LeFavour tries last-minute budget shift, but ruled out of order
Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, tried a last-minute motion to take $35,150,000 from $71 million in Millenium Funds now being held in case federal Medicaid match rates drop - which now appears unlikely - and, if they're not needed for Medicaid, route them into several holes JFAC left in budgets this year: $150,000 to restore funding for the adult cystic fibrosis program, $20 million to restore Medicaid cuts and recapture $90 million in federal matching funds, and $5 million each to make up budget cuts for the Department of Correction and substance abuse treatment. JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told LeFavour she was out of order. "That's not on the agenda, so i would have to rule it out of order," she told LeFavour, "but I don't rule out of order your caring and your fervor." Bell said, "The budgets are set, none of us like them very much. I will tell you one thing, the person that pays the bill, the taxpayer out there, we have kept him in our hearts, too, as we've gone thru this exercise."
