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 302 appropriates $2,342,000 and no full-time positions to the Capitol Commission for fiscal year 2024.

The Capitol Commission works to maintain the Capitol Mall Complex in Boise. House Bill 302 provides a true maintenance budget for the agency with no supplemental requests, no line items, and no growth over the past three years. The Commission is also not subject to an FTP cap.

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 Capitol Commission at $2,342,000, demonstrating zero growth in the last three years. This rate is extremely modest compared to what would be prescribed by inflationary pressures and growth.

(+1)