{"id":2998,"date":"2011-12-21T14:03:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T21:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2012-01-11T12:25:27","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:25:27","slug":"governor-otter-legislators-can-count-on-my-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/21\/governor-otter-legislators-can-count-on-my-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Otter: Legislators Can Count On My Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3038\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Governor Otter meeting with StateImpact &amp; Boise State Public Radio on Dec. 13, 2011\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3038\" title=\"GovOtter1_AaronKunz\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz-620x348.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz-220x123.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/GovOtter1_AaronKunz.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Aaron Kunz \/ Boise State Public Radio<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Governor Otter meeting with StateImpact &amp; Boise State Public Radio on Dec. 13, 2011<\/p><\/div>\n<p>January 9th is a highly anticipated day for state budget wonks and policy nerds.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the day Governor C.L. &#8220;Butch&#8221; Otter releases his budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year.\u00a0 The governor recommended spending about $2.5 billion general fund dollars for basic services like education, health care and corrections during the current budget year, FY12.\u00a0 The legislature ended up spending more than $2.8 billion.\u00a0 (You can see the breakdown of expenditures <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legislature.idaho.gov\/budget\/publications\/PDFs\/LBB\/FY2012\/LBBFrame.htm\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Otter didn&#8217;t want to discuss the specifics of his 2013 budget proposal in advance, but we asked him about the budgeting process and how he approaches it.<!--more-->Click play to watch the video segment:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M3hEQ6vPVmg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The governor has said leaner state government should be the new normal.\u00a0 That was the title of a <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/11\/22\/idaho-governor-says-leaner-government-should-be-the-new-normal\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent op-ed<\/a> he distributed to media.\u00a0 He also tried to temper expectations when he distributed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/271569-letter-to-cabinet-12-7-11.html\" target=\"_blank\">this letter<\/a> to members of his cabinet, saying <a href=\"http:\/\/www.idahostatesman.com\/2011\/12\/02\/1901257\/idaho-faces-a-glimmer-of-budget.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> budget surpluses are unlikely, so don&#8217;t get your spending hopes up.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/20\/governor-otter-the-state-cant-reject-a-federal-unemployment-benefit-extension\/\">Governor Otter: The State Can\u2019t Reject a Federal Unemployment Benefit Extension<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/19\/governor-otter-every-generation-deals-with-joblessness-and-we-live-through-it\/\">Governor Otter: Every Generation Deals with Joblessness and We Live Through It<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/02\/idaho-budget-expert-outlines-tough-choices-ahead-for-legislators\/\">Idaho Budget Expert Outlines Tough Choices Ahead for Legislators<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/08\/C.-L.-Butch-Otter-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/butch-otter\/\">What You Should Know About Governor C.L. \u201cButch\u201d Otter<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The worst thing you can do in government, the worst thing you can do in a company, is tell an agency or a department, you\u2019ve got a $1 million to spend for next year.\u00a0 And then have to go back half way through the year and say oops, you\u2019ve only got $800,000,&#8221; Otter says.\u00a0 &#8220;So I\u2019d rather be very cautious about over estimating the income or the budget they\u2019re going to have so I don\u2019t have to have a hold back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>So going into this session, it sounds like you\u2019re trying to maintain, budget wise?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>I feel comfortable telling them the budget I\u2019m going to present them on Jan 9<sup>th<\/sup> is the budget they can count on for the year, and maybe if things work out, maybe a little more.\u00a0 But, as of Jan 9<sup>th<\/sup>, here is the money you can count on and hopefully you can take that to the bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>What are your budget priories?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>Well, we had an agreement in the legislature, which is a reflection of what we did with the surplus this year.\u00a0 And that was the last money we took out of the budgets was from K-12, community colleges and higher education.\u00a0 And the first money we are going to replace as revenue allows us, are in those last places we took the money out.\u00a0 Hence, about two-thirds or three-quarters of the money from the surplus, went to back-fill those areas we had to cut in education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>Education is your first priority, what about 2nd and 3rd priorities?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>Higher education, obviously.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing some substantial growth in Medicaid and our cost of delivering health services to folks who need them.\u00a0 Looking at the revenues, I haven\u2019t been able to look much past [priorities] one and a half instead of two, three or four. There are plenty of places to spend money.\u00a0 And I can tell you that when the thought was out there that everything was looking pretty good, unemployment was starting to drift downward finally, and there was a suggestion there we\u2019d have $150-$200 million in surplus next year.\u00a0 We had probably a billion and a half chasing that in new requests.\u00a0 Not to say they aren\u2019t legitimate, but we have to do what we can afford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 9th is a highly anticipated day for state budget wonks and policy nerds.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the day Governor C.L. &#8220;Butch&#8221; Otter releases his budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year.\u00a0 The governor recommended spending about $2.5 billion general fund dollars for basic services like education, health care and corrections during the current budget year, FY12.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":3038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,27],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2998"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3635,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions\/3635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}