Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said despite the positive budget outlook lawmakers are facing with state revenues growing, he doesn't feel like the state's in surplus mode, with its revenue still below 2008 levels. "From my way of thinking, a surplus is when you have paid all your bills and you have money left over," he said. "We're not at that point. We haven't paid all our bills." He pointed to tens of millions that state hospitals and nursing homes assessed themselves to help Idaho keep its federal Medicaid matching funds this year, and automatic salary fund reductions built into the public school budget going years out into the future. "That in my mind should be paid for," he said. "So in my mind, we're not operating with a surplus."

Said Cameron, "I guess early on I cringed at all the jubilation. ... I'll be happy when we get back to revenues growing at a reasonable pace," and ground lost since 2008 has been made up. "Then I'll breathe a sign of relief. Until then, it's more pain, it's just in degrees of agony."