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 325 appropriates $51,183,300 and 225.00 full-time positions to the Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2024.

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 Department of Agriculture at $50,729,200, growing from the base by 13.5% over the last three years. This rate is approximately equal to the rate of inflation over the same period.

(0)

Does the budget grow government through the addition of new permanent FTPs or through funding unlegislated efforts to create new or expanded entitlement programs? Conversely, does this budget reduce the size of government staff and programs except where compelled by new legislation?

House Bill 325 seeks to add five new full-time positions to expand the number of people who oversee the Invasive Species and Noxious Weed programs throughout the state, including boat check stations. These positions will be funded with existing funding within these programs. The agency noted in their presentation to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that in the 2023 fiscal year, the agency received funding for 10 FTPs but the legislature only raised the FTP cap by five positions in the original appropriation. This request will utilize the other five FTPs worth of ongoing funding to cover the cost of these new positions.

This line item would appropriate $163,000 in one-time expenditures to outfit these new staff with equipment. The creation of these new full time positions does grow the number of staff, but does not create new ongoing expenditures within the department.

(0)