{"id":5085,"date":"2012-02-24T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5085"},"modified":"2012-02-24T10:58:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T17:58:04","slug":"budget-setting-how-it-works-why-you-should-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/02\/24\/budget-setting-how-it-works-why-you-should-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Setting: How It Works, Why You Should Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Cathy Holland-Smith has been working for the Legislative Services Office since 1994.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee<\/a> began budget setting in earnest this week, after weeks of hearings.\u00a0 Writing the budget is the legislature’s only constitutional requirement, and<\/del> it has to be balanced.\u00a0 For a primer on the nuts and bolts of the process, StateImpact<\/em> reached out to Cathy Holland-Smith.\u00a0 She oversees budget and policy analysis for the state’s Legislative Services Office.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has finished its weeks of hearings now, and we\u2019re in the budget setting process.\u00a0 What\u2019s at stake?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>It really is the future for the next 12 months for all of these agencies.\u00a0 It\u2019s key that our committee has heard from agencies over a five-week period.\u00a0 We have three weeks to set the entire state budget, so we have to make sure that we get everything correct.\u00a0 If we make an error for instance, and we don\u2019t appropriate for an agency or program, that agency literally would not have funding for the next year, and we\u2019d have to come back to special session.\u00a0 It\u2019s extremely challenging to make sure that we get all the bases covered.<\/p>\n

<\/object> Budget Setting: How It Works, Why You Should Care<\/a><\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>The programs that people care about \u2013 this is where that gets determined; how much funding programs get.<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>That\u2019s correct.\u00a0 First of all, what\u2019s key is the governor\u2019s recommendation, and that\u2019s the first step.\u00a0 The committee members are listening to what is important to the governor, what his priorities are, and they\u2019re trying to fit that into a plan that will be a little bit different.\u00a0 It always is.\u00a0 They\u2019re trying to take into consideration their constituents, their legislative goals, and make that fit all into a single plan, and it\u2019s a real challenge.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Walk us through the process.\u00a0 What happens from this point?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>The committee has an early morning meeting.\u00a0 Their day begins at 7:00 a.m.\u00a0 And they basically share with each other what they want to about what their motions will look like.\u00a0 Motions that legislators have prepared for them are private and confidential.\u00a0 They can choose to share that with other committee members.\u00a0 When they do, basically it allows the committee to, I think, operate a little bit more smoothly when it goes out into a daily meeting which beings at 8 a.m., typically, and ends about 10:30 or 11:00 every morning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

