funding for many programs and services. One particular instance - local police officials have already noticed significant problems in obtaining fingerprint results from the Idaho State Police lab, which has already felt the budget ax. The legislature’s thinking is apparently somewhat fuzzy - the budget cuts come at a time when the legislature continues to favor the big business lobby with tax exemptions. Several bills this year have been introduced which allows many of the bigger businesses and industries in Idaho to unload their tax burden on the residential homeowner and small business. The legislature is setting the state up for problems in their approach to the financial issues. In one sense the legislature seems to be shooting itself in the foot. It hopes for an economic recovery while cutting out its best chance for that recovery – stimulation of the economy. Big business is not the driving force – most headquarters of companies that stand to benefit from tax exemptions are centered outside the state. The State of Idaho is one of the largest employers in Idaho, and by getting rid of many employees and lowering the pay of the rest (employees have had no pay raises for a few years coupled with health cost increases), the legislature hamstrings its largest concentrated group who would be spending locally. The legislature is beginning to show signs of concern about worker backlash, sneaking a bill into listing that will get rid of union deductions from an employee’s paycheck.. The recent Idaho legislature is known for close-door meetings and tricky legislative maneuvers when it comes to something that a few key leaders want to make law. One unfortunate aspect of the cuts in budget is the certain drop in the quality of the workforce. As more and more key employees are forced to double up on their duties they tend to look elsewhere for employment. This leaves a large drain of intellectual capital within state government and will certainly spell trouble down the road. The idea of granting exemptions to big business when trumpeting a necessity for fiscal austerity is dubious at best and comes about through a variety of disingenuous maneuvers. Some of the bills come packaged with the statement that it will have “no fiscal impact” to the state or local counties when a good perusal of the bill reveals otherwise. Many of the exemptions that the legislature is showering on business do come with a notable fiscal impact on both the state and local government. Some look like unfunded mandates – the legislators write up the bill and press it into law without a good grasp of the cost. They did this a few years ago with a specific farm equipment exemption that they funded from the general fund – a general fund that has gone red. The budget cut and the exemptions will come before Governor Dirk Kempthorne in the next few days and it will be interesting to see how he responds to them. He has stated publicly that he will veto anything that cuts further into education and also that he doesn’t want to cut back state services any further. He may also line-item veto a few areas and let the rest of the cuts go through. His thoughts on the various exemptions for big business are not known. The deep budget cuts are not final yet - there may not be enough votes to override the budget veto and many legislators may not want to be on record for such deep slices to the various programs. Kempthorne’s original proposal was for a slight increase in the sales tax to help balance the budget, but nothing to that effect has come out of the Idaho House. . Kempthorne’s veto on the budget, if it comes, may be the last stand for putting a halt to the dangerous dichotomy. About the author: Dwayne Hines currently has 12 books selling in major bookstores and writes for major magazines such as Physical and FitnessRX. Email Dwayne Hines: dhines@3dinet.com ------------ Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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