Molly Messick reports the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee began budget setting in earnest this week, after weeks of hearings. Writing the budget is the legislature’s only constitutional requirement, and it has to be balanced. For a primer on the nuts and bolts of the process, StateImpact reached out to Cathy Holland-Smith. She oversees budget and policy analysis for the state’s Legislative Services Office.
Q: The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has finished its weeks of hearings now, and we’re in the budget setting process. What’s at stake?
A: It really is the future for the next 12 months for all of these agencies. It’s key that our committee has heard from agencies over a five-week period. We have three weeks to set the entire state budget, so we have to make sure that we get everything correct. If we make an error for instance, and we don’t appropriate for an agency or program, that agency literally would not have funding for the next year, and we’d have to come back to special session. It’s extremely challenging to make sure that we get all the bases covered.