MollyMessick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

This hefty binder is the 2012 legislative budget book.<\/p><\/div>\n

During that time, they will consider each and every program in state government.\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll make sometimes competing motions.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not uncommon that there could be just a single motion.\u00a0 Legislators respect the work that other legislators do, and so they have to divvy up the state budget.\u00a0 It\u2019s so large and there\u2019s 20 members.\u00a0 We try to have a house member and a senate member on all of our motions, because they do have to \u2013 then, once they pass out of JFAC \u2013 go to each body.\u00a0 And so we\u2019re looking for a legislator on the committee who has to speak to both the house and the senate on what the committee has done, and we\u2019re looking for support.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>The committee is not just agreeing on a certain amount of funding for a department, in other words.\u00a0 The committee is making very specific decisions.<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>The committee is making very specific decisions about pay increases or potential pay increases for state employees, statewide, including public schools.\u00a0 They\u2019re making discrete decisions on what we call line-items.\u00a0 They also have issues they need to fund.\u00a0 For instance, if there\u2019s a bill that passes both the House and Senate and it has a fiscal impact and it\u2019s a new program, they come back and consider that in trailer bills.\u00a0 So they\u2019re looking at a fairly detailed level of information for all of these agencies.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What kinds of questions might the committee be weighing if we\u2019re looking at, say, Health and Welfare spending?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>You know, it may be as simple as \u2013 for the agency, they have requests for alterations or repairs and vehicles and computer equipment.\u00a0 So they may want the details \u2013 how much mileage is on a vehicle?\u00a0 They may want to know how long, for instance, a computer expansion will take.\u00a0 How much are you paying per hour for contractors, and so forth?\u00a0\u00a0 Or it may be as large as \u2013 tell us about where your growth is occurring in Medicaid, which providers need more funding, where are the rate increases?\u00a0 The scope is from the minutiae to the very large, and sometimes it\u2019s even easier for the committee to make a decision about multiple millions of dollars than it is some of the smaller amounts, because they can relate easier to the smaller amounts.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What\u2019s the biggest hang-up you can remember, if there\u2019s a funny hang-up about a very small amount of money in past budget sessions?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Well, this is something that happens fairly often.\u00a0 The committee may come to a bit of a tiff over something as simple as a $15,000 vehicle.\u00a0 One committee member may have experience that says, you know, \u201cThat vehicle should only cost $10,000.\u201d\u00a0 We actually had an argument about Fish and Game, and we had one legislator who did not want them to buy air conditioning \u2013 thought it was excessive.\u00a0 So those are the type of funny things that occur when people bring their lives experience into this process.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Idaho has, of course, been in budget cutting mode for the last couple of years.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s actually money to spend.\u00a0 How does that change this process?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>It\u2019s been a bit of a challenge, because many of our committee members and our legislators have only been in the legislature during a time of austerity, when they\u2019ve had to make very, very challenging cuts.\u00a0 And they\u2019ve done so because they had a strong sense of commitment and responsibility to do so.\u00a0 Now they have to begin to spend, and it\u2019s a different mindset.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes, some people will tell you it\u2019s more difficult, because you have competing priorities.\u00a0 The competition is really steep, and that changes the nature of the budgeting process.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re moving into a little bit different environment, and it\u2019s not been as easy as some people thought it would be.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>How have you started to see that play out so far?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Right now you can see some tension building.\u00a0 There are some priorities \u2013 and I\u2019ll give you an example.\u00a0 The governor has supported a tax cut, and then you have that competing with some interests.\u00a0 People who want to put more money into public schools.\u00a0 Then we have through Medicaid, we have providers and recipients who are saying, you know, \u201cPlease restore the funding you took out on the cuts for Medicaid.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, there\u2019s not enough money to do it all, so the difficulty is \u2013 how much compromise can take place, how much can be changed in the short amount of time, and what the will of the legislature in total.\u00a0 Because it\u2019s not just what JFAC wants.\u00a0 It\u2019s also what the entire legislature wants.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>So JFAC develops appropriations bills.\u00a0 Then what happens?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/span> Each appropriations bill has to go through the House and Senate.\u00a0 And as long as they\u2019re approved by both bodies, they\u2019ll go to the governor, and he plays a role.\u00a0 He has to weigh in.\u00a0 He may be satisfied with the appropriations bills.\u00a0 He may be thrilled.\u00a0 Or he may be dissatisfied with them, and he may want to communicate back to the legislature.\u00a0 He always has a choice to veto an appropriation bill, and we would begin our work again.\u00a0 Once these appropriation bills begin flowing through the system we estimate that we need about two weeks to fully pass all the appropriations bills through.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>If you were to encourage people to say engaged in this process, what advice would you give them, if they\u2019re trying to \u2013 stay into it, stay plugged in, follow what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

A:<\/span> I think it depends on where you are.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a state agency right now, most likely, you have folks that are listening to JFAC constantly.\u00a0 You\u2019re trying to monitor the tone, you\u2019re trying to see if there\u2019s a theme of questioning, a theme of concerns.\u00a0 I think for the general public, especially, if you do have the time to listen in, it really helps you appreciate everything that\u2019s being considered.\u00a0 We\u2019re available.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to be transparent.\u00a0 The bills are all posted on the internet so you can read an appropriations bill.\u00a0 They all have a contact number on them so you can call a staff member and ask questions.\u00a0 We answer questions from the public. \u00a0We encourage those questions.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and shortened.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee began budget setting in earnest this week, after weeks of hearings.\u00a0 Writing the budget is the legislature’s only constitutional requirement, and it has to be balanced.\u00a0 For a primer on the nuts and bolts of the process, StateImpact reached out to Cathy Holland-Smith.\u00a0 She oversees budget and policy analysis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,56,34],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085"}],"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\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5136,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions\/5136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}