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 420 is an enhancement of $9,900 and 0.00 new full-time positions for the STEM Action Center for fiscal year 2026. This legislation appropriates a total of $6,277,000 and 8.00 full-time positions to the agency.
Does this budget enact powers and activities that extend beyond the proper role of government? Conversely, does this budget fulfill the proper role of government?
The STEM action center was created when the state enacted House Bill 302 in 2015. The program is designed to “produce a competitive STEM-ready workforce” through various educational, marketing, and policy initiatives.
This agency operates outside the proper role of government. It is a bureaucracy dedicated to centrally planning the workforce as well as promoting and developing certain elements of the private economy. It is the role of the free market to develop its own workforce to accommodate its needs.
(-1)
Is the continuation or growth in ongoing spending, if any, inappropriate for the changes in circumstances, scope of the agency, or current economic environment? Conversely, is the continuation or growth in ongoing spending appropriate given any change in circumstances or economic pressures?
This legislation funds ongoing spending for the STEM Action Center at $6267100, growing from the base by 4.7% in the last three years. This rate is more than nine points slower than what would be prescribed by inflationary pressures and growth, demonstrating modest growth within the agency.
(+1)
