Idaho higher education budget killed again

BOISE — House lawmakers killed the fiscal 2021 college and university budget on a 47-23 vote Monday, turning down the budget for the second time in a week.

An initial $629.8 million budget died on a 37-32 vote March 9. Although that was reduced to $629.4 million, the second version failed by an even wider margin.

Reps. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, and Thyra Stevenson, R-Nezperce, were among the lawmakers who switched votes. They supported the original budget last week — both going so far as to debate in favor of the bill, which they rarely do. However, they opposed Monday’s second version.

Stevenson debated against the bill this time around, saying it still exceeded the governor’s recommendation.

“We’re telling (the higher education institutions) that they need to trim (their spending) and look at their budgets,” she said. “Let’s do that with this appropriation. I urge you to vote no.”

The move will likely cost Lewis-Clark State College more than $300,000 in one-time occupancy costs for its new Career and Technical Education Center.

After Monday’s vote, Stevenson and Kingsley both said they’d been told that the third version of the higher education budget would protect LCSC.

“LCSC will come out doing well,” Stevenson said.

“We’ve had a lot of discussion about this,” Kingsley said. “Everyone agrees that LCSC needs to be protected. It’s not the problem. It’s the other three (institutions) that need to be taken to the woodshed.”

Less than an hour later, the joint budget committee met and approved a third version that cut another $764,400 in higher education funding — including $306,700 from LCSC, plus $72,000 from the University of Idaho related to a decline in enrollment.

Unlike the March 9 vote, Monday’s action came after Idaho’s two-week candidate filing period had ended. Barring any write-in candidates, Kingsley is unopposed in the 2020 election cycle. Stevenson faces a primary challenge from Aaron von Ehlinger in the May 19 Republican primary; no one else filed in that race.

Kingsley and Stevenson said the filing deadline didn’t factor into their decision to switch votes.

Reps. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, and Paul Shepherd, R-Riggins, voted against both versions of the higher education budget. Rep. Bill Goesling, R-Moscow, supported both bills; Jennifer Seegmiller, who is filling in temporarily for Rep. Caroline Troy, R-Genesee, voted in favor of Monday’s bill.

Some of the concerns raised Monday echoed comments made during last week’s floor debate.

For example, Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, noted that more than 250 of the 350 highest-paid state employees work at the four public higher education institutions.

The third version of the higher education budget that came out of committee Monday afternoon contained language requiring the institutions to report next year on their efforts to reduce administrative overhead and reduce expenses not integral to their educational mission.

Given the push to adjourn the legislative session this week, the new budget could be taken up as early as today.