Budget Cuts Bring Opportunities
by Senator Brent Hill
A dense fog lay across the Boise Valley this week as if to embody the cloud of dreariness that hovered over our state capital. Although Idaho’s economic woes came as no surprise, the governor’s announcement that the budget he is recommending to the legislature presumes a 9.5% downturn in Idaho’s revenues this year had a sobering effect.
The governor calls for cutting the Department of Agriculture’s budget by 31%, Prisons and Corrections by 12%, the Department of Commerce by 39%, and Parks and Recreation by 56%. That means trimming some government programs and eliminating others. It means layoffs and cutbacks—no raises for teachers and no improvements to infrastructure.
Still, Idaho is better off than most other states. During better economic times, the Idaho legislature wisely set aside over $325 million in “rainy day funds” for times like these. Everyone concedes that it is now raining, but no one is sure how severe the storm will get or how long it will last. Tapping the funds too quickly or too deeply could have catastrophic consequences if the recession extends into 2010. Half of the rainy day fund reserved for public education has already been used to prevent cuts to grades K through 12 during the current year. How far to dip into these rainy day funds will be one of the hottest debates of the 2009 legislative session, although I predict that the legislature will draw upon the funds to protect public schools from next year’s 5.3% cut recommended by the governor.
Other agencies will not be so lucky and Idaho citizens will unavoidably see services disappear. A large group of disabled Idahoans gathered with their families on the front steps of the capitol annex this week to plead for a reprieve from the cuts to the Health and Welfare programs on which they rely. From there they wandered the legislative halls searching for sympathetic budget writers—a portent of many unhappy citizens to come.
But, Idahoans have survived difficult times before by reaching beyond themselves and assisting their friends and neighbors. Once again we must rely upon one another to solve the problems our government cannot. Families will bear a greater burden in caring for their sick, their disabled, and their aged. Neighbors will help out the unemployed, the overworked, and the homebound. Parents will volunteer more time and money to their children’s schools. We will shop more locally to protect local jobs. We will give more, help more, serve more.
As government withdraws its helping hand, we will extend ours. And, as we reach out to help one another, we will find friendship, understanding, and self-fulfillment that government could never provide.
