The Idaho Spending Index serves to provide a fiscally conservative perspective on state budgeting while providing an unbiased measurement of how Idaho lawmakers apply these values to their voting behavior on appropriations bills. Each bill is analyzed within the context of the metrics below. They receive one (+1) point for each metric that is satisfied by freedom-focused policymaking and lose one (-1) point for each instance in which the inverse is true. The sum of these points composes the score for the bill.

Analyst: Niklas Kleinworth

Rating: +1

Bill Description: House Bill 249 appropriates $640,682 and 4.00 full-time positions to the Board of Tax Appeals for fiscal year 2024.

With the exception of the statewide human resources consolidation initiative, this is a true maintenance of operations budget, featuring no line items or supplementals. There are also no changes in the number of full-time positions within the agency.

Is the maintenance budget inappropriate for the needs of the state, the size of the agency, or the inflationary environment of the economy? Conversely, is the maintenance budget appropriate given the needs of the state and economic pressures?

This legislation sets the maintenance budget for the Board of Tax Appeals at $657,800, only growing from the base by 3.8% over the last three years. This rate is much slower than the rate of inflation over the same period, demonstrating modest growth in the cost to maintain the agency.

(+1)