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: Senate Bill 1139 appropriates $4,565,200 and 21.00 full-time positions to the Office of the Governor for fiscal year 2024.

The only line item appropriated in this budget is $23,700 to purchase a license for a new communications system to replace the existing interface that the Office of Information Technology will no longer support.

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 Executive Office of the Governor at $4,541,500, only growing from the base by 6.6% over the last three years. This rate is less than half the rate of inflation over the same period, demonstrating acceptable growth in the cost to maintain the agency.

(+1)