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: Senate Bill 1131 provides a total supplemental appropriation of $60,000 to the Office of the Attorney General 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?

There are two supplemental appropriations made in this legislation. The first would provide $25,000 in one-time transition costs associated with moving to a new administration. These costs would generally include expenses like new letterhead, business cards, and website redevelopment. The second provision would provide a pay raise for employees working on tobacco arbitration. These funds would come from the Millennium Income Fund to support what the agency reports to be an increased workload.

This is an acceptable use of a supplemental appropriation since these expenses are unexpected but necessary for the timeliness of operations.

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