The state is currently violating the Idaho Constitution, Article VII, Section 11 – EXPENDITURE NOT TO EXCEED APPROPRIATION.
Claims by the Governor that we have a balanced budget are simply untrue. At the present time, the state has over $650 Million in GARVEE bond debt, for which we taxpayers are paying over $50 Million a year in interest. In addition, payments due for Catastrophic Fund claims and payments to Medicaid providers are being delayed from one to two months, until the start of the next fiscal year in July, because expenditures are outpacing budgeted revenues.
According to a state budget analyst, if the current administration had taken a more proactive approach to the budget, we would not be in the challenging situation with the budget that we are today.
When I took office as an Ada County Commissioner for the second time, in January of 2009, the county’s budget was $193 Million. Within less than a year, my colleagues and I had reduced the budget by $22 Million, to $171 Million without appreciably cutting services by consolidating departments, finding and cutting wasteful, unnecessary spending, and cutting unnecessary positions. The same approach will work in state government, as well.