Note: This year IFF rated maintenance bills according to a more refined system. This is an enhancement bill, and will be rated as a standalone bill. IFF will only consider enhancement line items in these ratings. This means that FTP reductions passed in maintenance legislation will not be evaluated here, among other things.
Bill Description: House Bill 942 authorizes an expenditure of $9,872,200 from the Millenium Income Fund (MIF) for fiscal year 2027.
Rating: -2
Does this budget incur any wasteful spending among discretionary funds, including new line items? Conversely, does this budget contain any provisions that serve to reduce spending where possible (i.e. base reductions, debt reconciliation, etc.)?
This legislation authorizes onetime spending from the MIF of $9,872,200, adding additional expenditures after last year’s (FY26) onetime spending of $6,710,000. Onetime spending is often even more volatile than ongoing spending, which is to be expected due to these onetime expenses generally being utilized for projects or capital outlay. This also calls for special scrutiny and discernment.
The onetime expenditures consist of funding for the Kamiah Recovery Center ($150,000 DF), the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund ($692,000 DF), Safe Teen Assessment Centers ($1,000,000 DF), ten Children’s Advocacy Centers ($3,000,000 DF), a Drug Awareness Campaign ($5,000,000 DF), and finally restoring funding for SRO Statewide Training and Coordination ($30,000 DF). Most of these expenditures are unwarranted, especially so in a deficit year.
(-1)
Does this budget create permanent programs or Full-Time Positions (FTPs) using temporary funding? Conversely, does this budget remove programs or FTPs that rely on temporary funding?
Several of these onetime expenditures support ongoing programs. For example, the funds appropriated for existing Safe Teen Assessment Centers are for “stabilizing staffing and core operations across 12 centers.” Using temporary or onetime funds to prop up insufficiently funded programs only serves to obfuscate ongoing spending and creates a constant need for onetime funding to fill gaps in service. The programs should be ended all together, rather than be held together by temporary funding.
(-1)
