Senators question Monks about general-fund shift
Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, asked Rep. Jason Monks if Idaho would still be able to adequately fund law enforcement with his proposed $16 million fund shift away from the Idaho State Police in HB 310. He said he thought economic growth would cover that.
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, told Monks, “Our budget stabilization fund and our other reserve funds quite frankly saved our bacon,” during the economic downturn. “This bill skims off” revenues, she said. “Idaho was one of the very few states that was able to ride the storm.” She added, “I kind of see this as more of a budget growth limitation, as opposed to really helping one segment of the budget.”
Monks said, “The concern I hear a lot is that we don’t want to compete with education dollars, we don’t want to compete with Health & Welfare dollars. That’s a very valid question. … First of all, I think here in Idaho, we do a pretty dang good job of providing for education, when you look at what percentage we give to our schools out of our budget.” Monks said all those needs, including law enforcement, should compete for state funds. If there’s a downturn, he said, “We’re going to have to cut dollars from someplace, and I think it’s appropriate,” he said.
Keough responded, “Education is a system that we are required by the Constitution to provide a free and thorough system, we aren’t free to do a user-pay for example, on the kiddos that come to school. We also have mandates to take care of corrections and Health & Welfare.” She asked Monks why moving away from a user-pay system for transportation makes sense for Idaho.
“We’re talking about a growth,” Monks responded. “For us to say that part of that is going to go someplace, I think that is appropriate.”
Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatello, noted that if Idaho had 5 percent revenue growth next year, the bill would require it to shift a big chunk out of the general fund to roads. “That’s a $26 mil dollar hit to the general fund. So if we don’t get beyond the 5 percent, we’re hitting the general fund quite heavily,” he said. Monks said that would be true next year, but said, “The growth beyond that should take care of that.”
