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: 0

Bill Description: House Bill 250 provides for a supplemental appropriation of $71,200 and 2.00 full-time positions to the Division of Financial Management for fiscal year 2023.

Does this budget contain hidden fund transfers or supplemental expenditures that work to enact new policy or are not valid emergency expenditures? Conversely, are fund transfers only made to stabilization funds or are supplemental requests only made in the interest of resolving valid fiscal emergencies?

House Bill 250 seeks to add two new full-time financial specialist positions to the Division of Financial Management to replace an outgoing employee. These positions generally deal with statewide cost allocation, cash management, federal reporting, agency interactions, and financial auditing. Both these positions will be ongoing into the new fiscal year. The Division noted that they would like to onboard these positions early so they would have time to train these new staffers and pass on institutional knowledge before the outgoing employee retires. This is an unexpected expense that requires a timely response from DFM.

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