Beginning this week, leaders at Idaho state agencies will have the chance to formally tell lawmakers how they are responding to spending cuts that spread across most of the state budget. The first agency director to appear before the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Monday was Jeff Youtz of the Legislative Services Offices. He began the day’s hearing saying that he’s lived within a shrinking budget by leaving some job positions vacant, cutting extra expenses, and ordering furloughs for staff.
Youtz said there’s been a decline in service due to the cuts. “Furlough time takes away from your mission as an agency to get the job done,” he said. “Furlough days are salary reductions.”
Youtz also said his agency has absorbed the recent cuts, which he said were roughly 15 percent of his budget from the 2009 fiscal year. But Youtz said bigger changes within the agency will need to come if there are further cuts: “I’m staying within this budget you’ve given me, but I’m not really right sized yet,“ Youtz said. “I don’t have an ongoing plan yet, and I think that’s going to be true of a lot of state agencies.”
Other agency chiefs who presented budget plans to JFAC said they are cutting in similar ways. State Controller Donna Jones told lawmakers she’s eliminated all non-essential travel and canceled an annual state accounting and payroll conference. Jones said her office is also scaling back reviews and licensing checks that protect the Idaho Potato trademark. There have also been furloughs.
“My office is a team player when it comes to budget cuts, holdbacks, and reversions,” Jones said before adding “there only so much more work my people can absorb before reaching a breaking point.”
State Treasurer Don Crane said, in addition to furloughs and vacancies, he’s delaying buying new computers. The treasurer’s office usually replaces seven of its 21 computers every year, for a three-year turnover, but that schedule is being pushed back. Crane said he’s only taken one out-of-state trip this year, which was paid for by a scholarship, rather than general fund dollars.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) will present its economic situation to JFAC Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. DHW recently announced that it will shutter its offices every other Friday afternoon to comply with a shrinking budget.
