Written by: Jim Hansen
Monday, February 18, 2008

Before legislators can start setting Idaho’s budget, they have to decide whether and how to adjust state employees’ compensation. Even in years of economic expansion, the legislature has told the thousands of people who work for us that Idaho does not have enough resources to invest in them on par with their peers in the private sector. “Someday, there’ll be roses,” they keep promising. In January, Governor Otter proposed increasing pay “for those who merit it” by 5% but also to shift more insurance costs onto employees. It was kind of like presenting a big bouquet of Valentine’s Day roses but when you grab them you notice they have a lot of extra thorns. The thinking seemed to be that since so many people were facing family crises because of poor insurance and rising health care costs, the problem for state employees might as well get worse too.

Last week, the legislature’s budget director announced that revenue projections should be reduced by $70 million. The Republican majority on the CEC (Change in Employee Compensation) committee chopped the pay increase to 3% with additional limitations. The governor’s office insisted that there was still room in the budget for a 4% increase. The Democrats on the CEC committee proposed a 4% increase with an additional 1% in bonuses if revenues improve by the end of the fiscal year (spring of 2009). They were soundly outvoted. Meanwhile, the tax committee – having blithely rejected all reforms to fill huge holes in the tax base so we don’t have these wild swings in revenue – did not seem to notice the pain being discussed down the hall in the CEC committee. Instead, it decided to take up another vital tax issue on today: how to use ticket revenues to promote amateur boxing. Is that a subtle suggestion to state employees on how they might earn a little extra cash?

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