Idaho governor apologizes for laptop flap

BOISE - Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has apologized to the co-chairs of the Legislature’s joint budget committee and lawmakers for the tone of the threat he had his budget director deliver yesterday, when the governor took on the Legislature for buying new laptop computers after he’d line-item vetoed the funding. Otter, in an interview with Idaho Public Television’s “Idaho Reports” that will air in full on Friday night, said he opposed the purchase of new laptop computers for lawmakers because he wanted to include it in a standardized purchasing program for the state, to save money. “But this is a year later,” the governor said. “It was probably poor timing to bring it up, especially the second day of the session, and I apologize, and I will apologize to Dean and Maxine and to the entire JFAC committee and to the Legislature for the characterization that we put around them putting the money back in their budget. … Also, I think we need to move beyond that.” Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, and Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, are the co-chairs of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, which sets state budgets. Otter said he has “full confidence” in his budget director, Wayne Hammon, “but it was just a poor choice of words and I’ve asked him not to use those words any more.” Those words included “sneak” and “budget sleight of hand.” Said Otter, “I’ve asked him, both he and my chief (of staff) to go back to the Legislature and make it right, because it was something we shouldn’t have done.” Last year, Otter used his line-item veto to reject funding for new laptop computers for lawmakers, which they use for everything from voting in the House to looking up bills while debating. Lawmakers got new laptops anyway - and on Tuesday the governor, through Hammon, threatened another veto. “It’s silly and it’s petty, and it’s the wrong way to start a budget session,” declared Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert on Tuesday. “There are a hundred, maybe even a thousand issues that we’re going to have to handle, and to pick a scab off a wound from last year is foolishness, in my opinion.” The generally friendly Hammon delivered the threat from the governor to lawmakers as he was detailing the governor’s budget proposal to the joint budget committee Tuesday morning: Otter opposes a $142,300 appropriation requested by the Legislative Council to “restore funding for legislative computer and communication equipment.” “Particularly offensive to the governor is the manner in which this item was sneaked into the budget,” as an adjustment rather than as a line item, Hammon told the committee, dubbing the move “budget sleight-of-hand.” He said the governor’s veto threat was back on the table. Bell responded, “We’ve been called a lot of things but we’ve never been called sneaks before.” In addition to the actual laptop computers that lawmakers use, the line-item veto covered funds for staff to maintain the legislative computer system and software. “We chose to let it lie, because we could handle it with existing resources,” Cameron said, “rather than override” the veto. Lawmakers can override a governor’s veto by a two-thirds vote in each house. “Sure we could have, if leadership had wanted to,” Cameron said. “We could have, and in hindsight, we probably should have.” Cameron said the computer veto was in retaliation for a legislative trim in a budget item requested by the governor’s Division of Financial Management. “The governor didn’t like it, because there’s a long history,” Cameron said, that the two branches leave each other’s budgets for such items alone. “As retribution, he vetoed the computers,” Cameron said. Cameron told Hammon, “Frankly it’s no different than any other agency who finds money within their agency,” to fund an unfunded item. “Our lease on the computers had expired. Those computers act as our ability to communicate with the public and act as our bill books, which saves us money. The veto occurred as retaliation for this committee’s unwillingness to approve a request from your office. … It wasn’t because the computers weren’t needed.” He added, “Those comments are in my opinion unwarranted.” Lawmakers all have their new laptops, and have been using them in the legislative session that started this week. Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, said his old laptop was “shot.” “It was obvious we needed to replace them,” he said. “It isn’t like that was a luxury - that’s a necessity. Instead of our law books, that’s what we use. For a lot of us, that’s our budget book. I would say at least 70 percent of my constituent communications are via e-mail - I certainly don’t want to lose that opportunity.” Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, who like Hammond serves on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee and heard Hammon’s presentation Tuesday morning, said, “Our House members use their computers to vote on in this building - they’re a necessity. … I use it on the floor to read the bills. I do feel they’re a necessity in this day and age.” Before lawmakers got laptop computers, a bevy of young staffers and pages had to maintain binders of every bill introduced in the Legislature, and keep them available for reference during legislative debates. Now, all that information is on the Internet. Otter used his line-item veto three times last year, two of them against substance-abuse funding on which he and lawmakers later compromised, after the Senate voted to override one of those vetoes. There was no veto override attempted on the computer funding. This year, Otter faces a big challenge convincing the Legislature to go along with his plan for a transportation tax increase along with steep cuts in state spending, including cuts in public schools. Hammond said given that, he was surprised the governor would take lawmakers on over computers. “I couldn’t believe that shot - it was just amazing,” he said. Jon Hanian, spokesman for Otter, said, “Our take is there’s gonna be these moments - hopefully fewer of these than last year, because we’ve got less money to squabble about.”