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Gov. Little stresses public safety, education

Lewiston Morning Tribune - 1/7/2020

Jan. 7--BOISE -- Idaho Gov. Brad Little kicked off the 2020 legislative session with his State of the State address Monday, reiterating his pledge to make Idaho "the place where we all have the best possible opportunity to thrive."

The governor earned broad bipartisan praise for the priorities outlined in the speech, which included increased investments in education and public safety, $35 million for grocery tax relief and $102 million in additional "rainy day" savings.

"When I stood before you last year at this time, I pledged to make decisions through one lens," Little said, "the lens of ensuring the best possible opportunities for us, our children and grandchildren to remain in Idaho and enjoy an unparalleled quality of life. That vision guides me every single day."

Little began his speech by highlighting some of the accomplishments of the past year -- including a substantial reduction in state regulations -- and by acknowledging the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage.

"The faces in this chamber looked a lot different 100 years ago," he said.

Much of the speech, however, focused on the governor's fiscal 2021 budget recommendations (see related story below).

Overall, Little is proposing $4.06 billion in general fund expenditures next year, a $147 million, 3.75 percent increase over the current year.

If the Legislature goes along with the plan, it would be the smallest annual increase in state spending since the 2.9 percent increase in fiscal 2014. The 2019-20 budget, by comparison, was a $258 million, 7.1 percent increase over the previous year.

"Without question, Gov. Little has delivered the best, most conservative starting point a governor has given the Idaho Legislature in many years," said Idaho Freedom Foundation President Wayne Hoffman. "The governor's no-gimmicks budget, which holds spending growth to 3.75 percent, is music to our ears, though we believe there is still room for additional cuts."

Little's 2021 budget features a $77.7 million increase in state support for public schools. That's a 4.1 percent increase compared to this year. It includes a $7.7 million to increase the minimum starting salary for K-12 teachers to $40,000 per year, as well as $30 million for veteran teacher raises and an extra $3.2 million for kindergarten through third grade literacy efforts.

"My budget keeps our foot on the gas and makes our historic investment in literacy ongoing," Little said. "I subscribe to the view that it is better to prepare children today than to repair them later. When we commit to giving students a strong start and provide local schools with the flexibility to determine how best to achieve it, we see progress."

Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, was pleased to see the education investments. Nelson also supported the governor's $113,000 proposal to create a state broadband office within the Department of Commerce.

That was one of the recommendations from Little's Broadband Task Force, on which Nelson and Sen. Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville, served.

"Getting that office in place opens the door to more federal grants," Nelson said.

Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, was happy to see a $500,000 line item for community recovery centers -- an issue he's been pushing since he was elected to the Legislature. He also supported a $5.9 million line item to provide housing, substance abuse treatment and workforce readiness services to at-risk parolees.

The goal, according to budget director Alex Adams, is to reduce the chances of people being sent back to prison for violating the terms of their parole or probation.

"Right now, 62 percent of our prison population is there because they failed at supervision," Adams said. "We want to arm probation and parole officers with the tools they need to address know risks (such as substance abuse or homelessness). This is an investment to reduce recidivism and ensure that the next check we write isn't larger than today."

Kingsley described the proposal as "a new direction for Idaho."

"I think it's huge," he said. "It's money spent now, but it will benefit us in the future (through reduced recidivism)."

Kingsley was less impressed, however, with the governor's proposed $35 million set-aside for grocery tax relief.

The money would come from a tax relief fund that currently collects about $6 million per month, primarily from sales tax paid by out-of-state online retailers.

In 2017, Kingsley was among the majority of legislators who supported repealing the 6 percent sales tax on groceries, as well as the $100 annual grocery tax credit that all Idahoans receive.

The net cost of the bill, which was vetoed by then-Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, was about $80 million. That has since risen to about $110 million.

Little's $35 million plan "doesn't sound like it's enough to eliminate the grocery tax," Kingsley said. "It sounds like it's just there to pacify the Kingsleys in the Legislature (who want a full repeal)."

Rep. Caroline Troy, R-Genesee, felt the governor "hit the highlights on what I was hoping to accomplish this session."

However, Troy was less enthusiastic about his proposed college and university budget, which was up just 0.4 percent from the current year.

"I always worry about the impact to the University of Idaho and how they fund (employee raises)," she said. "It's really easy to lose faculty and staff to Washington State University."

The governor is proposing a 2 percent merit-based raise for all general fund employees, at a cost of about $19.3 million. However, the state funding typically only covers about half of all college and university employees -- meaning the institutions need to cover the remaining raises from other sources, such as tuition increases.

Raising tuition isn't an option this time around, though, as all four four-year institutions agreed to freeze their in-state undergraduate tuition rates next year.

"I think that's great," Troy said, but the governor's budget "just further complicates the things (UI) President Scott Green is trying to accomplish."

Troy serves on the joint budget committee, which begins its analysis of the governor's proposed budget today.

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168.

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